Let's Talk About a Bigger Problem Than Trump  

I'll never forget election night of 2008, when it became official that we succeeded in sending Barack Obama to the White House. I was hosting an election party that night and so many people around me were jubilantly celebrating. But for me, it was like that moment in the movies where the background celebrations are muted to a dull hum, overtaken by ominous music in the foreground as the protagonist stares ahead in horror at an oncoming problem not yet recognized by the others.

I was looking at the final numbers.

McCain/Palin still managed to secure 45% of the vote. Nearly 60 million Americans, about 9 out of 20, still voted for them. This was after Obama had run the most flawless campaign I'd ever witnessed, after McCain the most gaffe-ridden campaign I'd seen in a long time and how the GOP's leadership had just wrecked the entire country.

"Relax" said an online friend, "We won. Breathe."

But I couldn't relax because the numbers were sobering. They told me where the absolute, rock-bottom floor was for the GOP and it wasn't much deeper than half the country. They told me that 60 million of my fellow Americans are thoroughly brainwashed and they can be depended upon to mindlessly pull the lever for the GOP no matter what.

In 2004, they re-elected a president that had just lied us into a war.

In 2008, that president that lied us into a war had just crashed the entire economy and they still tried to elect his successor in the GOP.

In 2016, they elected a spectacularly unqualified con-artist to the White House. Despite how that buffoon has botched the Covid crisis, crashed our economy and acts like a puppet of a foreign dictator, these idiots still think he's doing a great job and want to re-elect him.

They are 60 million strong.

They're not sorry.

They haven't learned anything.

They can't be reasoned with.

They're going to do it again and again, mindlessly electing incompetent Republicans that will repeatedly wreck our country.

So I hope we can get rid of Trump this November but, make no mistake, we will still have the problem of 60 million Fox viewers that will be looking for his successor. That's some big, toxic real-estate that someone just as bad as Trump will build their home upon. What can be done about that problem?
As I see it, the only thing we can do is mobilize enough sane voters to keep them suppressed while we wait for them to die off and take their alternative-facts with them to their unquiet graves.

We have our work cut out for us.

Perhaps the most fundamental Underlying assumption for out democracy is invalid. To preserve as much of the form which Had facilitated much of practical benefits it had hitherto conferred, we must not be too smitten by the more basic assumptions with which we’ve come to justify it to others.

I think the right wing has long since internalized this. But what actually are the most important benefits looks different from different political and economic perspectives.

If half the country is brainwashed as you say - they don't know it, right?

So isn't it equally possible you are brainwashed as well? After all - if you are, you wouldn't know it, so protestations that you aren't seem rather meaningless.

(September 14, 2020 at 10:41 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: Let's Talk About a Bigger Problem Than Trump  

I'll never forget election night of 2008, when it became official that we succeeded in sending Barack Obama to the White House. I was hosting an election party that night and so many people around me were jubilantly celebrating. But for me, it was like that moment in the movies where the background celebrations are muted to a dull hum, overtaken by ominous music in the foreground as the protagonist stares ahead in horror at an oncoming problem not yet recognized by the others.

I was looking at the final numbers.

McCain/Palin still managed to secure 45% of the vote. Nearly 60 million Americans, about 9 out of 20, still voted for them. This was after Obama had run the most flawless campaign I'd ever witnessed, after McCain the most gaffe-ridden campaign I'd seen in a long time and how the GOP's leadership had just wrecked the entire country.

"Relax" said an online friend, "We won. Breathe."

But I couldn't relax because the numbers were sobering. They told me where the absolute, rock-bottom floor was for the GOP and it wasn't much deeper than half the country. They told me that 60 million of my fellow Americans are thoroughly brainwashed and they can be depended upon to mindlessly pull the lever for the GOP no matter what.

In 2004, they re-elected a president that had just lied us into a war.

In 2008, that president that lied us into a war had just crashed the entire economy and they still tried to elect his successor in the GOP.

In 2016, they elected a spectacularly unqualified con-artist to the White House. Despite how that buffoon has botched the Covid crisis, crashed our economy and acts like a puppet of a foreign dictator, these idiots still think he's doing a great job and want to re-elect him.

They are 60 million strong.

They're not sorry.

They haven't learned anything.

They can't be reasoned with.

They're going to do it again and again, mindlessly electing incompetent Republicans that will repeatedly wreck our country.

So I hope we can get rid of Trump this November but, make no mistake, we will still have the problem of 60 million Fox viewers that will be looking for his successor. That's some big, toxic real-estate that someone just as bad as Trump will build their home upon. What can be done about that problem?
As I see it, the only thing we can do is mobilize enough sane voters to keep them suppressed while we wait for them to die off and take their alternative-facts with them to their unquiet graves.

We have our work cut out for us.

If it helps at all, try to remember that the GOP that elected Bush and voted for Romney and McCain isn’t the same GOP that exists today. Given the erosion of Trump’s support among moderates, independents, and centrists, it’s difficult to imagine the RNC running another Trump-like candidate.

That being said, I’m not an American and have a lousy track record of picking your winners.

Boru

The issue is the two party system. The Conservative party simply needs to be abolished.

We have a two party system because the Constitution makes no provision for any parties. Lacking a framework and a winner-take-all prize for winning, two major parties are just what happens. We can mitigate it at the state level like Maine has with its ranked choice voting making it feasible to put your first choice on your ballot without risking someone terrible winning because you didn't put their statistically most likely to win opponent; since you can make that person your second choice, who becomes your first choice if your favorite didn't win. If enough other states follow Maine's example, it could change politics significantly.

(September 15, 2020 at 4:48 am)Eleven Wrote: The issue is the two party system. The Conservative party simply needs to be abolished.

This. Along with the Electoral College.

(September 15, 2020 at 4:04 am)onlinebiker Wrote: So isn't it equally possible you are brainwashed as well? After all - if you are, you wouldn't know it, so protestations that you aren't seem rather meaningless.

Well, for one thing, I used to BE one of them. I once read Ayn Rand and thought it was economics gold. Now, like an ex-Christian reading the Bible, I wonder how I ever believed that crap. The fact that I can move around on the political spectrum based on convincing arguments or new facts would suggest I'm not the brainwashed one.

Second of all, result matter. I used to believe in Reagan and his "trickle down" economics because it was a new thing in the 80s. Now, I've seen it doesn't work so I don't support it anymore. Anyone who continues to support the idea despite how we've tried it on a state and federal level for the last 40 years hasn't learned anything. Again, because I learn from experience and change my mind accordingly, that would suggest I'm not the brainwashed one. 

Thirdly, I tend to be consistent with the standards that I hold politicians to, regardless of their political affiliation. If you called for umpteen Congressional investigations of Benghazi but gave W Bush a free pass on the whole Iraq War, you're probably the brainwashed one. If you obsess over HRC's unsecure email server but have no problem with Trump continuing to use his unsecure Android phone, you're probably the brainwashed one. If you think deficits don't matter when a Republican is in the White House but suddenly are clutching pearls over the deficits when a Democrat is in the White House, you're probably the brainwashed one. Etc. 

Finally, if you continue to support Trump despite the ruin he's brought to this country and the almost daily new stories about his corruption, incompetence and treason, dismissing any story you don't like with a flippant "fake news", you're probably the brainwashed one.

I'm convinced Democracy is a practical solution to a strictly ideological problem. That has worked, so far. But like any practical solution, a big enough difference in circumstance invalidates the practical solution. We've shifted a lot since the advent of the Internet. It's a progressive result from the increasing tools and architecture we build, that influences our outlook. Despite all our accumulation in knowledge, both practical and scientific, we're all still quick to emotion, slow to reason.

I see this current political reality (whether in the US or here in Australia or elsewhere in the Western world) as, basically, the right reacting with intense indignance against the radical changes brought about recently in terms of cultural attitudes towards such things as abortion, feminism, marriage, racial justice. So atm, they may be generally winning more seats or higher positions of political power, but I see the pendulum of power swinging back to the other side sometime soon, especially that the current younger generations seem to overwhelmingly lean left.