The Beginning of the End???

I guess I really don’t understand. I am so tired of seeing articles, or social media postings about total idiots like Herschel Walker or Marjorie Taylor Greene, or some other fool the republicans are thrusting into our midst via our government.  I mean, I knew such fools existed. Every country has idiots in its midst. I don’t know, what’s your guess . . . the world’s population is made up of 20-25% subhuman idiots, who, in addition to having few active brain cells, are thoroughly nasty, corrupt, dishonest, and even murderous at heart.  Look at Russia, led by that murderous thug, Vladimir Putin.  And Brazil, with their Jair Bolsonaro who seems bent on destroying the entire Amazon Rain Forest.

But, until recently, I thought America was actually different. I know, I know, we had people like Nixon, Shrub, and Reagan, destroyers all. But somehow, they never destroyed our entire society. Nobody spoke of “are we going to have another Civil War” when those dudes were in charge.  It was as though we knew somehow we had made a mistake in electing them and we changed course and then moved on.  But even though we might have disagreed with one another, we never decided to just destroy everything our Nation stands for.

But now, all of a sudden, not only do we seem to disagree among ourselves,  but we have grown to actively hate one another. And, at least republicans, we are now nominating complete idiots to run our government. Why would we do that? Because we hate government??? So, you hate government and then, because of that, you decide you will try to elect the worst people in our Land to run the government you say you hate???? And that would be wise because??

So you want our Congress filled with idiots the like of Herschel Walker, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Marco Rubio, and the gang supervised by Donald J Trump?? And that will make our lives happier and more productive?? Really? Or maybe that would just manage to piss off all the Libtards in our country. Well, yes, it would doubtless do exactly that.  And then what?

Well, then we have to contend with at least four years of a fearsome, completely incompetent government. During the Reagan years, an attempt was made to implement “Supply-Side” economics, by reducing taxation in the hopes of spurring economic development. According to one report,

“The triumph of politics and what (David) Stockman called the “fiscal error” that went with it spawned a new monster which would come to occupy center stage in policy debate: the deficit and the Federal debt. Between the beginning and the end of the Reagan presidency, the annual deficit almost tripled.  So did the Gross National Debt—from $995 billion or $2.9 Trillion. Or, as Reagan and Bush administration official Richard Darman put it, “in the Reagan years, more Federal debt was added than in the entire prior history of the United States.” (Reaganomics: excerpt from Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 1998 ed., pp. 341-342.

Whatever side you come down on regarding the Reagan experiment with Supply-Side Economics and the “Laffer Curve”, we must at least acknowledge that Reagan was attempting to implement policies he believed would benefit the country, even if in fact they failed at that goal. Whereas today, no such claim can be made for the likes of Donald Trump. And with people like Herschel Walker attempting to gain that center stage, we cannot even be clear regarding anything like “policies” because such people seem to barely speak our language.  Now, when Greene argues that Jewish Space lasers are responsible for our Western forest fires, we are unsure whether she is attempting humor, or she is simply that stupid. And similar, perhaps worse attempts at communicating with us in absurdist language continue to emanate from Walker.

But given someone’s absurd background, like Walker, will the republican voters actually show up to vote for him? He paid for at least several abortions, so will the Evangel anti-abortion crew actually show up to vote for him? Well, the answer seems to be YES, they will. But how can that be??

Well, apparently republican voters have changed over the last several years. They used to have standards of ethics and morality. They used to at least pretend to follow facts and The Truth. Now, somehow, that is all gone. If someone is running on a republican ticket, the voters no longer care about reality. They will vote YES for that person. I am now beginning to sense what 1936 Germany must have been like. Because, whether we are engaged at the beginning of an actual second Civil War or not, we are certainly in the early stages of an effort to destroy our Nation’s entire system of governance.  We may be moving into a Nation like Iran, with an autocratic leader and a thoroughly corrupt religious order that will govern us.

It is entirely unclear to me how we arrived at this awful juncture.  But here we are.  And the question that remains in my mind is, ”Is there any reasonable solution?”  Well, I always assume that voting is our solution of choice.  But given our choices on the ballot, I begin to wonder. Suppose 1936 Germany had whatever is on your Democratic Ballot, vs. Hitler and his Nazi colleagues. And, I know, I know, all republican candidates are not Nazi’s. But they do seem to have no standards of ethics or morality. I mean, Herschel Walker??? Marjorie Taylor Greene??? Donald Trump??? And republican voters will actually cast their votes for these cretins.  I see no movement within that party to rebel against these terminally awful candidates.  Remember those long-gone days??? Dwight Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.  Sigh . . . Will they ever come again? Or are we headed into an American version of the Ayatollah’s Iran?? We’ll see. The ball is now in your hands American voters.

Crazy America

 I am beginning to run out of words concerning what I see almost daily in our American political system, mainly the weird characters who are running as republicans. I mean, when I was a lot younger, I actually worked for a time in the government under Ronald Reagan. I had begun working for Jimmy Carter, but then he lost and the Reagan thing entered our scene. Not only did he invite an awful cast of characters into his government, but he personally seemed so completely empty-headed. I actually left government after several years under Reagan, because I was afraid I might go brain-dead.

But Ronald Reagan now seems like just a normal American political leader now.  Reagan, Nixon, Shrub, all seemingly awful, now completely normal citizen-politicians.  When I read about Herschel Walker, who seems to lie about everything—really, everything—I wonder about our future. Of course, how could he compete with equating California wildfires with their cause—Jewish Space lasers??? But Walker, not unlike Trump actually, tells lies that can so easily be discovered that one must wonder about either his intellect, or his utter disdain for we the voting public.

And in the case of republican politicians, I now believe that both issues are present. One of the things Donald Trump left behind is his belief that he could tell his believers anything, however mindless, and they could continue to support him. Perhaps his best effort was his voiced belief that he could take a gun, go out on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, shoot someone at random, and his supporters would continue yelling their support.  Now, whatever we think of St. Ronald of Reagan, I cannot even imagine him saying something that terminally stupid.  But, more to the point, Trump, unlike Reagan, was likely correct—his supporters would indeed continue shrieking their support.

And that is what now troubles me beyond belief. Something has happened in America that now foretells a dark future for our formerly great Nation.  That old notion of someone letting all the (choose your awful character-- drunks, racists, crazy people, stupid people) out of their closet, is now happening. 

But why?

Is it Fox News? Well, Maybe?

Perhaps it is happening as many say. That social media and Fox News are together bringing out all the anger in America, and that anger is somehow attracting stupid people to volunteer for service in that government that all the angry people hate.  Now, to be fair, “volunteering for service in the government” is a search for a highly paid job with great public visibility -- $174,000/year at last count. Now most of the crazed people seeking such “service” could not make that much in the private sector. Well, I suppose Herschel Walker makes that and more, but he seeks the job because of the public visibility he will get.

Also, and this is important, Donald Trump raised the hopes of stupid people everywhere. I mean, if he could become president, with all that potential for graft and corruption, then so could anyone.  Still, something else seems to be going on in America.  I am currently reading Andy Borowitz’s book, “Profiles in Ignorance”. In it, he recounts America’s experience with stupid people in our presidency—Reagan, Bush, Trump certainly, and their cast of supporting characters—remember Dan Quayle?? God help us all cried Tiny Tim. It would seem that America specializes in attracting stupid people into our government. And never more so than now, when they are collectively attracted to these high levels by Fox News and Social Media. Why does Fox News attract the stupid people? Well, because Rupert Murdoch seems to think, correctly so it would seem, that stupid/crazy people are more attracted to rich people than smart people.  So, if Rupert and his cadre of highly paid pseudo-Nazi staff can shine lights on the stupid/crazy people, they will attract votes and then they will support tax cuts for the rich, and service cuts for the poor.

Now, in the final analysis, it still matters that ordinary folks have to cast their ballots for the Herschel Walkers, and Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world. Otherwise, those folks won’t get elected. But one of the problems today is that many of our smarter folks, young people especially, are drifting away from things called elections.  They’re too busy whacking away at each other on social media.  So, how do we get them back, voting? Maybe we need “Get Out the Vote” campaigns and rallies, or door-to-door campaigning. Or maybe the young folks just need to awaken, open their eyes, and read a real newspaper, or watch/listen to some real news (think PBS/NPR). Their only realistic alternative it seems, is a permanent move to, say New Zealand. So, how about it folks? You really need to get out and vote and please, VOTE OUT the STUPID/CRAZY REPUBLICANS. They are trying to destroy America. Don’t let them.

The On-Off Switch

 I wrote a while back about someone throwing on the Climate Change Switch. It seemed as though we no longer got “normal” weather events. Instead, if it turned “warm”, the temperatures hit 95-100 instead of 80 – 85. If it “rained” the heavens opened up and we would get torrential downpours.  And now, we were so fortunate, with Ian barely passing us by, but leaving our area still pretty ok. But think Florida.

And yet, I observe still no concerted plan of action to combat Global Climate Change. It’s as though we know the Nazi’s are coming to invade us by boat, but we’re sitting around drinking our morning coffee, saying, “Oh they won’t be here for quite a long while. We have plenty of time. Have another cup of java.”

Are we really so captured by the fossil fuel rich owners that we have lost all sight of tomorrow? I understood, when the threat was 50-75 years away, that we would put off any immediate plans. But now, we seem not to understand that, not only are we destroying the futures of our grandchildren, but we may actually be destroying our own futures.

I am really old—87 and counting. I have already outlived all of my close relatives—grands, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles. Yeah, yeah, I’m that old. And each day, I look forward to all the little things that our lives offer us.  We sit by our pond with a nice, homemade cappuccino, and we toss some food out to our little Koi family swimming around our pond, Harriet, Nick and Nora. As they nibble away, I think, some day, not too far away, I won’t be here to toss those food pellets. And I won’t see that sun rise each morning, as I take its picture and thank the lovely morning for reappearing.

But I think also, that the sun will still arise each morning. And if the koi kids are lucky enough, someone new will sit on our bench and continue to toss out some food for them.  But then I begin thinking anew about what that changing climate will do to the entire area.  Will this area become too warm for humans to live here?  Or will the storms continue to intensify to the point that the area becomes unsafe?  And could I have a conversation with anyone important enough to actually do something to head off the worst of the possible forecasts? And might they actually take action that might preserve our environment?

And then I thought about that recent NASA program, in which they fired off a missile and caused it to collide with some vague asteroid wandering about up above us. But that was simply a test, wasn’t it?  But suppose there was an actual asteroid up there that was beaming towards us. But it might not strike us for a year. Would we do something to head it off? Well, Yes, we likely would. And why? Well, because the action we would have to take would not require us to change our attitude towards any money-producing entities. See, that’s the clue. If taking action to head off an approaching asteroid might require us to stop producing coal, or to cease production of gas-powered vehicles, then we would likely just open another bottle of nice wine and pretend that the disaster likely will not happen for such a long time, that we need not actually do anything.

See, it’s money that controls everything. Well, money and organized religion.  But in this case, money is the damaging entity.  And when I think about that, I begin to understand that humans are a deeply flawed species.  If there were actually a God up there somewhere, humans would be her biggest mistake. Although humans are full capable of acting to preserve the world around us, we are also so mentally flawed that we are as likely to avoid taking action as to actually do something intelligent. 

Think Vladimir Putin, or Donald Trump, or Adolph Hitler. Think Mitch McConnell, or Amy Coney Barrett, or Ron DeSantis, all deeply flawed humans, fully capable of acting to destroy humankind.  And why are all these deeply flawed, and evil humans in positions that allow them to prevent intelligent preventive actions by less flawed humans? Well, mainly because the not-so-deeply-flawed humans actually asked them to take charge of our world, ignoring their potential for permanent harm. Yep, we put them there folks. And now, we are being forced to sit around like dinosaurs, awaiting that fateful asteroid called Climate Change to bang into our little planet.  We could throw them all aside in that thing called an election. But will we?? Who knows?  Even the Shadow likely doesn’t know. Stay tuned, those election thingies are almost upon us again. We will see how stupid the remaining humans are.

 

Waiting for Godot, or God

 Ever since I wrote that piece about someone throwing the Climate Change “ON” switch, I have begun feeling like “Waiting for God” is the most likely description of ME.  I wish it were “Waiting for Godot”.

But two things seem to have settled in around everyone at least in America. First, Climate Change is real, and now seems deadly. And second, The Republican Party is dead and it has been taken over by some neo-Nazi clique.  The awful realization that has now taken over my brain is that both of these things are now permanent and may prove fatal to everyone in America.  We may in fact have destroyed the Nation within which we had hoped to see our kids, grandkids and even great grandkids mature and live happily.

When I was younger, I always assumed the best. That if one political party or the other became seemingly errant and potentially destructive to our Nation (see Reagan, or Nixon, or George W. Bush), they would soon be voted out of office and the people would regain some semblance of reality and maturity. And Climate?? Well, the Climate was always changing, not only seasonally, but from one year to the next.  One year we would have horrendous hurricanes, the next not so much.  One year, it would snow like we all lived in the Arctic, and then the snow would give way to daffodils.

And then, slowly it might seem, we began reading that we were facing a bigger Climate Change scenario, one that would literally give us a totally new game. Except, this game might kill us. But not to worry, it was going to be a while before that kicked in and we still had plenty of time to mount corrective measures. We would be fine.

And then, well, nothing happened. Everyone still wanted their gasoline engines, or their coal-fired furnaces. We still continued cutting down forests. Emissions controls??? Heavens, No, what are you thinking? That would require us to change our lifestyles and maybe even change the way we allocated resources.

But, you know, we sent some dudes off to the Moon in a fiery rocket thing. And they actually sent us some cool pics back.  And, of course, we continued killing one another in one war after another.  Turns out Wars are not good for the environment either.  And since I was born, we’ve had World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the endless Middle East killing fields, and the list goes on. We do seem to love killing one another.  And think of all the dudes killed in those wars. Some of them might have wanted us to engage in Emissions Control approaches. Who knows? Crazier things have happened.

And then there’s our politics, speaking of killing machines. We have always had kind of a weird system.  We moved away from the Royal-Kingly systems.  For some reason, we thought giving the power to select our government leaders to the people was better than having kings and queens selected randomly by a few dudes and dudettes. That remains an outstanding question with no serious answer.

But at least we seemed able to stumble along.  And then we moved into, of all things, a new millennium.  And we battled along, and then, and then, we elected a Black President, Barack Obama by name. And he was a wonder. He actually was capable of rational thought. I know, what a concept huh, a president who could think? And he governed as a wonder also. We (well some of us) loved having this man as President. It gave hope that this country had finally left the Civil War behind.

And then, who the Fuck did we elect??? Donald Trump???? We were given a choice—an intelligent woman (who happened to be married to Bill Clinton), or a corrupt, thoroughly incompetent Donald Trump. Note please, he had never succeeded at anything in life. He had experienced six bankruptcies, with more to follow, three marriages, two failed and a third showing every sign of repeat failure.  He had cheated to stay out of the military—fake “bonespurs”.  Oh, and his daddy seems to have been a literal Nazi. What a guy. And the American people actually voted for him rather than Hillary.  However imperfect you might have thought Hillary—compared with old Bonespurs, she seems a total high IQ saint. Maybe we should have elected her Queen.

Happily, Bonespurs was so terrible that he only lasted one term, with old Joe Biden kicking him out of office. And then, perhaps predictably, old Bonespurs began pretending the election was flawed and he had actually won. He even tried to get various state officials to appoint different electors to appoint him President.  Amazing really.

But beyond his astonishing and ongoing acts of corruption, lying, attempts to steal the election, somehow, he converted his gang of supporters from just ordinary disgruntled republican voters into something different. Just to show how they cared, they stormed our Capitol, with killings as part of their act, and that group now symbolized the opposition forces, led by Trump.  And that violent group continues to this day to dominate the opposition party. We should no longer call them republicans. But the Republican Party of old (think Eisenhower) finally died, and was taken over by old Bonespurs’ Neo-Nazis.  They really need a new name. They resemble the Christian Taliban. Maybe someone can “Americanize” that term.

And so now we have two opposing political parties, one of which—the TrumpAliban-is a violent, corrupt group who do not mind killing people to get their way. Really, think Afghan Taliban for this group.

And now we seem to have gone beyond some point of No Return on Climate Change (it will continue worsening regardless of what we do), and we have a criminally violent political party, led by Donald Trump, trying to destroy America. What could go wrong, huh?

So we are left with this question. Is it still possible to pull back from our headlong rush to throw America off the cliff? Does anyone have any braking mechanism? We will gain some vital clues during this upcoming 2022 election. If Donald Trump succeeds, then our world may finally be finished and we will be headed off the cliff into the canyon of flames down below.  So, let’s see how this all turns out.

Smile folks, you’re on television.

Saving Earth

 I haven’t written for some time now. I am not sure why, except . . . yeah there’s always that “except”.  So, what? Well, part of it is that, as I grow older day by day, I find less that is interesting to write about, except that I continue to age . . . day by day. Yeah, I keep reading about this dude or that dude who just died, and it turns out he was younger than me—still old, just younger than me.

But then I also keep reading about the continued deterioration of the “Other” political party—yeah, you know, Trump’s party. I can no longer call it the republican party with any seriousness, because Trump and his Christian Taliban BFFs have really destroyed it.  I no longer even understand what it is they want.  I mean, they seem to want Trump back in power, to the point that they even appear to support his “election was stolen” thing. I mean, how could that be? He tried and failed to sue in court, and failed over 60 times. That seems even worse than his six (7??) bankruptcies and three failed marriages.  How many times can you keep saying the same thing over and over again, before most people simply laugh at you?  I don’t know, maybe it’s organized religion. If they can believe their own claptrap, I guess they can believe Trump’s.  But it just goes on and on, and Trump is still not in prison. I don’t understand how that can be, given everything he has done. Maybe Mr. Garland is preparing the message now that will finally put him away for life, and then perhaps we can get back to be Americans—you know, people who disagree with one another, but who can still return to their pubs at night and have a nice brew together and laugh about something.

But then this weather thing keeps on smacking us in the face.  I wrote a while back about how someone apparently had flipped on the switch to Climate Change and we were now in a new era.  But this new era doesn’t seem to have but one rule—we are fucked. Some of us will drown because of rising waters either at the seaside, or at the riverside. Some of us will burn to death because forest fires are destroying our entire surroundings.

But then, we are told that California is just momentarily on hold til that gigantic weather front sweeps over the state and then simply drowns the state in water. Now, we used to live in downtown San Francisco, and it was so lovely there. Now apparently, we are simply awaiting that storm front that drops 20-30 inches of water.  And I just read that 30% of Pakistan is currently under water—think on that—30% of the entire country is under water.

Oh and that Greenland Ice Sheet thingie, which either has or is the process of melting, which will raise ocean water levels by some 10 inches. Oh won’t that be fun in Delaware, not to speak of Florida?

See, that switch really did get thrown. I had gotten used to being threatened that in 30-40 years climate change would begin wreaking havoc if we didn’t change our ways and stop heating up the globe. What I was failing to pay attention to was the fact that they have really been saying that for about 70 years. So, we have simply run out of time. Now, I guess we can run around like idiots making believe we can all switch to electric cars and then life will return to normal.  But apparently, this life is our new normal. 

We think about our great grandkids and wonder now, have we totally destroyed any chance they have at a reasonable Globe, and life? And most folks are still not really paying attention.  They seem to think we still have that 30-40 year cushion. But that’s all gone folks. The switch has been thrown. Now we have to do serious stuff to protect ourselves and this earth.

But first we have to throw the Donald Trumps of the world into the sea, and begin to talk seriously with one another about how we will protect our grandkids. What can we do NOW to begin arresting the dangers, even if our corrective actions take 30-40 years to work. 

If we don’t work together, then surely we will all die together, and sooner rather than later.

To The Future

 I just read an article in the Times about a review of peoples’ views regarding the present and the future. A small survey was carried out, asking, if people had the choice, which period would they like to be living in? Apparently, Paris 1920 was the big winner. Perhaps not too surprising given its reputation. However, curiously, almost nobody taking the survey voted to live sometime in the future.  And that is not a reassuring signal. However, attractive and even romantic was Paris 1920, the absence of any sentiment of living somewhere in the future, perhaps reflects our collective state of mind about that future.

I’m old, having been born in 1934. So I have lived through that Great Depression, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the various near crises in the Middle East (we are always a footstep away from a disastrous war in the Middle East).  And then remember all that fun of the Cold War, with its various missile crises? ? Yeah, I still remember working at Lockheed as an engineer on the Polaris Missile system. Periodically me and my engineering buds would go to a nearby pub after work to have a beer or maybe a nice martini. And we would talk about where we would go should the missiles begin flying—head for the ocean areas, or make for the mountains.  Cuz surely, where we were living (pre-Silicon Valley) would be one of the first targets.  Yeah that was such fun.

And then I retired and moved down here to North Carolina, to be near kids and grandkids.  And, while we never achieved Great Depression Stock Market Crash days, we experienced several really nasty market crashes that sucked a fair amount out of our retirement.  But then we just kept on truck’n. And then we got Trump, and he was something entirely new. I mean, we had lived through Shrub’s stupidity, Reagan’s stupidities, and Nixon’s various cruelties.  But we had never actually imagined someone as inane, as cruel, as comically stupid running our country. And then, in the best tradition of “Can you top this?” a pandemic hit the World and the US, the likes of which I had never seen. We had seen the AIDS epidemic, but that seemed to affect gays mainly. We had also experienced the various attempts to constrain epidemics, like polio. But this COVID Pandemic seemed in a class by itself.  And unlike other disease entities striking us, this one was accompanied by something new—Public defiance, facilitated by our dumbass President. He seemed to be in denial, largely one imagines because a major disease state running around our country during an election period might well threaten his re-election. And so he waffled. Happily, the various Public Health systems of the world reacted appropriately and got a string of vaccines underway and finally out to the public.  My wife and I each got our two shots and then our two boosters. But meanwhile, a large part of the public was in denial, claiming the disease was a fake, or that it was a ruse implemented in order to defeat Trump.

And so, millions of people died all over the world.

And then it seemed that we somehow settled into a new world, in which the pandemic still existed, people kept becoming infected, including many who had been vaccinated, and people kept dying. While the rest of us, especially we Oldies, became used to wearing a medical mask every time we went out to a store, or really anywhere people gather.  And we called this our new reality.

But then we began noticing something else. As I noted in a recent blog posting, our weather seemed to change, as though someone had simply flipped a switch. Summer has always been filled with heavy duty weather. But suddenly, it seemed as though we had the same weather every day. The temperature would rise into the 90s, and a thunderstorm would be likely—every day. And should that thunderstorm actually arrive, it tended to be fearsome—heavy wind, lightning and then torrential downpours. But the threat was present every day. And the heat and humidity were the same every day.  Yet another “New Reality”.  And the weather all over America, and indeed the World, had suddenly changed. We used to live in California and loved our time there. But now California seemed to be simply burning down.  Reservoirs all over the west were suddenly drying up. Lake Mead, the Colorado River for heaven’s sake, all beginning to dry, and thereby reducing the availability of water supplies throughout a very large region. Ice sheets melting everywhere, as snow caps began disappearing. Yeah, something different was definitely going on. And it was called Climate Change. But, much like the COVIDIOCY, thousands, more likely millions, declared Climate Change a hoax. Fox News prevailed and the American people bought into the conspiracy theories created by those who had much to gain from selling such junk.

And so we find ourselves living in a very strange period that seems to portend a hostile future.

We seem to face several futures with some serious risks:

·      Public health crises created by new diseases, or variations of older ones (COVID seems to change at least quarterly), compounded by massive public denial, which leads to larger than necessary disease states and deaths;

·      Climate change that continues to modify the world in ways that threaten our very existence as humans, and likely the existence of other species of earth’s inhabitants ;

·      A population enraptured by lies about reality to the extent that they threaten the existence of at least America’s democratic system of governance. The essential problem seems to be the very large number of undereducated people who prefer believing conspiracy theories about reality, so that they do not have to do anything to combat the very real threats posed by that reality.

And that brings me back to that question about where would you choose to live, in the future (where the risks are unknown), or somewhere in the past, where the risks are known? If as a people, we always express a desire to live in the past, it means that we choose not to face the future. Now the future has many unknowns, but if we choose to ignore what we actually do know, then we may be designing a future for our great grandchildren, and even their great grandchildren that is deadlier than it need be.  Indeed, the only way we can avoid condemning our children of the future to disaster is by thinking now about changes we must begin making.  And many such changes may well affect our current lives in ways we may not like.  Therein lies the problem. How to convince folks that we must begin making sacrifices, or beginning to conceive changes that simply create new futures, new industries, new ways of living and making a living.  But we cannot any longer just pretend that nothing is happening and that it is even possible to retreat to Paris 1920.  Who we elect to govern ourselves is one way we set future courses that define new futures for the world’s children and grandchildren.

We can no longer afford to elect people who deny reality. They are literally killing us all. And they will continue to kill us all, so long as the people allow them to sit over us and continue the lies that are now killing us.  We need futurists folks. We need to shed the deniers, because they are deadly to the future worlds of our great great great grandchildren.  Whatever the cost to us now, we need new folks who will steer us into a new, saner, safer world.

Trump Supporters

In Sunday’s New York Times, within their Weekly Opinion Section (used to be Weekly Review) is a set of articles by their editorial (opinion) writers, concerning things they got wrong, despite the care with which they prepare their articles.  One of the writers, Bret Stephens, wrote one of particular interest—getting it wrong about Trump supporters. It is useful to note that he did not say he was wrong about Trump, especially now, after the January 6^th hearings. We now know conclusively that Trump planned and inexpertly tried to overthrow our legal system of governance in an attempt to remain in power.  But Stephens thinks he was wrong in how he harassed Trump supporters. He opens his piece thusly:

“By Bret Stephens -- NY Times Opinion Columnist

The worst line I ever wrote as a pundit — yes, I know, it’s a crowded field — was the first line I ever wrote about the man who would become the 45th president: “If by now you don’t find Donald Trump appalling, you’re appalling.”

This opening salvo, from August 2015, was the first in what would become dozens of columns denouncing Trump as a unique threat to American life, democratic ideals and the world itself. I regret almost nothing of what I said about the man and his close minions. But the broad swipe at his voters caricatured them and blinkered me.

It also probably did more to help than hinder Trump’s candidacy. Telling voters they are moral ignoramuses is a bad way of getting them to change their minds.”

 

In other words, he does not think the Trump supporters were/are good folks who were just misled, and thus should be spared any criticism. No, rather, he thinks that calling them nasty names is counterproductive. And he is probably right. Calling someone a racist pig is unlikely to get them to join your side.

 

And I began wondering myself, what can one say about the people who continue to support Trump?  Frankly, I am baffled.  So, then I wondered, well, why does anyone, knowing what we all now know, continue to support Trump?

 First, I guess we should understand that all of the people who now support Trump do so because they believe that he is on their side.  So, what are these “sides” taken by Trump, to which his supporters are devoutly attached? Because Trump has so few positive attributes, it is difficult to attribute voter support to things positive.  But it may also be the case that voters are all a mix of personalities, and professional characteristics. Perhaps unlike their chosen leader, they reflect both positive and negative qualities. But I see them drawn to Trump because he appeals to some of their strongly held negative views.  So, what are some of these views?

 

1.       Racism: Trump seems strongly racist. Now this characteristic is an interesting one. First, he denies being racist, despite his track record. Probably 60% of this country thinks that Trump made racism worse in this country. Now, how many people in America are racist? I don’t know.  I could find no statistics revealing how many Americans are racist, mainly I assume because, who would reveal in writing that they are racist?  We know that we have systemic racism in America. People of color experience more instances of violence against them by law enforcement. People of color experience relatively greater difficulty in obtaining jobs in the upper sectors of our economy.  So, if you are White, and are feeling economic pressures, you may be drawn to a man who seems to understand your plight and who promises to protect White, Christian America. Also, a curious issue exists among Trump supporters. Our country is a country of immigrants, yet many Trump supporters want our borders closed. They seem to hate especially immigrants of color arriving from South of our Border, while ignoring the ones arriving from Europe.  So, Trump supporters find his racism appealing, and they might well vote for him on that basis alone.

2.       Misogyny: This one is baffling. On the one hand, Trump seems to treat all women as his actual or potential mistresses. On the other hand, he numbers many women within his group of active supporters.  Why would women be drawn to a seemingly active misogynist?  Maybe it is the case that those women in particular view all men as misogynists, and select men based on other characteristics, like racism.  He seems to have experienced three unsuccessful marriages (his last to Melania continues but it seems less than successful), as well numerous sexual affairs, some more public than others. So, perhaps some of his male supporters like his maltreatment of women, while his women supporters prefer him for other odd reasons.

3.       Mental Incapacity: whether he is as idiotic as he often sounds, or acts remains a question I guess, but his fundamental incompetence is likely associated with a lack of intelligence. He has experienced six bankruptcies in business, and his performance as President can only be described as near-catastrophic.  Many believe that he simply is not very bright, and his operational incapacities (e.g., six bankruptcies) follow. It is possible that people who have had less than stellar educational experiences, feel angered at the folks who succeeded intellectually and used it to their advantage in business.  They might be drawn to Trump who seems more like them.

4.       Anger at the World: Trump seems angry at much of the world. He explodes easily and frequently, and often simply lies to explain his anger—he is angry because so and so (Hillary, Barack, Joe) did such and such, even though they did no such thing. His supporters don’t care if he lies, because they likely spend much of their lives angry at somebody or something beyond their control.  Which brings me to a last characteristic.

5.       Lying: Lying is one of the more baffling characteristics, drawing support.  According to The Washington Post:

“When The Washington Post Fact Checker team first started cataloguing President Donald Trump’s false or misleading claims, we recorded 492 suspect claims in the first 100 days of his presidency. On Nov. 2 alone, the day before the 2020 vote, Trump made 503 false or misleading claims as he barnstormed across the country in a desperate effort to win reelection.

This astonishing jump in falsehoods is the story of Trump’s tumultuous reign. By the end of his term, Trump had accumulated 30,573 untruths during his presidency, averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day.”

Now why would folks want to support a human who lies that much?  My only conclusion here is that they like the fact that he lies his way out of trouble (remember, he is not yet in prison, despite the facts against him, many of which seem to require imprisonment). So, I think his supporters like his chutzpah. He routinely, daily really, sticks his finger into the air, or into someone’s eye, and they love that, because it is how many of them feel daily. He is just like them, rather than those other politicos.

 

So, we may have a permanent support troupe who will continue to show at his rallies, and would certainly vote for him, or for any candidate he endorses.  And depending on how many folks fall into that pool, we may have a permanent “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the American System of Government. Note please that the only solution to this potential cataclysmic event is for folks who are intelligent enough to understand the risks posed by Trump, to get out and vote for any and all forces opposing him and his minions. If you wish to see America continue as a democratic nation, You Must Get Out and Support ethical candidates.  You Must.