I am in Last Chance, Colorado, looking at a faded billboard of a hand-painted American flag. Under the flag is a ragged rectangle whitewashing what once was written. You fill in the blanks yourself in a town like Last Chance. (...)
Thought for today and also to take a step back from all the mud-slinging...
Politics is about riding a wave of popularity to victory, ergo the popular vote is what it is all about.
But "popular" is a pretty nuanced beast.
Somehow, Trump has positioned himself in the minds of huge swath of America as representative of the "true" America (read American dream, I guess)
and Biden has positioned himself as the defender of American democracy (constitution, rights, gov. institutions, etc.).
These two worlds are colliding like two galaxies, shooting through each other but getting inextricably pulled apart in a chaotic mess before reforming somewhere down the road..
It is hard to imagine anyone less competent than Trump (I think even Beaker has said something along these lines), but that obviously doesn't matter to his supporters because they are voting for what he stands for, not the skills of the man himself.
On the other hand, almost as if the metaphor was intended, American democracy has put up a very fine candidate with a proven track record, but who is obviously on his last legs.
Now it gets even weirder:
The popular vote favours Trump because it can look past his myriad personal faults and seize on the American dream, as something strong and vibrant in and of itself.
The popular vote disadvantages Biden because a) the bulk of the American public takes the democratic institutions as given and b) focuses on the man., i.e. whether he's up for the job within these given institutions.
So Trump gets to be criminal, which doesn't matter precisely because a criminal is seen as the antithesis of government and his grifting is just an expression of the wild and free individual that a large swath of American thinks is the ideal thing to be.
Biden gets to be ridiculed, despite a perfect track record, because he stands for government.
Which I guess kind of explains the disconnect between the two galaxies and why we keep talking past each other.
What I fear are two things:
1. that the American Dream, MAGA, side of the equation has totally forgotten the democratic foundations and institutions that are a necessary condition for the American Dream to even materialise. They have had it so good for so long, they just take these political institutions for granted and can't imagine that dismantling the checks and controls on the state is very likely to destroy the very thing they want: you know, that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness thing.
2. the first Trump administration was, in a way, kind of harmless (ignoring the thousands of unnecessary dead during the pandemic here), because he is so incompetent. What I fear here is that the second Trump administration will not be so harmless. The recent SCOTUS ruling on presidential immunity paves the way: the criminals will become the government and the government will become criminal.
Belt up America. If you vote Trump you are about to get shafted by government big time, the very thing so many are apparently afraid of.
The bullshit is that he'll not do any of those things; he'll be too busy grifting and golfing. The agenda of the people in his administration is Project 2025.
Whatâs the deal with these guys that convey their message as a gentleman would, with logic and persuasive speech? Itâs always the wingnuts that think that ALL CAPS is somehow more communicative, when itâs really just stupid.
Fair.
Though IMO, Any Users Posting Paragraph After Paragraph In Title Case Should Be Taken Away For A Mandatory Mental Health Assessment.
Whatâs the deal with these guys that convey their message as a gentleman would, with logic and persuasive speech? Itâs always the wingnuts that think that ALL CAPS is somehow more communicative, when itâs really just stupid.
LOL. Also, context dependent, it informs a deeper insight into the psyche, especially on the internet.
Whatâs the deal with these guys that convey their message as a gentleman would, with logic and persuasive speech? Itâs always the wingnuts that think that ALL CAPS is somehow more communicative, when itâs really just stupid.
