So the "bringing the Red Army" quip was in response to Bob Cesca making a strained analogy to the second battle of Bull Run where the Union general returned a bunch of deserters from Maine back to their brigade and said, 'look, we need you to fight and we aren't going to ask any questions if you pick your rifles back up and get in line.' All analogies have points where they don't line up, but this one isn't even on the same page. The never trumpers were never on our side, they were with the Confederacy for God's' sake. You can study military history but forgetting the relevant facts that deserters are most often shot and that deserters from the other side, while interrogated thoroughly, are never just told 'okay, get a rifle and line up with the guys you were shooting at yesterday.' Would you trust a guy still wearing gray standing behind you? That's what the never trumpers are.
So in addition to asking what army the never trumpers bring with them, Driftglass asked
LOL, Bob is friends with a Navy War College professor and Jeopardy champion named Tom Nichols whom he likes to point out as a worthy never trumper to have on our side. Driftglass replied that his post about Nichols at the time was "Area drunk blames 5th DUI on the repeal of Prohibition" and added that Nichols blamed the "dumpster fire" that is the modern Democratic Party made trump possible. So yes, for all of Nichols' erudition, his scholarly poise, and intelligence when put on the spot he's as full of shit as all the rest of the gang. I'm still planning to read his book The Death of Expertise at some point because despite political disagreements, and for crying out loud my thesis advisor was a conservative so I am no stranger to the ideas of intelligent conservatives, I can appreciate his ideas separately from snarky baggage.
Bob wants to cling to this idea that we can sway moderate republicans and conservative Dems who voted for #doughfacedonny over to our side, I have to ask, who are these people? Just as Driftglass likes to say that David Brooks writes for beltway bubble cloistered rich "moderate" conservatives, who are again almost a rounding error in terms of actual numbers of votes, this vast pool of untapped moderate conservatives simply does not exist. I don't live in the cornfields anymore but I doubt those rural people have changed. You can meet them halfway on an issue... they will just move the goalposts on you. You can try to find common ground, they will not in agreement and go right back to bashing Democrats. You can prove to them, categorically, that their pet conspiracy theory is nonsense and a week later they will be right back to it.
I thought about people in my home town and how they all changed after Scott Walker showed up. The doughy, bald-spotted proto fascist didn't change them so much as activate the latent xenophobia that grows out of being in an isolated community. That happened all over small towns across the country once hate radio and fox news ramped up the fear of outsiders and scapegoat anyone to the left of Mussolini
Never trumpers are not "squeezed from both sides" they made this bed and should deal with it. Penitence should be visible and public, otherwise it means nothing. You're not praying to God for forgiveness, you are trying to get right with your neighbors.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Thursday, February 21, 2019
What Army do Never Trumpers bring?
Well, going forward, here is the blueprint for how grownups debate. How, on social media or in real life, reasonable adults who accept science, evidence, facts, and logic can have a disagreement and discuss it. Bob Cesca has a Wednesday interview show that is available on his Patreon page that is free to the public. The idea is that you will go to the Patreon page, enjoy the free content, and be moved to kick him a few dollars to help continue producing content. A great concept, this is the good side of DIY political media and we should all consider spending a little bit here and there to support independent media. And for almost the exact reason for the debate here; because mainstream corporate media is not up to the task of defending democracy and in many ways is responsible for the horrid political climate that lets republicans skate away scott free from every disaster they cause and then put them on television to cover it up and call liberals traitors, etc.
Bob had Driftglass and Blue Gal on this week. They have had a low intensity disagreement for months now over the subject of Never Trump republican conservatives. I'll give you three guesses who's side I'm on and the first two don't count. It has annoyed me to ever higher levels that Bob has taken the position that some grand coalition of liberals and never trumpers will come together to rescue democracy and get rid of #doughfacedonnny. Driftglass has intermittently called Bob out for the, God Chez Pazienza would hate me using this word, problematic nature of throwing in with never trumpers. I don't want to tear down Bob, his heart is in the right place, heck I even tried this argument before the election. "This time, just this time" don't vote republican for president, #doughfacedonny is fundamentally unfit for office in every sense of the word is what I tried to convey. But too many credulous liberals are retweeting Bill Kristol, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, and others as though they have awoken from the multiple decades of leadership in conservative intellectual and political circles to see the error of their ways. This has to stop, these people are not your friends.
Bob clings to liberal optimistic hope that things might be, could be different this time. Hope is inherently about the future, and the future is not set. Sure it's possible that this coalition could arise, but is it likely? Is it worth the price liberals would pay by embracing people who were calling them anti-American traitors two years ago? I used to write about Bob and Chez as being akin to the subjects of my MA thesis, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr. Like them, Niebuhr died earlier than Schlesinger and it is possible that the latter would have thought and wrote in different ways if the former had lived longer. Chez was a healthy voice of skepticism in the more gregarious Bob's ear and while Bob has new co-hosts who exercise some influence on him, he doesn't have that same grounding he once had before Chez died. This is the first time in a while that DG & BG have been on Bob's show and it isn't a seamless transition because they were guests on his interview show, not co-hosts with equal weight to drive the discussion. But DG & BG did present that counterargument that has been lacking on Bob's show.
I'm not finished listening to the debate. Just wanted to get something down about the show itself. The point being that this is how adults argue. This is how sensible people can disagree on something but still be on speaking terms. It's a good demonstration of what we can do if we remember that that disembodied text commenting on something you post, or a news story on a public forum is also a human being. As for the title of this post, it was something that Driftglass said about the coalition with never trumpers. The US allied with Stalin during WWII because the Soviet Union had the Red Army and was a huge asset in fighting the common foe. What do never trumpers bring? Votes, where? The death star plans to unravel their propaganda machine and deprogram all the meatheads? Even some small assurance that we won't go back to defending against grand bargains and how much to cut Social Security again once #doughfacedonny is behind bars, as Blue Gal added. The votes from these people are a rounding error, and they are simply taking opposition seats on tv news that should go to actual liberals who have been fighting trump and the fascism he represents (and republicans embody) since the beginning.
Bob had Driftglass and Blue Gal on this week. They have had a low intensity disagreement for months now over the subject of Never Trump republican conservatives. I'll give you three guesses who's side I'm on and the first two don't count. It has annoyed me to ever higher levels that Bob has taken the position that some grand coalition of liberals and never trumpers will come together to rescue democracy and get rid of #doughfacedonnny. Driftglass has intermittently called Bob out for the, God Chez Pazienza would hate me using this word, problematic nature of throwing in with never trumpers. I don't want to tear down Bob, his heart is in the right place, heck I even tried this argument before the election. "This time, just this time" don't vote republican for president, #doughfacedonny is fundamentally unfit for office in every sense of the word is what I tried to convey. But too many credulous liberals are retweeting Bill Kristol, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, and others as though they have awoken from the multiple decades of leadership in conservative intellectual and political circles to see the error of their ways. This has to stop, these people are not your friends.
Bob clings to liberal optimistic hope that things might be, could be different this time. Hope is inherently about the future, and the future is not set. Sure it's possible that this coalition could arise, but is it likely? Is it worth the price liberals would pay by embracing people who were calling them anti-American traitors two years ago? I used to write about Bob and Chez as being akin to the subjects of my MA thesis, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Reinhold Niebuhr. Like them, Niebuhr died earlier than Schlesinger and it is possible that the latter would have thought and wrote in different ways if the former had lived longer. Chez was a healthy voice of skepticism in the more gregarious Bob's ear and while Bob has new co-hosts who exercise some influence on him, he doesn't have that same grounding he once had before Chez died. This is the first time in a while that DG & BG have been on Bob's show and it isn't a seamless transition because they were guests on his interview show, not co-hosts with equal weight to drive the discussion. But DG & BG did present that counterargument that has been lacking on Bob's show.
I'm not finished listening to the debate. Just wanted to get something down about the show itself. The point being that this is how adults argue. This is how sensible people can disagree on something but still be on speaking terms. It's a good demonstration of what we can do if we remember that that disembodied text commenting on something you post, or a news story on a public forum is also a human being. As for the title of this post, it was something that Driftglass said about the coalition with never trumpers. The US allied with Stalin during WWII because the Soviet Union had the Red Army and was a huge asset in fighting the common foe. What do never trumpers bring? Votes, where? The death star plans to unravel their propaganda machine and deprogram all the meatheads? Even some small assurance that we won't go back to defending against grand bargains and how much to cut Social Security again once #doughfacedonny is behind bars, as Blue Gal added. The votes from these people are a rounding error, and they are simply taking opposition seats on tv news that should go to actual liberals who have been fighting trump and the fascism he represents (and republicans embody) since the beginning.
Friday, February 15, 2019
One More Nail in the Coffin of Democracy
I just heard that #doughfacedonny has gone ahead with declaring a national emergency to fund his stupid wall. I have to keep this brief with just a knee-jerk reaction.
Why didn't he do anything while his supposed party was running everything?
Doesn't he realize this is an impeachable abuse of power?
Will media figures actually step up to refute his phoney emergency?
Is this simply the latest step in the utter subversion and repudiation of democracy?
Will so-called conservatives finally admit that they hate America as it is and want authoritarianism?
American government has basically been broken, functionally, since 1993 when Bill Jeff took the reins. Despite his New Democrat/Centrist credentials, the republicans rejected his legitimacy and waged war on him despite his election victory and reelection. Nixon tested the waters for authoritarianism and barely escaped with his freedom. Reagan buzzsawed the foundations of the New Deal configuration of the federal government and got away with it, leaving the government hobbled by debt. Dubya Bush simply extended what the Reaganites were doing and amplified both the authoritarian nature of republican ideology and that so-called party's open contempt for democracy.
The first thing: "I didn't need to do this." #doughfacedonny's own words. Mother Jones leads their story on it by writing "Merriam-Webster defines an emergency as an 'unforeseen' event that requires 'immediate action.'" So there is, by definition, no merit to #doughfacedonny's actions. He has pushed this asinine story of a crisis on the southern border. All Americans that are not republican automatons know that this isn't true, or would know that it isn't if the media did more than carry water for liars and authoritarians.
Second thing: this is exactly what the republicans want; to "prove" that normal governance is impossible and rule by decree is the only way to control this roiling society of malcontents. It's all nonsense of course, the only problem that is intractable in America is the fact that the republican party is treated as a good faith actor in our politics and not forcibly removed from power as the terrorists and traitors that they are.
Third thing: by continuing the normalization of anti-American authoritarianism, decreeing a national emergency where one does not exist will join every broken rule and violated taboo perpetrated by this death cult of human suffering. Again, there is no daylight between what #doughfacedonny does and what republicans want.
Finally: this is just the man on the bicycle continuing to pedal forward lest he fall over. Stop thinking of each travesty of justice, abuse of power, or blatant lie as covering up or distracting from something else. This is one unbroken line of chaos from the moment #doughfacedonny came down the escalator until now.
Don't for a moment believe that there is some kind of silver lining in all of this. This is not setting a precedent for a future Democratic president to get actual progressive action on public safety, climate change, income and wealth inequality, or anything else. The hypocrisy of the so-called republican party knows no limits, they do not accept any opposition as legitimate, and will not compromise or work in good faith on anything. Until they are beaten to a pulp, nothing will function normally. Bill Clinton tried to get a market-based health insurance reform through congress, he was crushed for it. He tried to balance the budget, republicans simply lied that the debt was bigger than ever. He would have been impeached on flimsier grounds than lying about an affair if that had not landed in the death cult's lap.When Dubya ramped up the tax cuts, ladled on the gravy for defense contractors, and lied us into a disastrous war, his party responded by denouncing any critics as traitors. Barack Obama was treated the same way.
Normalizing this emergency decree will only smooth the road to dictatorship even further. This is the hill worth dying on, metaphorically speaking. This is what abuse of power looks like. Democrats respond timidly to their own peril.
Why didn't he do anything while his supposed party was running everything?
Doesn't he realize this is an impeachable abuse of power?
Will media figures actually step up to refute his phoney emergency?
Is this simply the latest step in the utter subversion and repudiation of democracy?
Will so-called conservatives finally admit that they hate America as it is and want authoritarianism?
American government has basically been broken, functionally, since 1993 when Bill Jeff took the reins. Despite his New Democrat/Centrist credentials, the republicans rejected his legitimacy and waged war on him despite his election victory and reelection. Nixon tested the waters for authoritarianism and barely escaped with his freedom. Reagan buzzsawed the foundations of the New Deal configuration of the federal government and got away with it, leaving the government hobbled by debt. Dubya Bush simply extended what the Reaganites were doing and amplified both the authoritarian nature of republican ideology and that so-called party's open contempt for democracy.
The first thing: "I didn't need to do this." #doughfacedonny's own words. Mother Jones leads their story on it by writing "Merriam-Webster defines an emergency as an 'unforeseen' event that requires 'immediate action.'" So there is, by definition, no merit to #doughfacedonny's actions. He has pushed this asinine story of a crisis on the southern border. All Americans that are not republican automatons know that this isn't true, or would know that it isn't if the media did more than carry water for liars and authoritarians.
Second thing: this is exactly what the republicans want; to "prove" that normal governance is impossible and rule by decree is the only way to control this roiling society of malcontents. It's all nonsense of course, the only problem that is intractable in America is the fact that the republican party is treated as a good faith actor in our politics and not forcibly removed from power as the terrorists and traitors that they are.
Third thing: by continuing the normalization of anti-American authoritarianism, decreeing a national emergency where one does not exist will join every broken rule and violated taboo perpetrated by this death cult of human suffering. Again, there is no daylight between what #doughfacedonny does and what republicans want.
Finally: this is just the man on the bicycle continuing to pedal forward lest he fall over. Stop thinking of each travesty of justice, abuse of power, or blatant lie as covering up or distracting from something else. This is one unbroken line of chaos from the moment #doughfacedonny came down the escalator until now.
Don't for a moment believe that there is some kind of silver lining in all of this. This is not setting a precedent for a future Democratic president to get actual progressive action on public safety, climate change, income and wealth inequality, or anything else. The hypocrisy of the so-called republican party knows no limits, they do not accept any opposition as legitimate, and will not compromise or work in good faith on anything. Until they are beaten to a pulp, nothing will function normally. Bill Clinton tried to get a market-based health insurance reform through congress, he was crushed for it. He tried to balance the budget, republicans simply lied that the debt was bigger than ever. He would have been impeached on flimsier grounds than lying about an affair if that had not landed in the death cult's lap.When Dubya ramped up the tax cuts, ladled on the gravy for defense contractors, and lied us into a disastrous war, his party responded by denouncing any critics as traitors. Barack Obama was treated the same way.
Normalizing this emergency decree will only smooth the road to dictatorship even further. This is the hill worth dying on, metaphorically speaking. This is what abuse of power looks like. Democrats respond timidly to their own peril.
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