Permanent Rebels

One of the purposes of political parties is to consolidate the almost infinite variations of the people's wants and needs for and from self-government. Another is to educate the electorate about competing visions for our collective future and decide on a program that has the broadest possible appeal to their side. Then to persuade as many voters to support that platform. It never works perfectly, certain things can help in the process such as including as many different people in building the party as possible and maintaining trust between leaders and members. We are as far from those as we can possibly be and therefore we have a barely coherent party system. The republicans are busy ripping their party apart with the members supporting Donald Trump while their leaders fret about not being able to control the hideous beast they created. But that is a subject for another time, today it is the disconnect between Hillary Clinton and an unknown percentage of leftist voters.

The percentage may be small, but they are stubborn and they are loud. These #NeverHillary people or whatever they are calling themselves now are so angry now that the Secretary has been cleared by the FBI. They are also angry that their hero has "sold out" and endorsed her. It is almost impossible to distinguish between the vicious smears coming from republicans and the cries from these silly dead enders. There may be a lot of overlap there too, a lot of the people hooked on Ron Paul last time have mysteriously become democratic socialists this time. And there's no shortage of right wing trolls playing at attacking Hillary Clinton from what they believe the left looks like. But the true believers that I know are definitely of the ideologically schizophrenic variety.

Who are these people who are so selfish and insulated from the hurt that He, Trump can and will put on America? In my unit in the Army being an individual was a grave offense and being a selfish one was worse. Yet these #neverhillary people have convinced themselves that echoing right wing talking points loudly is somehow noble and pat each other on the back for their imagined integrity. 

The Great Trucker Blockade Hoax?

 This was going to be the biggest thing since idiots in tri-corner hats held temper tantrums all over the country at town hall meetings with Democratic members of Congress. "Thousands, millions of truckers from all over North America" were going to descend on Washington, D.C. and block the beltway. Four actually did show up yesterday and tried driving around abreast at fifteen miles per hour, but they did not last long.

Foolish trogs. now the supposed "organizer" of the so-called "event" says it was all a sham.

From the Washington Post:

 [T]ruckers from across the country (and possibly Canada) planned to come to the nation’s capital Friday and bring traffic to a standstill on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway zinged across the Web and were picked up by outlets ranging from Fox News to the Huffington Post. The rally was dubbed “Truckers for the Constitution.”

But it is a hoax. 

“The comments to U.S. News were designed to do one thing and one thing only: stir the feather of the mainstream media,” said [Earl] Conlon [to U.S. News and World Report]

Riiiiiiiight.

Within the epistemic fishbowl of authoritarianism, the huge following tea party types have in their own little world led this little band of dittoheads to think they could pull something massive off.

It is nice to see continued evidence that the energy right wing authoritarian followers put into all their anti-democratic demonstrations is really drying up. I first noticed things were changing at the Fourth of July celebrations in my little red corner of Wisconsin. In a town that shall remain unnamed but previously crawling with signs and bumper stickers displaying the unbridled ignorance and bullying only the lame, over-the-hill baby boomer assclowns would proudly decorate their gas guzzlers with, this past Independence Day festivities saw nary a divisive image or gesture. It was a good day, almost felt like an American again.

Seems the only teabaggers with any fight left are unfortunately the ones elected to Congress. Maybe we will get lucky and some of them will be put to pasture soon as well.

UPDATE:

WaPo reported that the desperate 'wingers are now circulating a picture supposedly showing all the trucks bottling up DC traffic, but as usual the evidence is fake.

The photo was actually taken in May at a Make-a-Wish Foundation fundraiser in Lancaster, Penn.

SAVE THE LIE!!!!! Who cares that it was raining during the supposed blockade? The same loudmouths that make family gatherings such a pain will undoubtedly haul this PROOF of how mad real 'murika is with the "democrat shutdown" and the existence of a black president.

What is real and what is pretend? It all depends on how loud you can shout.

The Long Road

Is the United States experiencing an inexorable decline? Is there nothing to do but sit back and watch? Since 2000, the answer seems to be an undeniable yes. Where to even begin? First, the problems we face are the result of choices made by Americans, from the supreme court edict allowing gwb to take the presidency, to stock market and housing market crashes. Even 9/11 was the result of a choice, in this case the choice of our "leaders" to ignore warnings and take appropriate measures. All the problems in America today resulted from bad decisions, at least, "bad" from the point of view of the majority of Americans. The point being, American decline is largely man-made and not the result of acts of God or even foreign malice. The disaster following Hurricane Katrina could have been minimized by competent leaders acting in the public interest, the same goes for the BP oil spill and the numerous mine accidents. American decline, therefore, is not inexorable, it is the result of decisions made by bad people looking out for their own interest and not the public's.

Does it follow that many problems facing our nation and our people could be solved by replacing the bad people with good leaders who would work in the public's interest? It really remains to be seen. We first need to believe there are good people out there. Then, that they can defeat the bad. Finally, that good leaders can reverse the previous decisions of bad ones. While the problems we face, from corruption and exploitation, to insecurity in all its forms, and the host of environmental issues, were man made and the result of decisions, once made they become part of the real world. It is easy to look the other way while business pollutes, exploits, and steals; it is much harder to punish, rebalance, and clean up the results. As Yoda said, the dark side is not stronger but it is easier, quicker, and more seductive than the light. And as the American Yoda, Ben Franklin, said "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The hole dug by decades of malice by greedy Americans will take much more work to fill in as it was to dig. But what is the alternative?

All the manifestations of decline are symptoms of a larger problem, lack of trust. This is not some grand revelation entrusted to the GH's of the world, it is apparent everywhere. But lack of trust is the cause of everything else that follows. Why can't good people get elected? People do not trust them. Why don't people believe in the Enlightenment principle that all people are basically good? Lack of trust. This is the age of the anti-hero, the great con, the belief that no one can possibly have any motive other than self-interest. Why do people mistrust unions? Because business has spent countless years and countless dollars implanting the idea that "union bosses" are by definition corrupt, leaders cannot possibly have anyone's interest at heart apart from their own. By contrast, why do people not recognize how badly they are being screwed by rich, greedy businessmen? Because, subconsciously at least, they understand that business may lie about everything else but at its heart they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, make money by any means necessary. That a salesman or a boss or the smiling actor in a commercial is deceiving you is as natural as the lion stalking the gazelle, and for the same reason.

Capitalism in the American sense simply is not possible without dishonesty, and the backstabbing ways of the capitalist trickles down to every other aspect of life. Why do so many possibly otherwise decent people get so insanely bent out of shape over abortion? Because anti-abortion people mistrust the motives of women, the values of self-interest have been so internalized that they are projected onto others without any reasoned articulation or oftentimes even evidence. The only reason a woman would want an abortion is she is selfish and incapable of loving another life, the immorality of speculators screwing each other over transplanted into "the other." Evidence to the contrary just bounces off the frame. All others must by definition be as selfish as we are, shallow and superficial as the dingbats on Jersey Shore or other "reality" show. This is just one example but apply the projection of immorality and lack of trust frame to almost any contentious issue and the process comes out almost the same way.

The Long Road back to a decent society starts with rebuilding some sense of trust in others. Not everyone is out to screw you over. Many are for certain, and those are the bad people at all levels that got us into this mess in the first place. We, the good people, have to figure out some way to reach out to those who have been screwed over, who have been victimized and build bridges of trust. No, certainly not all people can overcome their programming, and far too many are the con artists and selfish, immoral monsters who are parts of the underlying problem. The latter are the true enemy, the behavior that must be stigmatized, the source of the decline and must be fought tooth and nail if there is any hope. We the good people have allowed the immoral speculators and businessmen to poison society too long. Building a durable trust between well-meaning people with different ideas and different experiences in the spirit of tolerance, respect, and pluralism is the only way to get on that Long Road back.