A Campaign for Basic Decency
Successful electoral politics in the United States is ultimately about setting up successful dichotomies. There is you and your opponent and more people are like you. This is what all the “woke” nonsense is all about. The GOP realize they are on the wrong side of almost all of these issues. They are on the wrong side demographically and on just about every major domestic and foreign policy issue. The only way forward for them is to paint the left is somehow extreme and that they really are the “silent majority.”
If that phrase seems familiar to you it should. It has been a part of the conservative blueprint for more than half a century. It’s time to throw that whole sentiment on it’s ear. The basic campaign that Joe Biden needs to run is a run on basic decency. While certainly not a perfect man and not the ideal standard bearer for liberals, progressives, and leftists, Biden is easily the most decent person on the ballot. That is particularly true when compared with the entire GOP field.
A series of stories circulated this week that drive this point home. The first on my radar was the story of an assistant principal that was kicked so many times that she ended up having seizures and had to be hospitalized. The second involved a man that killed all of his neighbors after they complained about the loud gunfire at his house. The third story involved a man that shot a parking attendant over 40 dollars and then returned to the restaurant and completed his date.
I witnessed a hit and run on the way back home from a trip this past weekend. A truck had to stop suddenly because of traffic. He simply had to get somewhere quickly, so he quickly changed lanes and just shoved an SUV over so he could occupy the lane. He didn’t stop. He just kept going. These are four stories in the span of a week. Pick any seven day time span at any point on the calendar and you can either read or watch these stories unfold in fairly similar fashion.
Two of these stories involved guns. Two of them didn’t. Some involved young people and some didn’t. Some involved people of color and some didn’t. I point out that all of them involved men, but I don’t know if that is a relevant factor here. I wish I could say that all of them involved conservatives but that would be a stretch and would be irresponsible. What I can say is that they involved four different sets of people that were not decent people. Decent people do decent things. Indecent people do indecent things.
I can comfortably say that I’ve never done any of these things. I don’t see me kicking someone while they are lying helpless on the ground. I don’t own a gun, so the two gun stories are out for me. I’ve had accidents, but I’ve never fled from them. I would reasonably expect that most of you are with me here on those counts. I know some of you own guns, but I doubt you’ve shot anyone on a first date. I would guess that the vast majority of Americans are in the same boat. The MAGA crowd applaud these people. They are those people. Whether they would do it themselves or not is immaterial. They represent the indecency that has become MAGA. It’s time for the silent majority to vote out indecency.
We need to once again become law abiding citizens – we had four years of intense instruction on the opposite. Perhaps we could start slow, use our turn indicator lights, move up to stopping at a red light, going on green and slowly understanding that rape, robbery, and murder are wrong.
1It is not WE who lack civility. This is the newest turn taken in the Civil War that certain elements are continuing to wage. (They wouldn’t accept the military loss 158 years ago, and they have been working to take over the country by non-military means ever since.) Only now they have become bold enough to use lethal means again.
2It is infinitely saddening.
You mentioned the mass murder near Houston of 5 people by a neighbor with an assault rifle. The victims were all immigrants (as were most of our family trees). If you need a definition for the opposite of decent, look at the Governor of Texas and his statement that mainly called out that they (may have) been illegal immigrants. Didn’t hear any words of concern for the suffering of the victims or sympathy for the families, but just red meat for the magats. Maybe he’s since apologized but that would be out of character.
3During TFG’s run for president the last time I was struck by a woman that was interviewed while waiting in line to go to one of his rallies. She was asked why Trump and her reply was, I like him, he’s my kind of people. Chances are if you don’t like Trump you won’t like me either. She said this with a smug smile and what I took as being a sense of pride. In that if you feel that he’s not a good person then you will not like me either because I’m not good. It’s so sad that we have this one idiot that outed them all. And it’s a wide range of them all. Haters, racists, homophobes, losers, liars, abusers, testosterone fueled idiots, all rolled out there. Who raised these people? Nvm, don’t answer that because Kyle Rittenhouse’s Mama is surely proud of him.
4Since JJ shared the piece on Jeff Tiedrich (and I signed up), I’ve gotten a couple of his articles. Today I got one that fits with this conversation. It’s titled “more (bleeped) up tales of the United States of guntopia.” It includes his take on abbutt’s public comments on the mass murder near Houston. Couldn’t agree with him more. I’ll leave it to patrons to go to his site for the piece. However, if anyone needs me to attach the article, I will, but warning that some of his language might not be too decent.
5I struggle with this concept on my podcast. We have a feature where we both pick a scumbag for the week. Abbott has already been a nominee at least once. I hate to repeat nominees since there are so many scumbags and I don’t want certain people to dominate the conversation, but those comments were just so horrible.
Here is the thing folks, expressing sympathy and saying kind words is such a low bar to clear and yet Abbot and his hero can’t seem to clear that bar. There needs to be a decency minimum that one has to muster before taking on the job. I’d love extra intelligence and extra compassion, but dammit a bear minimum needs to be had.
6Good post Nick. IMHO it’s one of the things everyone knows on some level, but it’s been so normalized by the relentless avalanche of crap that sometimes concepts as basic have to be pointed out.
7Yes, thanks Nick for the commonsense commentary. That we have to ask for basic decency, the smallest amount, which barely requires effort, is a sad state of affairs. It takes less work to NOT track down and shoot the guy who took $20 for parking. It takes less bullets to NOT shoot the people asking for a little peace and quiet. It takes less effort for a governor to say nothing instead of something stupid.
The indecent minority, indeed. It seems they can’t help themselves.
8The kicking incident you linked to is three years old, and the assistant principal was a man.
9My mistake. It was this one:
https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-horrendous-behaviour-westfield-high-school-fight-video-sparks-outrage-assistant-principal-hospitalized
Imagine looking up an article of an assistant principal getting kicked on the ground and referencing the wrong one. I think that kind of proves the point.
10Here’s an example of tucker carlson style decency. If you haven’t read his comments about trumpf magats beating a man, you need to:
11https://www.rawstory.com/tucker-carlson-2659943854/
Three times in the last week I have been stopped at a red light and seen drivers sail right on through, once when the light had been red at least 15 seconds. I guess these people consider themselves entitled, needing to tend to urgent business, but I consider them reckless operators of a dangerous weapon (their vehicle). Every day I hear people in their unmuffled cars screaming down the roads around our neighborhood. Every day on the freeway I see people driving 20-30 mph over the speed limit (already 70). Lack of decency is everywhere. People assume that laws don’t apply to them. TFG made that acceptable and the rest of us live in fear.
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