Concrete Danger
One can certainly tend towards the hyperbolic when dealing with the current state of our politics. The opponent in this election (as well as 2016 and 2020) could be described in multiple ways and none of them have any connection to actual reality. Some would describe him as a cartoon villain. Others might describe him as the real life adult Eric Cartman. In the past, I have described him as a Bond villain post-traumatic brain injury. These are all funny in their own way, but for some they don’t carry much weight.
So, let me describe something that is concrete and potentially disastrous for our country. The current iteration of the GOP has no platform and no real ideology. It basically has become “whatever that guy says it is.” Ideology has to govern your party. Right or wrong, your party has to have a common framework and conception of how the world works. The other side might and likely will poke holes in that framework, but it gives you a baseline for decision making and core values.
I am only 50 years old. Many in our audience here have me by a decade or two. So, this seems weird for me to say, but I remember a time when Russia was the enemy. I remember a time when the worst thing the GOP could hang on you was either the communist label or to be painted as a Russian sympathizer. Instead of holding any candidate to that standard, the party has shifted based on a cult of personality and the fact that their standard bearer has a weird dictator fetish.
That is assuming the very best of the situation. The alternative is that their standard bearer is either under control for financial/blackmail reasons or is unwittingly under their control. I’d like to believe that his followers are blindly following him over this cliff, but we can’t rule out the possibility that some or all are paid stooges as well. I could point to numerous examples within the right wing media, but doing so would be giving attention to people that desperately crave it.
One recent example saw Vladimir Putin apparently advertising for disaffected conservatives and mouth breathers to move to Russia to get away from western liberalism. Indeed. We know a few things. We know that Russia interfered with our election in at least 2016 if not 2020 as well. We know they have spied on us. We know that our last president sided with Putin when it came to all of this information over his intelligence agencies and we know he shared confidential and top secret information with their bureaucrats.
We also know that Russia invaded a sovereign country unprovoked. Yet. voices on the right in government and commenting outside of it that have openly asked what is wrong with that. They have questioned whether we should be involved at all with even a few suggesting we should support Russia. Maybe we need a replay of cold war era movies where Russia is cast as the enemy. Maybe millions of Americans need to be reminded that dictators are not our friends. Maybe it just doesn’t matter anymore and we just need this spell to be broken. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills and I know I’m not the only one.
For GOP pols, money is their North Star — what or whoever gives it to them is who they follow. SCOTUS gave them Citizens United, then followed up with Snyder V US. That all money. As for dictators, any reading of Tim Snyder will show you that Russia, since Stalin through Putin, they will create a small problem, make a big deal of “solving” it, and give themselves more power. Russians have been groomed to accept this. We average Americans, who have gone to public education, studied real history, then gone on to support ourselves, know that money in government is called bribery and that one person with all power is not in our Constitution. We need to vote to rid ourselves of bribe takers and anyone that tries to become our dictators.
1Calling them out, hmmmm. I can just see it now. All the butt kissing Rs insisting that they had no choice but to support tRump. What? He kidnapped their families?
2I will likely think of more to say but a few things stand out from your article. You said Russiar (trumpf speak) interfered in 2016 and 2020. Don’t think there’s any doubt they are interfering as we speak?
3I know one Alex Jones is already turned on by going to live in Russiar where he thinks he’ll be a rock star. I hope the courts make him liquidate his only asset now (Infowars), and send him to his new digs in Russiar.
Trumpf might want to consider the offer before sentencing on his fraud convictions which he’s trying to postpone till he’s elected potus. So as to not jinx the election, I won’t speculate on his chances.
Desmond Tutu was once asked, what if welcoming LGBTQ+ people split the global Anglican Church? I echo his response, in case of “conservatives fleeing” to Russia: “ Let them go! Let them go!”
4They would take even greater revenge on themselves than I would wish for them.
Maybe When we start picking people to help run our country
5that their past performance shows there efforts have been in helping the good of all.
Not just a political party.
Not to just get and keep a well paying job.
Not doing the bidding of the big money people who paid for there election.
Related to moving off the Russia to escape the horrors of woke-ness of the US, the Wonkette has the story of a family fleeing Canada, moving to Russia, and going broke. Wait until they find that the dad (and eventually the oldest sons) have to serve in the Russian Army, which seems like a dangerous occupations the past couple of years.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/why-would-canadian-couple-who-dragged
Of course, we’d all like to see Alex Jones going that route. i can see him huffing and puffing around Ukraine. It’d make him forget all about gay frogs.
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