Playing with Analogies
It started innocently enough. I was perusing social media when I saw a “friend” use an analogy. He said the current administration was like a Chick Fa La being run by someone from McDonald’s. Of course, the implication was that the previous administration was Chick Fa La. Like I said, it begins innocently enough.
It starts with the disbelief. It is hard to have lived through the last five years and somehow come out thinking that it was all a well oiled machine like Chick Fa La. Chick Fa La has become the gold standard in fast food efficiency since the pandemic. No one is allowed inside, lines loop around the block, and yet people are able to get in and out and minutes.
This is the image you think of when you think of the Trump administration? Somehow, when you think of the current administration you think of a lesser form of organization? This would have been knee slapping hilarious if it weren’t so tragic.
Then, a second wave hits me. It’s the realization that these folks are reality impaired. When you watch a steady stream of Fox News, OANN, and live on a steady diet of conservative social media bubbles it can certainly seem like your Chick Fa La has been taken over by the McDonald’s manager. Maybe they just don’t know what good government is.
Finally, I reach the last conclusion one can reach. They know exactly the kind of government they want. It’s the kind of government that works for people like them. It’s the kind of government that doesn’t work for anyone else. When they see government working for others they get angry. That’s not what government is supposed to do.
With all deference to those referring to the election lie as the “Big Lie” I will have to respectfully disagree. The Big Lie has always been that government doesn’t work. The image of the incompetent bureaucrat has been around as long as I can remember and it probably goes back further than that.
This image serves two purposes. Competent conservatives use it to convince us that government is bloated and that it is incapable of making our lives better. They use this image to justify cutting social programs to the bone to justify their tax cuts for the rich. No one wants the image of taking food out of the mouths of the starving so Richie Rich can afford another yacht. So, instead we have the image of welfare queens in Cadillacs sitting around and eating bon bons.
Incompetent conservatives use the image for a different purpose. They use the image to distract you because they themselves have no idea of how run a government. They run the roughshod lemonade stand by the side of the road that squeezes lemons into cups of water and calls it lemonade. You can become convinced that it is Chick Fa La. You can be convinced if that stand has been there for a number of years. You can be convinced because they have conditioned you to believe that Chick Fa La just isn’t possible.
It isn’t that Chick Fa La isn’t possible. It’s that they really don’t want Chick Fa La. They’ve become accustomed to the lemonade stand by the side of the road. Sure, the overdressed water sucks, but they’ve become used to it. More importantly, they are convinced that no one else deserves more either. That’s the real tragedy here. In order to prevent others from getting more they are convinced they are getting the government they deserve. It’s Stockholm Syndrome pure and simple.
Republicans are not interested in Governing.
1They want to RULE!
The response is….how are your postal deliveries? Ours aren’t showing up some days of the week AND it takes 3 – 5 weeks for a letter (or bill payment) to get across town.
And it’s because we still have the Orange One’s postmaster, the inaccurately-named deJoy.
2Chick-fil-A
I know, I’m being picky, but still….
3“The Big Lie has always been that government doesn’t work.”
YES!!!! This, this, and this!
Thank you @Nick!
4Meh. The conservatives have been conditioning their little Qcumbers to vote against their own interests like forever with downright scurrilous scare tactics. Fear of the ‘other’ being the most prominent device used by conservatives. “If da gays don’t wreck your marriage, da swartzers will take what is yours,” while deflecting from predatory capitalism being the true cause of their woes. Or whatever next edition of Jade Helm, Obama is coming for your gunz propaganda keeps the Qcumbers voting against their own interests. FFS half of Texas nearly froze in the dark, yet A-butt is still breathing.
5Dust covered analogy…
Ostracized for ten years ~ Chards of pottery used by Ancient Greeks who voted to Kick Politicians Out of Athens if Enough People Didn’t Like Them
6Ballots that date more than two millennia old tell the story of ostracism.
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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-athenians-voted-kick-politicians-out-if-enough-people-didnt-them-180976138/
@AK Lynne—Thank you. If you hadn’t said it, I would have.
7Well said Nick. Republicans believe in government when it serves the right people.
To the rest of you: I assume Chick Fa La is an attempt to make fun of an organization by someone who knows very well how their name is spelled.
8Incompetent people have a vested interest in finding or creating or inventing a group even more incompetent than they are. Otherwise they’d have to put some effort into improving their job performance. Distraction is easier.
9They love Chick-fil-A because its owner openly discriminates against the “gays” and gives tons of money to those that support discrimination. They think they are doing “God’s work” when they give money to the company.
10Poor attempt at a joke AK Lynne.
11A significant percentage of Republicans favor autocracy
12https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/10/12/trump-voter-authoritarian-research/
A proper question…
Oh very young, what will you leave us this time?
You’re only dancing on this earth for a short while
Oh very young. what will you leave us this time?
Will you carry the words of love with you?
Will you ride
~ Cat Stevens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjZQyWG6z3o
13Another problem of conservatives, especially where Con Man Don is concerned, is that they are terrible judges of character. They believed in a fantasy Trump instead of the reality, and nothing could shake that fantasy. They also have a fantasy about the character and motives of other conservatives and a negative fantasy about the evil and hellish motives of liberals and Democrats. Neither of those fantasies is anywhere near true, but their belief in them is unshakeable.
14OT Trump giant hour glass follies and other assorted flying monkeys over New York
~ Barr, Weisselberg, Cohen and assorted calamari con Salsa Verde members
The Beat with Ari Melber where he discusses the Trump Organization’s response to the news indictments are coming. Ari also talks with Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Jun 29, 2021
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6dzkyXlSZ0
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Books: The Cruelty Is The Point Of Trump’s Presidency MSNBC Jun 29, 2021
The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer joins Morning Joe to discuss the release of his new book ‘The Cruelty Is the Point,’ which Serwer says is about the phenomenon of cruelty as a part of politics and how it is used to deny individuals their rights.
15video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqDdd8i7cio
Worth asking … if Government is Chick-fil-A, what happens to all those citizens who don’t like chicken? Or those who expect service on Sundays?
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