Here are a few links pertinent to last night's political discussion.
A poll taken yesterday: https://www.umass.edu/news/
The Supreme Court's ballot-insurrection case as viewed by ABC, Australia: https://www.abc.net.au/news/
But I believe it is even more important to "go down swinging" than crash and burn because we are self-destructively cautious, and thereby enable Trump to once again find a way to game the system, simultaneously playing Americans for the chumps we increasingly seem to be.
And, although I would much prefer that The American Experiment continue, I am not at all sure we would not be worse off if The American System (which has become catastrophically more stupid, more corrupt and more ignorant of Truth-and-Justice in the last dozen years) were to -- finally -- get its comeuppance.
The ever expanding number of "dimwits among us" who want to re-litigate the Civil War -- and perhaps such relitigation is the inevitable course of our seemingly failed Republic -- does not bode well for Truth, Justice or the American Way... or at least what we considered The American Way quite recently, a body politic in which we -- as a people -- advocated for the Common Good, the General Welfare, and a (truly) Social Contract.
It's hard to say exactly where and when we got derailed, but roots are typically sent down long before the "plant" comes to fruition.
If I had to guess, I would venture that Pat Buchanan nailed it.
Pat Buchanan, The Republican Presidential Candidate And Living American Who Has Served Longest As Senior White House Official, Says Republicans Are In It For "Power Only" And "To Hell With Principles"
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is "the criterion of the true" which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating." Denis de Rougemont
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is "the criterion of the true" which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control.
And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."
Denis de Rougemont
Again...
I think it is at least worth considering that red states and blue states separate into sovereign political entities, perhaps with some kind of overarching federated framework like that of the European Union.
Compendium Of Best "Pax-Barbaria" Posts About Red State - Blue State Secession
Red State Moocher Links
Such an initiative might be the best way to salvage the relative goodness of "the blue states" while letting the cruel, malicious red states stew in their own juice until they "come around."
Notably, no educated person wants to live in a God-damned theocracy, and once "the reds" no longer enjoy the ready availability of benefactor blue states to serve as whipping boys (and girls), they will turn on their own partisans --- just as the Republican House of Representatives is now cannibalizing its own.
And soon, when "all" the progressives have fled the red states (along with corporate leaders who tend to be a fairly cultured group... not to mention likely economic boycott by civilized nations) I see America's neo-confederates realizing their abject failure, and consequently their near term determination to return to the fold of civilized people.
As for the possibility that red states might successfully use their military to occupy a federation of sovereign blue states should such political division take place, I think the very nature of politics (at least as it relates to occupying "foreign" territory) will reveal a New World Order (already in place) wherein "the victor belongs to the spoils."
Consider the outcomes of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. (Consider Netanyahu's forever war on Gaza.)
Right now, I can see Uncle Sam's helicopter on the roof of the Saigon embassy, evacuating an endless line of people, until the chopper finally took off and folks fell, willy-nilly, from the rope ladder dangling behind.
It is astonishing that the full weight of Uncle Sam's military might could not prevail in any one of the above mentioned instances, despite US bombers dropping more ordnance on North Vietnam than they dropped on all of Europe during all of World War II.
Mingya! Uncle Sam couldn't even prevail in Cuba.
(Admittedly, we did win Reagan's Grenada War, so let's give credit where credit is due. )
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
W. B. Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” 1919
*****
Afterthoughts:
Chronic Incivility: Is It Time To Divide The United States Into Two Separate Nations - One For Red States, And One For Blue States?
"Trolls... And The End Of Civilization As We Knew It"
"Obama Just Identified Our Biggest Problem Of All"
*****
The United States has become the laughing stock of the world.
And with good reason.
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