Glad you said this Sharon. I'm 71 so you got me beat. It feels somehow traitorous to speak ill of the nation in which I have lived all my life (save a couple years in Germany). Because I grew up as proud as the next person to be an American. And I stayed that way even though I lived in the south until graduating from college. Even …
Glad you said this Sharon. I'm 71 so you got me beat. It feels somehow traitorous to speak ill of the nation in which I have lived all my life (save a couple years in Germany). Because I grew up as proud as the next person to be an American. And I stayed that way even though I lived in the south until graduating from college. Even though I witnessed clear racism, hated it, yet didn't say enough about it. It has only been the last 20 years or so where I have gradually begun to see the light to the point where I realized without a doubt something is amiss. And the assent of Trump and his murderous response to Covid 19, a response that half the country willingly went along with, (and of course a long list of other affronts to rational governance) sealed it for me. There is something dreadfully wrong with a very large portion of our country. This is not something that we merely have to put up with every other election cycle, like long ago where it was as likely as not that there were some adults in the room on either side, even if they disagree. No - it's much more serious than that. We now have the rejection of reality itself. We have a large block of citizens, a major news network, and the clowns they have elected (and re-elected) who cheer for authoritarians and insurrectionists, deny climate change to this day, traffic in lies and innuendo instead of facts, and are apparently willing to turn the USA into Gilead, and/or Dodge City. This has got to stop. Wonder if the founding fathers, who supposedly thought of just about everything, pondered the possibility that the republic could be taken over by heartless idiots who would drag the country down.
I'm sure they worried that the republic wasn't a sure thing. Any endeavor that relies on basic decency can fail. The indecent have become louder in the past few years.
"Any endeavor that relies on basic decency can fail." Well said! And therein lies the problem. The only thing that I struggle with when it comes to the right wing agenda (by struggle I mean I have cognitive dissonance) is the right for all to vote. Indecent people vote, usually for indecent candidates. People who have no idea what they are voting for vote for candidates that have a prettier face or a more appealing name. People vote purely with their pocket book, with no long term view. People vote, inexplicably, for a Marjorie Taylor Greene. How can that be good for a democracy? Sometimes I feel such voters should not be allowed to vote, but then I remind myself that the bad guys think the same way about us except more seriously. I believe even back when the country was first founded, there was thinking that a person had to earn his right to vote. Had to be a property owner, a male, or some such qualification that supposedly better assured an intelligent vote was cast. Today that thinking is front and center with Republicans, only instead of better assuring an intelligent vote, it is applied to their own version of reality. But in the end, I believe the lesser evil is to make sure EVERYONE can vote. Because the alternative is that the indecent will take advantage through indecent means, and take over. And importantly - when EVERYONE is better educated through good public schools and affordable colleges, on average those votes will be more intelligently cast.
Glad you said this Sharon. I'm 71 so you got me beat. It feels somehow traitorous to speak ill of the nation in which I have lived all my life (save a couple years in Germany). Because I grew up as proud as the next person to be an American. And I stayed that way even though I lived in the south until graduating from college. Even though I witnessed clear racism, hated it, yet didn't say enough about it. It has only been the last 20 years or so where I have gradually begun to see the light to the point where I realized without a doubt something is amiss. And the assent of Trump and his murderous response to Covid 19, a response that half the country willingly went along with, (and of course a long list of other affronts to rational governance) sealed it for me. There is something dreadfully wrong with a very large portion of our country. This is not something that we merely have to put up with every other election cycle, like long ago where it was as likely as not that there were some adults in the room on either side, even if they disagree. No - it's much more serious than that. We now have the rejection of reality itself. We have a large block of citizens, a major news network, and the clowns they have elected (and re-elected) who cheer for authoritarians and insurrectionists, deny climate change to this day, traffic in lies and innuendo instead of facts, and are apparently willing to turn the USA into Gilead, and/or Dodge City. This has got to stop. Wonder if the founding fathers, who supposedly thought of just about everything, pondered the possibility that the republic could be taken over by heartless idiots who would drag the country down.
I'm sure they worried that the republic wasn't a sure thing. Any endeavor that relies on basic decency can fail. The indecent have become louder in the past few years.
"Any endeavor that relies on basic decency can fail." Well said! And therein lies the problem. The only thing that I struggle with when it comes to the right wing agenda (by struggle I mean I have cognitive dissonance) is the right for all to vote. Indecent people vote, usually for indecent candidates. People who have no idea what they are voting for vote for candidates that have a prettier face or a more appealing name. People vote purely with their pocket book, with no long term view. People vote, inexplicably, for a Marjorie Taylor Greene. How can that be good for a democracy? Sometimes I feel such voters should not be allowed to vote, but then I remind myself that the bad guys think the same way about us except more seriously. I believe even back when the country was first founded, there was thinking that a person had to earn his right to vote. Had to be a property owner, a male, or some such qualification that supposedly better assured an intelligent vote was cast. Today that thinking is front and center with Republicans, only instead of better assuring an intelligent vote, it is applied to their own version of reality. But in the end, I believe the lesser evil is to make sure EVERYONE can vote. Because the alternative is that the indecent will take advantage through indecent means, and take over. And importantly - when EVERYONE is better educated through good public schools and affordable colleges, on average those votes will be more intelligently cast.
Beautifully said, James!