Michael, I appreciate your optimism and wish I could share it. Normally, I would.
I even agree that most Americans don't like cheaters, though plenty of Americans are cheaters and are envious of cheaters who have been more successful at it than they have. I have lived out in the world a bit and could certainly say the same about Italians …
Michael, I appreciate your optimism and wish I could share it. Normally, I would.
I even agree that most Americans don't like cheaters, though plenty of Americans are cheaters and are envious of cheaters who have been more successful at it than they have. I have lived out in the world a bit and could certainly say the same about Italians and Nigerians and Ethiopians, and ven Eritreans have been known to cheat and even to lie upon occasion, though some might deny it. Human nature appears to embrace all humans, for better or for worse.
The real problem is that we who have not been sucked into the Trump-cult sewer attribute too much importance to Trump the man, imagining that if we could just put him behind bars and humiliate him that his followers would undergo a great awakening, see the error of their ways, become normal citizens again and finally blame the GOP for all this stinkin' mess.
But because this has notably not happened at all following the Mueller Report, two impeachments, a Trump-inspired attempted insurrection and his loss of Twitter and Facebook privileges, I think we have no choice but to attribute the Trump phenomenon to some larger defect (or defects) in ourselves, our history, our Constitution, our prejudices, our beliefs and our conception of personal freedom as it conflicts with the possibility of social justice (to mention several).
To put it bluntly, the plumber's helper, Drano and repeated flushing have not done the trick. It is now time for ROTO-ROOTER.
You hit the nail on the head. The cultists will not see any "great awakening" as this iDJT has fed all of their amygdalae with the white/male/cisgendered/Christian/heterosexual threat that an inclusive democracy poses to them and their "sincerely held beliefs" that their way of life is threatened when those "others" get to come to the table.
Not only is democracy frail, we as humans are also. We are deluded, acting out old grievances, seeking revenge, hearing only what confirms, fearful, and mistrusting. In small villages the darkness of humans is "managed" by community. In a large sprawling nation, managing the complexities of human interactions and beliefs is nearly impossible. It requires a basic sense of unity, something that has purposely been manipulated.
Michael, I appreciate your optimism and wish I could share it. Normally, I would.
I even agree that most Americans don't like cheaters, though plenty of Americans are cheaters and are envious of cheaters who have been more successful at it than they have. I have lived out in the world a bit and could certainly say the same about Italians and Nigerians and Ethiopians, and ven Eritreans have been known to cheat and even to lie upon occasion, though some might deny it. Human nature appears to embrace all humans, for better or for worse.
The real problem is that we who have not been sucked into the Trump-cult sewer attribute too much importance to Trump the man, imagining that if we could just put him behind bars and humiliate him that his followers would undergo a great awakening, see the error of their ways, become normal citizens again and finally blame the GOP for all this stinkin' mess.
But because this has notably not happened at all following the Mueller Report, two impeachments, a Trump-inspired attempted insurrection and his loss of Twitter and Facebook privileges, I think we have no choice but to attribute the Trump phenomenon to some larger defect (or defects) in ourselves, our history, our Constitution, our prejudices, our beliefs and our conception of personal freedom as it conflicts with the possibility of social justice (to mention several).
To put it bluntly, the plumber's helper, Drano and repeated flushing have not done the trick. It is now time for ROTO-ROOTER.
You hit the nail on the head. The cultists will not see any "great awakening" as this iDJT has fed all of their amygdalae with the white/male/cisgendered/Christian/heterosexual threat that an inclusive democracy poses to them and their "sincerely held beliefs" that their way of life is threatened when those "others" get to come to the table.
Not only is democracy frail, we as humans are also. We are deluded, acting out old grievances, seeking revenge, hearing only what confirms, fearful, and mistrusting. In small villages the darkness of humans is "managed" by community. In a large sprawling nation, managing the complexities of human interactions and beliefs is nearly impossible. It requires a basic sense of unity, something that has purposely been manipulated.