Monday, April 2, 2018
Democracy
My politics haven't greatly altered since I was in grade school and it seemed obvious beyond the realm of rational discussion that George McGovern was the best choice for President. This was dead on and I haven't looked back. My understanding only deepened and became more complete over the many years and tragic political trajectory of my country. The frustration of the elections of Reagan and the Bushes made me feel isolated and international. And the fact that the opposition of the Democratic Party sported ideals and policies far to my right, cozy and indulgent of an ever darker and more unhinged Republican Party, only left me further on my own. Reagan and Bushes were piercing and tragic, but Carter, Clintons, and Obama stripped away hope. "We can't stop disaster" they said "Only slow it down." And so in most of my life I felt divorced from my own country. American flags alarmed me. Patriotism was the last vestige of scoundrels.
But one day I woke up and realized "Hey, I'm a scoundrel!"
It is possible I have been helped by the election of Trump. The horror, danger, criminality, and transparency of it is so blinding it is hard to keep it out of the common discourse. The edge of the end of the world is invigorating, politically speaking. Aren't my ideals American ideals, or at least workable with them: equal justice under the law, free speech, inalienable rights, separation of Church and State, consent of the governed, checks and balances, equality, equality, equality!
I'm totally a patriot!
It's liberating. Finally I can stand in the middle of my country, righteous and pure and noble, supported by every fact and truth. The American Flag swirls around me. Patriotic music plays. Everyone else is the outsider now. How do they like those chickens? Why do they hate America? I don't know. America is beautiful and noble and a grand experiment. With me back where I belong at the very center of the American dream we can cast the Republican Party in its true light:
Traitors.
I hate to say it. I mean, I hate to say it a little, but the gulf now is too wide to ignore. The reality is that they work tirelessly, like mad dogs, to destroy and undermine and lie about and cheat away what I believe. And what I believe is...
America.
So they are traitors.
I'm not calling names or inciting a riot. I'm stating facts.
And as for the "centrists", the right side of the Democratic Party, those so ready to work with Republicans, as for the conciliators, those who ideologically chase the right to stay in some fantasy of the center, as for the newspapers who look so understandingly upon the Republican base and for whom every day is a new day in the Trump administration, with almost no history to speak of, well, that's a lot of aiding and abetting as far as I'm concerned.
If you assist a traitor you might be one yourself.
Traitors traitors traitors.
And do you know what we do with traitors around here? Do you? Do you know what we do to traitors!!! Do you?
Well, mostly we elect them.
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