Road To Perdition
Saw a bizzare political ad on of all things Sportscenter last night, in which the left was near comically demonized. The ad screamed that voting for any democratic candidate was an act that would lead the country down the road to ruin. Really? There's no compromise anymore?
Yeah, the left represents (in my opinion) to the right the one thing that they fear the most, dread the most, willl do anything to defend, will fight tooth and claw to their bitter end about, and that is relinquishing profits.
And to that end, they will try and foster support for their cause by saying that they represent anything other than that.
It's easy for the right to rally the religious, just mention the A word and you got 'em, but as one astute person recently tweeted, "There are ten commandments, not one”.
And those 'crazed hordes' approaching the border might be cause for alarm in lesser minds but hey, I've been around immigrants- a lot- and they bring good food into this country. Couldn't they be allowed to come in and make tamales, falafel, spanakopita, Tom Yum soup, and open up Parrillas (Argentine barbeque joints)? That would keep 'em out of the profitmongers hair, they'd be self supporting. How about imagining that option? One of perhaps many?
Frankly, I'm a little disgusted by the lack of rational thought, the unwillingness to negotiate, to debate, to explore options because it's never gonna be a one way street. This here is a democracy, not a 'demon'cracy, if some people haven't noticed, read the constitution, or understand that in a two party system there's such a thing as actual deliberation needing to be employed in order for the thing to work.
Were this built-in need to negotiate not so, we'd be living in something resembling an authoritarian regime, where somebody at the top would decree that something is so, and it would be so. Like God. Is your party, which claims to be so tight with God, trying to actually play God?
I hope not because I actually talked to God the other day and he's not happy about your party's considering pushing him aside. But, being God, he's also forgiving. In addition to that, he'd like to come by and visit, talk a little sense into those that think they're capable of doing his job, give a few pointers, because when God does his job, he takes input from everybody and then works out a soulution.
Some would argue with that, they would say that when God calls the shots he does whatever he damn well pleases but if that was so we'd all be mindless robots but we aren't, we are allowed to think and act independently. After all, who would want to live in a world where they have to take orders all the time by people......
....that think they know best and/or want everything to be their way? Kings used to speak and whoever stood in front of them, their knees shook. Anybody want to go back to those loose bowel days? Not me!
So God's a' comin', he said he'll be here Thursday. No, wait, I heard that incorrectly. God isn't coming, he's sending some emissaries. He's way too busy.
These emissaries have been around, they know how to curtail the wall building impulses that come when certain factions don't want to negotiate anymore and start to throw tantrums, adamant as hell that they won't budge an inch on their positions and wanting every vesitge of power simply turned over to them without ever presenting a rational argument to the governed as to why that should be allowed, who died and made you the boss, and all that other messy democratic hashing things out stuff. These emissaries are skilled with handling the kind of folks that act like they're the new, self-appointed schoolteachers and the citizenry is just a bunch of wide-eyed third graders taking it all in. The emissaries simply posit a few questions to the self-appointed know-it-alls:
"Why should adults grant you any authority?" "On what grounds do you base your assessments of any situation, much less upon reality itself?" Present We The People actual, authentic reasons for any of your proposed decisions that the citizenry may then choose to follow. Soundbites, pieces of audio/video taken out of context, flashing comical images, and baseless outright lies do nothing to sway the learned.
Situations are complicated. Governing is hard. This is the internet age. People are way smarter than before.
And Jesus, whoever dreamed up that ad, stop interrupting Sportscenter!
Up your game or leave the court!