SCOTUS stops the election interference....cold!

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You're deceiving yourself. You definitely have a "side", whether you know it or not. The litany of evils you warn us against tells us that, even if you don't know it. Your self-confidence in being able to tell the real news from the fake because of your literacy and 50 years experience suggests a certain innocence about confirmation bias and Dunning Krugers effect. Oddly, if your information sources are so insulated from current news (lol, except for npr) you must be living in the past. But the message you spew is consistent with the right wing populism that supports authoritarian movements on two continents; and the transophobia and homophobia seems lifted from a DeSantis speech. Those unnamed printed sources you say you rely on seem to give you the same view of the world as "Fox News". What are they? The New York Post? National Review? The American Conservative? But when Meagain asks you for details and sources, you indignantly get defensive and change the subject. If those sources are any good, you should be able to back up what you say with specifics.

You "recall how things used to be?" When was that? Surely not the Nixon era with Watergate, or the Reagan era with all the free trade and multinational corporate resurgence you seem to deplore. Before the Civil Rights Movement, Womens' Rights, Gay Rights? When you post, I can almost hear Archie Bunker at the piano with Edith: "Guys like us we had it made. Those were the Daaaaaaayze!"

 

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They'll ALWAYS be around!!

 

Is everyone who does not share your ideology or your fear of trump a fascist? Have you considered the possibility that frequently labelling folks as “fascist”, “nazi”, “homophobe”, “extremist”, etc. makes those words lose their significance? Have you considered that their overuse against people who you deem guilty of wrong-think may make them just shrug and say, “well, in for a penny, in for pound,” then decide they may as well do the crime if they’re going to have to do the time?

If I have drifted to the right in my opinions and preferences, from a very live and let live type of classical liberal that I once was and still consider myself, it is because the goal posts were continually moved toward the absurd. I am not, as you appear to believe, a right winger. Observation has lead me to conclude that neither side of the political divide has my best interests at heart and not even the best interests of the majority of our citizenry. They practice the age old skill of divide and conquer. We bicker over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin while they (left and right) make a show of fighting the good fight for the correct number, and line their own pockets while their at it.

Back to Trump. I recall the 2016 primary race. He was a joke candidate. No one took him seriously. No one. All of the other candidates in the race for the nomination, whether democrat or republican, were all cut from the same cloth. Their policy differences, to the extent that they dared even state any policy, were minimal. Then trump said we should stop the endless foreign wars, stop offshoring jobs, and stop the flood that was pouring across the southern border . Overnight, he became “literally hitler”. Every media outlet agreed. He was evil and, for some reason never explained, would also start world war three. The first guy since JFK who had any concrete policies that were actually in the best interests of the citizens of the country he was hoping to lead, and both parties agreed; this guy was supremely dangerous and clearly controlled by foreign enemies! Funny that. We seem a whole lot closer to WW3 now than we have been since at least the first term of Reagan, if not longer. Oh well, so be it. Should survive WW3, no doubt all the good-think journalists will tell us that women, people of color, and lgbtalphabetsoup were hit hardest by the bombs.

 

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Interesting. My casually thrown out attempt at humor (women, POC, etc.) seems to have come off to you as a genuine dislike for those groups and their interests. It is not. If anything other than humor was being expressed there, maybe it was sympathy-fatigue. I’m tired of the endless parade of groups and identities that I’m told I’m supposed to feel sympathy for or guilt towards. Everyone is NOT a victim who deserves special rights and privileges or to be excused from facing the natural consequences of their own choices.

What’s so wrong with “populism”? We’ve tried the opposite for quite some time now. Is it now a sin to expect a government that claims to represent its citizenry to actually do so?

Nativism/nationalism is bad? A country that has no borders or refuses to defend them will not long be a country. Shawarmas and biryanis are awesome and I’m thankful we have folks here who can prepare them authentically and find a niche market to support shelves and their families. I do not wish to live in the countries nor under the cultural dictates of those places. I, like all other people, have an affinity for my own peoples’ culture. This is a natural, adaptive trait. The thin veneer of technology we now enjoy will not negate millions of years of evolution. Nor should it. Importing a new citizenry did not end well for the Greeks and Roman’s. Why do we believe it will be different for us? 62,400 repetitions will not work on me so please don’t trot out, “diversity is our strength.”

As to the scapegoating thing, unfortunately this is also a normal human behavior that I suspect we will never free ourselves from. Look up where the term comes from if you are not already aware. It seems to have been our tendency for at least as long as we’ve had civilization. One guy got himself nailed to a cross in an attempt to end it once and for all. Doesn’t seem to have worked.

 

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So left wing populism and its associated “muscle” is ok but right wing populism is bad and any display of its “muscle” forbodes a krystallnacht?

The founding fathers gave us a Roman republic, I agree. But, with the interstate commerce clause, and many parliamentary slight of hands, our constitution is no longer worth more than the vellum its written on. Our form of government will go the way of all others. I don’t know if Acton was entirely correct is his, “Power corrupts….” It seems to me as though power attracts the corrupt. Maybe I’m projecting. I have no desire for power over others, merely some reasonable autonomy a la Locke. It seems to me as though those in governance, as well as those with influence over government, well, Mencken said it best, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

As to your perception that I am unhappy; no, I lead a comfortable life, though I still must work. I have a kind, loving wife and healthy children. I have time to tend my garden and read and socialize with good people. Maybe I feel a little hard done by inflation, but that’s probably because my undergrad was in economics and so I’m acutely aware That inflation is not a natural phenomenon and, aside from very temporary shocks, is entirely caused by government and, now privatized, central banks.

 

" there will be a bloodbath if I'm not elected." OK. I see. A reasonable statement by a very capable prospective leader of the US government.

 

There is a huge difference between perpetual inflation and price shocks due to temporary shortages. What we are experiencing for at least the last 100 years, and more so since the 70s, is debt and spending induced inflation. Real wages have been declining while we’ve offshored production and imported masses of cheap labor.

It seems a little too clean and easy how you’ve described the populist left and right above. The left is all sunshine and rainbows and the right is all the greedy capitalists. That might have been an approximation of the truth 50 or so years ago. Then again, that was the time of LBJ and I don’t think any reasonable person would say he had his nations best interest at heart.

As to the interstate commerce clause; I can’t tell if you’re being genuine in your argument or not. Of course I’m not suggesting state borders and tariffs. That would be perfectly contrary to the intent. What I’m saying is that it is being used to regulate people’s behavior rather than ensure the free movement of goods and services between the states. It is used as a work around to the bill of rights. As, one might argue, are the tax laws.

 

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