Dirty Politics/Caravan From Hell?

How Dirty Does It Have to Get Before You Realize You’re Partly to Blame

It makes one wonder: all the people over the past fifty years, pointing to how dirty politics had become; have they any sense of awareness that the pure filth brought about by the political extremists today—most from the religious right, but many on the left, too—is a direct result of their failure to vote? 

The feckless rancidity of Ted Cruz, the bellicose stupidities of Donald Trump, the seemingly benign hostilities of a Greg Abbott; can those who sit out democracy, opting with open arms instead for it’s mindless little brother, capitalism, still be unaware that the tarnishing of politics is greatly furthered each time they don’t vote, when they don’t demand better people running for office?


This rolling Constitutional crisis is caused by the Silent Majority letting the Vocal Minority not just drive the dialogue, but elect our representatives.  Civility is not dead, it just went to the mall for a Frito pie and soda.

Oh That Caravan

The seemingly incessant lies of the threatened right wing Republicans, teetering on losing mid-term races from dog catcher to the senate, boggles the even semi-aware mind.  Middle Easterners, tough guys, muscled brown men, future welfare queens bringing their eggs to hatch little instant Americans to take your jobs...the sadness so many baseless lies are being told is actually only half as discouraging as how the many uninformed lap them up like saucer milk and consider their thirst quenched.

Perhaps the question is not: How have our politicians become such vile liars so much as, how have we become such uninformed dopes?

Fox is news only in the most tenuous definition--as in: if I haven't heard it, it's news--but it is the antichrist of solid reporting and accurate information.  Yet, many cannot turn their sets to PBS, or their dial to NPR, much less embrace the strenuous mental exercise, to there find out what's really going on.

Were we to turn away from the informational heresy of the right wing media, we might recall not just the caravan from April, but that this is not an unusual occurrence, and that these are often not the people coming into America illegally, but presenting themselves to Border Patrol requesting asylum.

As much as the howling rabble of extremist's greatest fears dismembers the truth, and as bad as that is, it is far worse we insist on self-imposed ignorance as a false refuge.  Shame not on them but on us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time For Coffee? Is the Tea Party Finally Over?

It’s  almost  amusing to watch protestors angrily denouncing the actions of the extremist politicians they elected.  Not quite amusing; more a sad, wan smile playing about the lips in resigned disgust. Angry calls to end the tyranny, too, are a dismaying reflection most if not all liberals, but also moderates might feel, but (more) ironically, not from the same position as the extreme rightists demonstrating in front of some capitals and governor mansions across America yesterday.  Their definitions of freedom and tyranny seem to be made up to fit the moment, and applied only to themselves. They see it as a loss of American freedom to have the government close down businesses.  They say the people should have the right to decide how best to protect themselves; that the “media” is over hyping the crisis and it’s suspicious that mega-rich big box stores are considered essential while local businesses have to close. And that’s the butter-rich...
Read more

Dan Huffines: Is It A Question of Science?

As noted in a prior posting, it’s almost amusing when extremists start using words like “tyranny” and “loss of freedom” when describing actions the politicians they elected start to act, not just rationally, but truly for the greater good.   The view from an extreme is always narrow—extremely narrow, of course—and that view when applied to the state and nation is when freedoms are lost and tyrannies take hold; not when fact-based truths are applied, but when they are ignored.   That would be one real takeaway not just of the minor protests across America’s state capitals yesterday (April 16), but in the words on the op-ed page of Dan Huffines, former Texas Senator and current lover of ignoring reality. One must ask how adhering to facts to make a decision is being driven by emotion?  Huffines claims Governor Greg Abbott shutting down the Texas economy for safety reasons is an emotional one; the facts, however, show coronavirus spreads by human contact, and re...
Read more

Listen To The Weinstein Tail

Harvey Weinstein was shouted down when he started talking about the culture that he was working within as an abuser.  It sounded like he was blaming the culture of accepted abuse as an actual reason for his behavior, and if that was what he was doing it was right to shout him down. But, he did put a smudgy finger on something, and until that’s addressed the culture will really not change.  So, right now, let’s not shout anyone down, let’s examine two sides of the same coin and approach this with the full realization that something can be a part of the culture, and still be morally, even legally, wrong, and shouting won’t make it better.  In fact, the root cause might be drowned out by the shouting. Let us also address the fact that women are still not treated as equals in American society.  We can denigrate the Muslims in the Middle East—and we should continue to pressure them to at least move out of the twelfth and embrace at least the twentieth century—or ...
Read more