I don’t think there is some shadowy plan or group. I think it is plain and simple revenge. Hell. Remember the nonsense in Bosnia? Instead of being thrilled to be out from Communist Rule they immediately set out to settle scores from centuries ago.
Today look at the people wanting revenge for things that happened even longer ago. So it is easy to see how the simple desire for Revenge is driving the endless cycle we are in.
We ignore the issues. Or if we notice it we use it as a cudgel to smash our opposites over the head with. Homelessness. Oh the Homeless are destroying the Liberal Cities. Getting what they deserve. Oh the Homeless are homeless because Republican Greed is driving jobs and people into the streets.
Does any of that crap address the problem? We fucked up in the 1980’s by cutting funding for mental health. It will take a generation to fix that **** up. But we aren’t even starting. Instead just bashing each other over the head blaming the other side. It is our problem. It is us as a nation.
Take any issue. Any issue. We don’t care about the Constitution. We don’t give a damn about the history. All we want is another chance to smash them over the head.
It used to be that the moderates defined us. Now it is whoever is out of power who defines the group in power. And when that group gets into power all they want is revenge for the insane perceived flaws.
As World War One got started the Germans lied claiming the French had bombed a German city. This outraged the German people including the people who lived in the city and knew no bombing took place. The lie became truth to those poor fools.
We don’t need some shadowy group to delude and manipulate us. We do it fine all by ourselves.
Interesting read. Thanks.
I do think it's a bit over-simplified, however.
While I agree that comes into play I can't say that revenge itself is always the motivation.
Human emotions and logic aren't quite so "black and white".
If that were the case, we wouldn't need psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.
However, you did say "Radicals", and in that light you may be mostly correct.
I tend to equate radicalism with ignorance and or low mental capacity, regardless of which side.
Granted it is very over simplified. I was there and saw Newt and the Contract with America. When that allowed the Republicans to win the Congress for the first time in decades it outraged people. The Republicans stole Congress. The eventual Impeachment led to the start of Move On. I was there to see that.
We did almost all of this to ourselves. How long has the left been trying to get a counter to Rush Limbaugh? Most often it is our own folly that screws us up. The Al Gore debacle. Florida would have been irrelevant if Gore had won his home state. But Tennessee went for Bush. That is the first time that a state hasn’t elected the candidate who was running. Reagan had a 49 state landslide. The one state that went against him was Minnesota which was Mondale’s home. Every other state was behind Reagan.
My first election I voted for Dukakis.
I have watched this crap year in and out. Even during Reagan we had the Moderates really running things. To get through Congress you could not be extreme left or right.
When Republicans took control during Obama. The why was obvious. The Moderate Democrats were vulnerable and the Democrats wished them hell. They were called DINO’s. But the DINO’s gave the Democrats the majority they wanted and needed.
We used to eschew the extreme right and left. Both were ignored. Now the Moderates are shunned. If you aren’t a fire breathing far leftist forget it.
Take Booker. In New Jersey he was a moderate Mayor who went above and beyond to care for his city. He became famous as someone who ignored partisanship in favor of working solutions. Then he went for the Senate and he went far left. That story has been repeated so often on both sides as to be almost rote.
It isn’t enough to win an election anymore. It is necessary to destroy your opposition. They must die figuratively speaking. Mostly figuratively speaking.
We have gone from disagreement to absolute hatred. Even the morons who are themselves radical, pretend that the people are just too stupid to understand what is best for them.
How many times have we read here about this group or that State voting against their own interests. Instead of lecturing them, try listening to them tell you what their interests are?
Professor George Lakoff was briefly famous claiming he had cracked the codes used by Republicans. Professor Lakoff was an imbecile. When the Republicans made headway with the term Death Panels. Lakoff decided that this was fooling the people and there would be no such thing.
The truth was there had been death panels for decades. Ever since the first transplant was successful, there has been a board that meets to decide if the candidate qualifies. Especially since there are more candidates than organs.
The Democrats could have, should have, told the truth that there always had been rationing of limited resources and always would be.
Instead Lakoff ran around trying to educate the Democrats on how to deceive the voters just like the Republicans. An example. Instead of calling the oil well that blew up and spewed millions of tons of oil into the Gulf the Deepwater Horizon. He wanted the reporters to call it the Gulf Death gusher.
We didn’t know why it had blown up. We didn’t know what had gone wrong. But it didn’t matter. The radicals wanted to use it as a club to bash their opponents.
If you listened to him the goal of every politician was to trick the voters.