Another Day Of Conflicting Realities

Today should be big victory for the Trump administration, and with good reason. After years of getting fleeced in the trade deal known as SHAFTA…er, I mean NAFTA, the U.S. is finally on its way to an equitable compromise benefiting American workers. Good work, Mr. President.

Unfortunately, Big Baby is skulking around the Oval Orifice because he had to make nice with the McCain family and admirers of the recently departed Senator John McCain. Even the tradition of flying the flag of the fallen at half-staff was ignored until the optics proved too damning.

We all remember how Trump disparaged McCain as a “loser” who got captured after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam and spent the next five years as a guest of the Hanoi Hilton. Broken, beaten and held in solitary confinement, he managed to survive and returned to a nation that had had enough of war. Many never recovered from the pain and insults they endured both here and abroad, but John McCain landed on his feet and went on to win a U.S. Senate seat.

So Trump’s offhand remarks came as a surprise to many, especially when his conservative base shrugged it off as they have done with so many other slights to their usual allies. The Donald crushed whatever moral compass the right claimed to represent. He really could murder anyone in broad daylight still get elected, as long as the agenda moves forward.

Although there were many heartfelt tributes from Democrats and Progressives, I was saddened to see so many nasty posts from the unforgiving radical left. Yes, McCain bombed civilians. Yes, he uttered racist rants. Yes, he got caught up in the Keating Five scandal. He was reckless and too often ready to go to war. He made Sarah Palin a household name.

But he also changed his ways in many respects. I’ll always remember his rebuke to the woman who called Obama a Muslim during the 2008 campaign. It no doubt cost him many votes among the red meat right, but he earned my respect.

On his local blog, George Rebane expects that “left/right polarization will make a quantum leap to a much higher level in the next twelve months, exceeding by far anything we have witnessed to date.” He goes to to say that it is already near to impossible to have a civil conversation with anyone from the other camp.

Well, yeah, when your stated position is that there is absolutely no compromise or agreement with those you consider political enemies, what’s the point of talking about anything, including the weather? When you can forgive a pampered bully president for any crime or stupid remark that you would have crucified his predecessor for, where is any semblance of  honesty or integrity?

When the extremists on both sides finally shoot their wad, it will be up to those who are still standing and ready to forgive the sins of yesterday to begin putting the broken pieces back together. They are the last hope, and if it isn’t too far gone, they will truly make America great again.

 

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11 Responses to Another Day Of Conflicting Realities

  1. Steve Frisch says:

    I think you mean McCain got caught up in the Keating 5 savings and loan scandal my friend.

  2. Steve Frisch says:

    Your observation that the stated position of our friend from Estonia is “no compromise” on anything, any time, anywhere, under any circumstances and that that is what leads to our current polarization is spot on.

    But I continue to be surprised by your observation that ‘both sides’ are equally culpable.

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you that both sides are equally prone to engaging in heated rhetoric on any specific issue, but one really has to ask, what got us here?

    In my humble opinion, the war of words that George defines as a driver of Great Divide is and has been a conscious strategy on the part of Republicans to incite their base to ever greater engagement in the public and electoral processes to counter the rising tide of demographics that disfavor their continued hold on power.

    What George really dislikes, and his followers parrot on his site, is the fact that the US is becoming more diverse, less European in its cultural practices, is breaking down social prohibitions against alternative lifestyles, is less Christian (particularly amongst millennials) and that in a democratic society some people may have a different point of view than he does.

    As America has diversified the conservative movement has become consistently more radical in its fight against change…which is really the position that elevated Trump to the presidency. And as you rightly point out Trump can now do anything…and I mean anything…shoot ’em in the head, fuck a porn star, make deals with the former KGB, lie 8 times a day, grab ’em by the pussy, disrespect a hero…that once would have led to his ostracism in polite society.

    The American liberal movement actually has not become more liberal or radical while all of this has been going on. Consider just Democratic choices for president in the last several cycles–Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Clinton were all moderate to centrist democratic choices in their respective races; rather than shifting to the left Democrats have shifted to the center– and the fact that every effort Democrats have made to compromise with the current administration on policy issues has been rejected.

    This is not a ‘pox on both their houses’ situation Bob…one side stands for democracy and the other side stands for authoritarianism.

    • RL CRABB says:

      I’ve always said that I trust the government as far as I can throw it, be it liberal or conservative. The conservatives will always want to remove the social safety net to fund their obsession with the military. The liberals want to expand the social safety net to such a degree that everyone would be a dependent in one way or another.
      I have to smile when I see the press tout “Jerry Brown’s California miracle.” Yes, he has somewhat restrained the excesses of the legislature and created a rainy day fund, but how could you fail when your tax base includes the richest companies on the face of the earth?
      When I look at Sacramento’s wish list, it becomes obvious that even with the rich tax base the average citizen is going to take it in the wallet to maintain the status quo.
      Look, you want single payer healthcare, affordable housing, housing the homeless, more mental health facilities, free college, bailouts for the utilities, climate change subsidies and a massive program to save the forests from wildfire. At some point, even rich liberals will start to choke.
      And as much as I dislike the current ICE crackdown, I sometimes wonder if the current sanctuary trend has gone too far in the other direction. When some municipalities are ready to give non-citizens the right to vote, what is the point of trying to become a citizen?
      You are correct to say that most Democratic candidates have been moderates, but it looks like the trend is moving toward the left. Now that the role of the super delegates has been diminished, it will be interesting to see how the socialists fare in 2020.
      So yeah, I will continue to cast a skeptical eye on both sides. I just can’t help myself.

      • RL CRABB says:

        Oh yeah…I forgot to mention the escalating psychosis of political correctness on the left. I’ve always advocated free speech, no matter what gibberish you wish to regurgitate as long as it doesn’t advocate violence toward any group or individual. (Maxine Waters, take note.)

  3. Chris Peterson says:

    Bill Maher was spot-on when he said that Rush Limbaugh was the Republican gateway drug; then they went to something stronger in Glen Beck, and now they are the party of Alex Jones and there is nothing too batshit crazy that they won’t believe it.

    And unlike your analogy of the whacked-out left, it is the MAJORITY of Republicans who believe all the bullshit. That’s not even close to true on the left, no matter what the subject. If you can find an issue that the majority of liberals agree on, then it’s also an issue that the majority of Americans agree on. When you start throwing around “free this” and “free that”, you lose that majority.

    So, I’ve seen this analogy of your’s before; that somehow both political camps react the same to the stimulus given, but it just ain’t true. Republicans have long used group-think to accomplish their goals; no such thing on the liberal side. No, if the majority of liberals agree on something, then you’ll find that the majority of Americans do, too.

    Your self-promoted axiom of group-thinking progressives just doesn’t pass muster. There may be a number of radical leftist groups out there, but it’s not in the nature of free thinkers to move in unison like a 1930’s Selma lynch mob.

    Just ask Will Rogers, who claimed he didn’t belong to an organized political party.

  4. rlcrabb says:

    The left hasn’t jumped the shark completely, but they’re swimming in that direction. The irony is that Trump may be the catalyst to push them over the edge. It’s quite fashionable in Nevada City, and in fact much of California, to espouse the teachings of Marx these days, all in the cause of social justice.
    And as much as you might believe I’ve been hornswoggled by Fox or Alex Jones or whatever boogieman that MSNBC and The Daily Kos says is the devil today, I remain pragmatic and believe that it will require a new coalition of Democrats and Republicans to right the ship of state. We have been a nation that has tried to embrace the best policies of socialism and capitalism without going too far in either direction.
    In that spirit, I believe Trump has actually taken some necessary steps to help manufacturing and agriculture. It remains to be seen if his experiment works. I agree that his environmental policies are a disaster in the making. (Coal? Really?)
    You can’t deny that the economy has taken off like a rocket. Whether it is sustainable remains to be seen. All booms bust eventually. If it wasn’t for his despicable personality, I think the Repubs would cruise through the midterms.
    As it stands, I won’t make any predictions on that one. The Democrats are famous for blowing elections. I still maintain that Hillary didn’t need any help from the Rooskies to lose to a clown like Trump.

  5. Chris Peterson says:

    I would never believe that you are influenced by either Fox or Jones; it’s not in your nature. And these days I’m having very encouraging conversations with conservative neighbors, of which I have many. For myself, I only watch PBS, if anything at all. (Not that anyone on the internet isn’t bombarded with bullshit)

    You are correct in your assessment of Hillary, but I’m thinking Obama never got enough credit for being enough of a capitalist to save us from what could have been an even graver disaster. And the possible reason for the uptick in the market, (but still not in labor compensation which has always been our economy’s driving force), could be that the fat cats know that with Trump there’s no sheriff in town. In that case, hold on to your hats, again.

    I really, really do wish he’d drop the Russia infatuation. Their economy still hasn’t come up to a European norm, and Trump is only making it easier for our #1 opponent in the last 50 years to come back to life.
    And finally, the fact that all the latest polls show that a blue tsunami is unavoidable makes me very nervous.

    Be well, my friend.

  6. George Rebane says:

    What a marvelous viewpoint – “rather than shifting to the left Democrats have shifted to the center”. Does anyone other than the far left base really believe this. We have an overflowing record over the recent months of moderate Democrats publicly advising the alt-left colleagues about the party’s leftward drift turning into a socialist stampede. And, of course, the other half of the country, also invisible to the Left, that needs no further evidence of this very visible process. And yet, and yet, in these foothills our local lefties have not a clue of this ongoing phenomenon, as they watch their accused ‘authoritarians’ remove government from hundreds (thousands?) of regulatory authoritarian diktat that were ensconced by, yes who else, the Left.

    BTW, it would be most interesting to see even a short list of Democrats’ “compromises”.

  7. Steven Frisch says:

    Seriously, Republicans have shifted to breaking up NATO, eliminating free trade agreements and supporting tariffs, insulting war heroes, cuddling up to Vladimir Putin, kissing Kim Jung UN’s ass, grabbing women by the pussy, and saying Nazi’s are good people–kind of the definition of shifting right. George and his buddies were right there encouraging it over the past few years even laughing when local right-wing kooks at CABPRO published a cover of the Völkischer Beobachter as a statement. Frankly, if Republicans got any farther right they would be sleeping with John Birch.

    Compare that to the fact that in the last election Democrats choose their moderate candidate for President; President Obama’s signal achievement was the Affordable Care Act and it was lifted from the Heritage Foundation; Democrats support Cap and Trade an idea lifted from the Reagan administration; the toughest President on immigration in modern history has been Obama; and Bill Clinton embraced welfare reform for Christ’s sake.

    Bernie Sanders lost George…there are a few social democrats out there in the Democratic party sure…but they pale in comparison to the 40% of voters supporting a goose-stepping mob that is Trump’s cult of personality.

    BTW, the evidence shows Democrats are more likely to compromise and move to the center to reach an agreement…I could site a dozen cognitive studies and polls…for example, in a 2014 Pew survey, 64 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement, “I like elected officials who “make compromises with people they disagree with” rather than elected officials who “stick to their positions.” What would a Republican say to that poll…”You can’t trust PEW they are pointy-headed left-wing eggheads spreading fake news from the enemy of the people.”

    Just in the beginning of this administration, Democrats were willing to put tens of billions of dollars into the federal budget for the ridiculous wall to deal with the Dreamers. But then they ran into this, “Every time we have a proposal, it is yanked back by staff members,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters Sunday afternoon. “As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we are going nowhere.”

    George’s definition of compromise is crazy right wing tea party dog whistle racists get 100% of what they want and Democrats roll over and take it.

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