Monday, May 03, 2021

I'm Old Enough To Remember....

...when all of Bernie's supporters sounded like this and the Democrats were doomed because Bernie's supporters were crazy and shouldn't be allowed in the party.

And then this morning Bernie was on MTP and sounded quite rational and, of course, was quite pleased with President Biden's plans.  

Which is not to say the GOP is going to be similiarly pleased with the dominance of Donald Trump.  Bernie Sanders is a politician and an office holder of long standing, and say what you will about "citizen" legislators and "lifelong politicians" being both a blight and unAmerican, Donald Trump has shown us all that people who don't understand government are the problem, not the solution.

Exhibit A:  Joe Biden.


Trump's followers are a minority of the population, but they are taking over the GOP.  Good.  They can have it.  The more they insist their candidates must be pure of heart and swear to the infallibility of Donald Trump, the farther out of power they will fall. 

But first, they need a basic lesson in civics:

There's no Republican that I know of, that I've spoken with, who has come to me and said, 'Biden won fair and square,' " she told the Post. "I absolutely do believe that there were irregularities in the election. I absolutely believe that our voices were shut out."

"The issue also could reverberate through the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election, with Trump already slamming Republicans who did not resist the election results. For Republicans, fealty to the falsehood could pull the party further to the right during the primaries, providing challenges during the general election when wooing more moderate voters is crucial." the Washing Post reports.

And that lesson is:  electoral politics does not guarantee that your candidate wins.  Your "voices" are not "shut out" because more people vote for the other guy than voted for your guy.  That's the system at work. Shutting out voices is making voting harder; reducing access to voting; requiring more proof of identification than is required to buy a handgun.  Shutting out voices is not when your candidate doesn't win.  Shutting out voices is when you insist your party field only candidates who show sufficient fealty to your ideas.  And when those candidates lose, that's on you; it's not on some nebulous "they."

Honestly, if these people think they're voices have been "shut out," maybe they'll go away and stop bothering us.  That seems to be the logical end of complaining the whole system is corrupt and rigged against you.  It isn't, but at least we wouldn't have to listen to them.  (Democracy itself is endangered only if the power structure starts going along with them.  Even Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz don't want that to happen.  They have cushy jobs doing absolutely nothing, and they like it that way.  If they aspire to the White House, it's because Trump proved you can last at least four years there, too, doing fuck-all.  They don't want to tear down the system; they want to keep benefiting from it by fleecing the rubes who still vote.  They certainly don't want the rubes to stop voting.  Who would elect them then?)

I still think these people are like the people I read about on the internet who scream and yell about wearing masks in public.  I have yet to meet any such person.  Gov. Absent lifted the requirement that we all wear masks, and he says local governments can't impose one.  Yet I haven't been out to any store, restaurant, movie theater, what have you, where everyone outside of their car is not wearing a mask.  Some keep them on on while driving, alone.  Where are all these people who object, and why do they seem like a significant population?

Same reason Trump supporters seem like a political force, I think.  Same reason those supporters aren't, too.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)