As is my current anti-being-zeroed-out-by-McCarthyite-neocentrists tactic, I am posting a reply that I made to Chetsky on Booman’s recent post “It’s Bad” (<http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/7/19/163041/350>) as a standalone.
Chetsky wrote:
I expected the recruiting of a massive force of ICE spit Gestapo to execute a pogrom on our undocumented population. I expected that Muslim ban to stick b/c “how many divisions has Judge Whatever-his-Name”? And more. I expected JeffyBo The Elf to systematically purge minority voters in all the red states, hand-in-hand with KKKris KKKobach. What I -didn’t- expect, was that they would more-or-less be delayed (not stymied, b/c they’re still moving forward) by the judicial branch. That surprised me and heartened me.
I was expecting that by now, there’d be civil unrest and violent direct action. So we’re doing a lot better than I figured.
Mostly, I think, b/c the Trumpers aren’t very good at dealing with bureaucracy.
I replied.
Read on for more.
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Chetsky…
You write:
I was expecting that by now, there’d be civil unrest and violent direct action. So we’re doing a lot better than I figured.
Mostly, I think, b/c the Trumpers aren’t very good at dealing with bureaucracy.
Or…
Mostly, I think that most of the good people of this country…I often put that number at about 85% on the basis of my intimate travels through all levels of this society…simply no longer believe that civil unrest will work. We have had massive “civil unrests” since the anti-Vietnam War and anti-segregation movements of the ’60s…marches, sit-ins, ghetto burnings, the ’68 Chicago riots, the many protests over police shootings, the Occupy movement, etc.
What have we gotten from those actions?
A militarized police force with permission to shoot to kill and…now…Donald Trump.
Those same good people…and I generally define that term as people who simply want to be left alone with enough working income to to raise their families…also feel as if all major politicians lie to them, all of the time. They feel betrayed by Bill Clinton, betrayed by Barack Obama, betrayed by Bush II and certainly betrayed by Donald Trump. I include many of the people who voted for him in that latter group. Only the haters and the truly stupid…maybe another 15% or 20%…could miss what he is about by this time.
People feel as if they have no real options. They look at the leadership of the two major parties and see the same old, same old leaders who have consistently lied to them for nearly 30 years.
As I wrote in a recent post (A Tired Middle America. SO Tired…):
I just spent a couple of weeks immersed in Red Country, U.S.A., mostly the Eastern Pennsylvania area thereof. The last time I did that, I came back predicting a Trump win. Everybody and his brother on the progressive and neocentrist sides of the Democratic fence thought I was crazy. I wasn’t. I read “ANGER!!!”
This time?
I read “exhaustion.”
In my view, we are not doing a lot better than you figured.
This has been due to a campaign based not so much on real-world negative actions as it has been based on confusion…the gradual wearing down of people’s souls and minds by endless doublespeak, deviousness and backtracking.
Trump is a master at this.
So are his centrist opponents…especially the intelligence agencies.
Put all of that confusion together and what do you get?
A massively confused…and perhaps massively apathetic…electorate.
We shall see in November how apathetic this electorate really is. If it is so confused by all of the hype emanating from both sides of this competition…and bet on it, there are now only two sides with any real power in an electoral sense, the pro-Trump forces and the combinination of neocentrist Democrats, centrist Republicans (somewhat diminished by the Trump presidency but still powerfu) and the seemingly immortal, always well-entrenched deep state bureaucracy. The so-called “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party? Too late for this election, I believe. Maybe by 2020…sigh. (I sometimes feel like the sports fans who are forced to say over and over again, “Wait ’til next year!!!”)
Can the media sufficiently fan the flames of electoral dissent to put a stop to the ongoing Trump victories? I sincerely hope so, but as I also said in that aforementioned post:
The centrist/right wing news still pours out of the TVs in the Dunkin’ Donuts and such, but the volume has been turned down and nobody seems to be paying much attention. Life goes on. They’ve heard enough.
I see that apathy in the so-called “blue” centers of this country as well. In places where instead of Fox News, CNN rules the TV? Nobody’s paying much attention to it there, either.
The media in general may have shot its wad this time.
Too much of the Chicken Little syndrome, too much shouting about:
The sky is falling!!!
The sky is falling!!!
From all sides.
And when it doesn’t fall? It just stays in some grey, glowering limbo instead? For almost two years!!!???
Eventually people just turn off the Chicken Littles.
Only…this time?
The sky may well be falling!!!
We’ll see in November.
Won’t we.
AG