Love / Hate
We all know Fox News is bad news in both a literal and figurative way.
Joseph Campbell once said “Sit in a room and read--and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time.”
Gluing oneself to Fox News has the opposite effect. People become afraid and isolated from their communities, neighbors, and loved ones. But I love that the top three candidates, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobachar, all happen to be the only candidates who went on Fox News. All three of these candidates have the courage of their convictions, and that comes across to anyone, whether it be friend or foe.
I hate that Tom Perez wouldn’t allow debates to take place on Fox News. Why? So we could snub Fox News? How many potential votes did our righteous indignation sacrifice? We can’t win the arguments we don’t make. Winning those votes is where our hope lies in stopping this criminal administration. And if we can’t, the administration will continue to take over our Democracy like a cancer. Its one more reason why Tom Perez is not the right man to lead the DNC.
I loved a Levis commercial I saw encouraging people to vote….and buy Levis. It was cool and it spoke directly to a diverse population. It’s well known Republican power is, to an extent, dependent on low turnouts.
“vote-by-mail is designed to increase participation rates of lower propensity voters. Democrats in Montana perform better than Republican candidates among lower propensity voters and Republican candidates do better among higher propensity voters.” Jeff Essmen chairman of the Montana Republican Party.
The messaging in the Levis commercial was powerful and persuasive. Unfortunately, I only saw the ad once. Why can’t guys like Bloomberg and Steyer go in on ads with name brand companies and increase voter turnouts?
It needs to be brought up, particularly during black history month, that the context of the second amendment has been, and currently still is, white washed.
Southern leaders lived in fear of Congress’ exclusive power to assemble an army.
This article explains it well. And another supporting article here.
If the North had control of Congress, they could simply abstain from sending reinforcements to protect slave owners from uprisings. Or they could invite slaves to escape, with the promise of enlistment into the army. A promise that would end in freedom. This had actually happened 12 years prior. Leaders of the Southern states wanted to retain their own power to suppress uprisings and patrol for fugitive slaves. The second amendment makes sense in this context.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
The second amendment wasn’t intended to enable individuals to fight a tyrannical government. It was intended to support tyrannical states. Sure for every article or book that details the actual history, there are a dozen articles and books, if not more, debunking that history. Conservatives have spent lavishly since the 70’s on think tanks and thought leaders, whose goal is to intellectually manipulate context, and then sell those manipulated interpretations to their constituents.
Karl Marx was right when he said “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it.“
In 2008, the Supreme Court ratified this manipulated meaning. I don’t mention the white washing of the second amendment as a stance on gun control. I mention it because truth truly does set people free.
I loved seeing both Sanders and Buttigieg remind their supporters to support whoever the nominee is in their speeches following the New Hampshire primary. Some of the others may have as well, and I didn’t see it. I’m hoping this is consistent among all the candidates.
I wasn’t surprised to see the DOJ become overtly weaponized as a political force this past week. Criminals will keep being criminals till they are stopped. But I hate that neither liberals nor the media can make political hay out of it. They were caught flat footed again. Lots of words such as “breaking with norms,” and “not typical,” were used to describe the DOJ’s actions this past week. No one paints a picture of why those norms are there, or what are the dangers of disregarding those norms. The naivety it takes to continuously be surprised by Trump is incredulous.
Is it so hard to imagine a hypothetical situation in which a nominee, such as Buttigieg, is arrested on phony charges in late October, a week before the election? Does anyone really believe Trump is not capable of that, if he believes he can get away with it. Putin is his role model.
The only person I see on TV who gets the direction we are heading is Bill Maher. Every candidate he has on Real Time, he asks the same question. ‘What do you do when Trump loses, but he doesn’t leave?’ No one has a plan, nor does anyone take the question seriously.
It’s a failure of imagination on the part of the left. Of course there is a good chance Trump will stay regardless of the outcome. He’ll say ‘there were voting irregularities, and I’m not ignoring the election, though I would have the right to do so if I did because the elections were a fraud.’ Do you think the people in his DOJ, the Supreme Court, Congress, or his constituency will stand up to him. No!
Part of the problem is the left doesn’t have the ability to use fear. Republicans have had a monopoly on fear. They have abused the use of fear. But fear used judiciously is necessary to ensure survival. The country is always one step behind Trump’s transgressions. We have to start being one step ahead. It’s time people in positions of leadership start using their imaginations to help people understand the apocalyptic direction we’re heading towards.
When Romney voted to impeach Trump, the right red-lined with wrath. A week after the vote several of the Senators who spoke, as if they intended to incite violence against Romney, simply shrugged their shoulders about the vote. Trump has a demonstrative need for absolute power, and I loved the idea of shoulder shrugs from Senators, getting under the skin of Trump. Don’t get me wrong, Trump will forever be on the hunt for revenge against Romney, and Romney still won’t be attending CPAC out of legitimate concerns for his safety. But it reminds me of just how fragile Trump is, as well as the fact allies could be anywhere. Just because someone has disappointed the last ten times doesn’t mean they won’t step up the next time. And again, it would help if the left was a little better at using fear to persuade. It would also help if we had a DNC chair who could facilitate getting Democratic leaders in front of conservative audiences.