YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

FROM A FRIEND OF MINE ON FACEBOOK

 

I thought this was insightful.

“Matt Ford in the New Republic, anticipating Republican efforts at salvage of the brand after Trump, says that many will advocate a sort of Trumpism without Trump stupidity, restoring all that righty goodness while excluding the clownish, stupid buffoonery which sabotaged them.  He says it won't work because Trump/MAGA is stupid, ignorant, and fundamentally compromised in its effectiveness by its distance from fact and logic.  There were, of course, people who benefited from Trump, notably Musk and the techbros, and will seek to continue it all:

'There will be a temptation for Republicans to propose doing Trumpism the right way, to achieve their goals without the errors that beset Trump’s second term. This is a fool’s errand. Trump’s mistakes were not a deviation from Trumpism; they were Trumpism. His political movement is, at its core, based on a rejection of knowledge and expertise. As a result, it is inherently self-destructive...

'These actions have a dire cost for ordinary Americans, who are now on track to be poorer, sicker, and less educated at the end of Trump’s second term than they were before it. Even their “successes” are failures. In September, top Trump adviser Stephen Miller shared a graph on Twitter claiming that the country’s foreign-born population had dropped by 2.9 million over the past 18 months. “The first sustained negative migration in 100 years, and picking up speed,” he crowed. The graph also showed that the overall number of immigrants in the U.S. hadn’t dropped below the levels they were at in January 2024. In other words, the Trump administration has wrought all this damage and destroyed tens of thousands of immigrants’ lives to bring the number down to … Biden-era levels. They can’t even do mass deportations right.

'Someday soon, a Republican presidential candidate will campaign on the premise that he can deliver the “good” parts of Trumpism without the collateral damage of its namesake’s mistakes. They will be lying. All of this damage flows naturally from an exaltation of ignorance and the demonization of expertise. They will merely be promising easy solutions to make a quick buck and hoping to outrun the harms they cause. Hopefully, future generations of Americans will see through the con more easily than past electorates.'”

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

Recently our friend Skud responded to a few questions I asked in a comment thread. I felt his comment would be better addressed in its own post.

 

Skud is an admitted cynic when it comes to public service in the federal government. He believes Congress and its members are corrupt, and that people run for office to get rich and become part of an “elected elite.”

 

According to Skud, little in America will change because Congress “is not about running the country for its citizens, it is all about running the country for [themselves] the politicians.”

 

One of the main things Skud thinks Congress is good at “is increasing their wealth.”

 

These are criticisms we hear frequently from Americans across the political spectrum. So recently, I asked Skud a simple question:

 

“What would you like our political leaders to do for America? For our people? For you?”

 

Here are his responses…

 

•   I would like to see out elected elite create a balanced budget and honor it.

•   I would like to see our elected elite protect veterans.

•   I would like to see our elected elite spend money to help with the homeless issue instead of building a bridge to nowhere.

•   I would like to see our elected elite vote for term limits and congress being on medicare and a federal pension not a four years and you are set for life.

•   I would like to see our elected elite work for we the people instead of we the elected elite.

•   Our elected elite are suppose to be smart yet they can't figure out how to provide for basic healthcare for all, how to provide for veterans, how o clean up our streets and control violence and enforce the law.

 

Skud, I see your concerns, and I agree with many of them.

 

You've said before that you'd like to throw everyone in Congress out and start over. But realistically, that's not going to happen. So we're left with the government we have and the challenge of making it work.

 

And that brings me back to my original question. How do we actually solve these problems?

 

Some are easier than others. Congressional self-dealing, for example, seems like something we ought to be able to address through bipartisan legislation. There's widespread agreement that something needs to change.

 

But balancing the budget, providing healthcare, addressing homelessness, and taking care of veterans are much more complicated. People disagree not just about the solutions, but about the proper role of government in addressing these issues.

 

We can’t simply say it’s complicated, or that Congress is corrupt, and throw up our hands. We can’t just complain.

 

Being a citizen requires more than just diagnosing our problems. That’s easy. Citizenship also requires thinking about and helping propose solutions to our problems.

 

And I believe that’s why many people run for Congress in the first place. To be part of the solution.

 

So here's my question to you Skud and the rest of our little band of commenters. Given the political realities we're dealing with, how would you address the problems you've identified?

 

Not by throwing everyone out and starting over, but by working within the system we actually have.

 

 

 

WELL DONE, AMERICA! WELL DONE!!!!

Angry Voters Usher in Beginning of the End to the Trump Era 

The electoral backlash extended even into deep red states and indicated that President Trump has lost his hold over the coalition that lifted him to the White House twice.

 

It was a woke, DEI tsunami for the Democrats!  Thank you America!

Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota,  first Native American Senator!

Did you vote?

 

I did.