The Dangers and Convenience of Completely Withdrawing From Politics
While I might consider myself a political commentator (or at least a political historian of opinions in the present tense), like many of you and I am sick and tired of following the name-calling blame game that defines the modern world. I suspect this has always been the way, people complaining about something those in charge are doing wrong (or at least against our personal interests), and of course there have always been rampant partisans reframing reality to fit their most dire warnings. But this does not abate the crushing frustration and exhaustion we are all bound to feel as nothing really gets done, and the most important things get scattered like breadcrumbs into petty, inconclusive arguments.
I am a ‘political junkie,’ this itself yet another smugly dismissive term used to define those people with legislative (or perhaps strictly moral or legal) issues ricocheting around our brains like a shaking need for heroin, but to be perfectly honest, after all these years of listening to and watching the growing split and divisiveness of political debate, I have to admit that I am utterly exhausted. Within this series I have dedicated myself to closely following both the Democratic primaries as well as the erupting mess on Donald Trump’s side, leading to the bottom-feeding sludge that will come out of the general election. Right now, I am guessing, not a single one of you envies my ambition.
“Why do we even bother?” an increasing number of people continue to say. “They’re all corrupt.” Sadly this is true to varying degrees and extents. We cannot even, truly, label a single one of the dominant political parties as the one truly at fault (no, that’s merely for the fundraisers to do. I subscribe to far right, far left and middle-of-the road both Republican and Democrat pages, and the comments and requests are uncomfortably similar. Here, have a look:)
Alert: Colin Kaepernick Just Crossed the Line
KAEPERNICK IS A TRAITOR, DUMP HIM NOW!
If you’ve missed the details of Colin Kaepernick’s latest stunt, you’ve been under a rock.
First, that sniveling little treasonous liberal forced Nike to yank their new patriotic sneakers from retail stores…
…after his national anthem kneeling stunts, this was bad enough.
But on the 4th of July he doubled down on stupid with a tweet that basically called ALL of America a bunch of racist, pro-slavery overlords.
IT’S TIME FOR KAEPERNICK TO GO! DUMP HIM NOW!
I have zero patience for a prima-donna millionaire — living a life of luxury afforded him by the blood, sweat and total sacrifice of millions of patriots — who can’t stop ranting about bogus oppression and liberal ideology.
If he doesn’t appreciate the gift of freedom paid for by patriot blood, then he can GET THE HELL OUTA HERE! Take advantage of this 5X IMPACT 24-hour window to BLOW UP NIKE!
Sign the Petition: DUMP KAEP
Demand Nike Dump Kaepernick NOW!
Contribute $500 x 5 impact
Contribute $250 x 5 impact
Contribute $100 x 5 impact
Contribute $50 x 5 impact
Contribute $25 x 5 impact
Colin Kaepernick is nothing less than a traitor, and we already have plenty of those still hanging around in the Deep State.
It’s why we’re sending a HUGE MESSAGE to Nike to dump Colin Kaepernick…
…or we’ll dump Nike!
Nike MUST feel the heat and know that their bottom line will take a MASSIVE hit from American patriots across the country if they don’t respond.
We need every available patriot to sign the petition so we can absolutely INUNDATE Nike!
Will you join the patriot revolution against Nike right now?
Steve Eichler,
CEO, Tea Party Super PAC
DUMP KAEP NOW!
and
Fellow Conservatives,
The Left has been out-raising Conservatives all year.
If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to jump in and support President Trump and his allies in Congress, this is it.
A group of Conservative donors have put a 4x-contribution match on the table.
What does that mean?
If you contribute $10, you’ll get matched by another $30. If you contribute$100, you’ll get matched by another $300.
The bottom line — ANY amount you contribute will have an enormous impact.
But there are two requirements. First, we’ve been challenged to recruit 5,000 Conservatives to unlock the match. Second, our deadline is Monday night.
We more than halfway there. Over 3,000 Conservatives have already answered. Help us unlock the match:
Look, Conservatives HAVE to work together. That’s the only way we’ll win — and that’s why we’re being challenged to recruit them.
When we stood together to support the President in 2016 we made history.
We have a chance to do that again.
Stand with us. Unlock the match and get a quadruple impact!
Thank you,
House Republicans
Via Team Scalise
Versus:
What’s the magic number for credible sexual assault allegations? Ten? Fifteen? It’s hard to say, since Democratic Leadership in Congress has done nothing to investigate Donald J. Trump for his crimes against numerous women. Tell Congress to do their jobs and hold Trump accountable!
The latest accuser is E. Jean Carroll, a popular advice columnist. She recently came forward to share her story about Trump raping her in a dressing room at a New York clothing shop. This is the 17th woman to accuse Trump of assault.
So why hasn’t Congress done anything about it? Nancy Pelosi has said she doesn’t know what Congress’ role would be.” Their role? To investigate Trump, and if he’s guilty of a crime (spoiler alert: he is), hold him accountable.
Members of Congress swore an oath to uphold the law of the land. That means everyone must obey the laws — including the President. And in this land, sexual assault is a crime.
Trump can’t get away with it. Congress must act. Sign today!
Thank you,
Corey Hill
The Care2 Petitions Team
P.S. Nobody is above the law. Not Trump. Not anybody! Demand lawmakers investigate Trump for rape!
and
BIG NEWS: 4X MATCH!!
FINAL QUADRUPLE MATCH: ACTIVERepublicans just rushed MAJOR last-ditch reinforcements to districts they thought they had in the bag.
They know we could actually DEFEAT their hateful majority and RESCUE our country for generations.
President Obama asked.
President Carter asked.
Vice President Biden asked.
Madeleine Albright asked.
John Kerry asked.
Adam Schiff asked.
Harry Reid asked.
Nancy Pelosi asked.
That’s how absolutely historic this moment is.
With just 48 hours until the final End of Month Deadline, Republicans just rushed hundreds of thousands in last-ditch reinforcements to districts they thought they had in the bag!
Lance — this is UNPRECEDENTED. And proves we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to WIN and rescue our country for generations.
But it’ll take 2O,OOO Democrats stepping up before the last End of Month Deadline in 48 hours to turn out SCORES of Democratic voters in this final stretch.
Will you step up with $19?
ALL GIFTS QUADRUPLE-MATCHEDQuadruple match your $19 >>Quadruple match your $25 >>Quadruple match your $38 >>Quadruple match your $63 >>Quadruple match your $150 >>Or quadruple match another amount >>
Thank you,
DCCC
The only reason I keep the links here is just in case one of you might be of a different mind than me and you believe that dedicating yourself to one side or another is far more important than the dissolving nature of our political discourse. I might not agree with you, but I am able to respect your dedication.
But look at the similarities. You have personal attacks and fear tactics–look what this asshole did or said! Look at how corrupt they are! And do you want this sort of horror to take over the nation? The world? Give us money and we’ll triple or quadruple or even quintuple your donation. It is too important not to care! They shriek. And yet they say the exact same thing.
I vote, yes, but give no money to political action groups. I can get conspiratorial (and I believe this one to an extent) and cynically state that all of the money is going into someone’s pocket, but even that isn’t important. It is the disruptive messages I get e-mailed repeatedly, day after day after day. Election season is never over. For the past four years, since I have been seriously following the ways which each side plays this game, I get maybe thirty messages and pleas from the right and about half from the Democrats every day. The Republicans (or, if you look at the wording, they rarely refer any longer to their party, only blandish ‘conservative’ as though that word, like ‘liberal’ on the polar opposite, hasn’t been watered down so severely that it has lost all meaning), are much more aggressive and probably better at this game. Their warnings are more terrifying and their attacks far more vicious. In addition to their begging for money I also receive these bizarre, conspiracy rants on so-called media sites, declaring outrageous things about Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and any other person who has publically mocked President Trump. My favorite right-wing conspiracy site is WND, a froth-mouthed gaggle of insanity that alternates outrageous allegations with promotions for the latest book about the coming rapture. Just for one example check this out:
WILL AMAZON BAN THE BIBLE NEXT?That’s not a clickbait question.
It’s the logical next — or, at least, future — step following Amazon’s decision to pull the books of this author targeted by the LGBTQs.
If his books, resting on an implicitly biblical foundation, are so offensive they must be banned, how much more so the offensive scripture that inspires them and others?
Read the latest now on WND.com
This statement wholly inaccurate, is in fact an outright lie. And yet the followers of this drivel, which, in this daily publication, includes allegations that everyone on the left is a traitor, that President Trump’s mistake about Revolutionary Army airports was intentionally made to “trigger” the whiny left, and that no one who disagrees with anything they have to say has the balls enough to challenge even the things they are fully aware are lies. They smugly publish lies, laughingly. You should read some of the comments these articles get. It is just like a Twitter fight, drowning out the few who attempt an expression of logic. Here’s just a brief sample:
- MeezaThinkin • an hour ago
- God will not be mocked or ignored. The Word is The Word.
- −
- michael greene • a day ago
- This is much too respectful an article for an evil entity that has no interest in establishing a consistent policy, but merely seeks to wield its monopolistic power to promote its radical, PC policies. Why is Bezos getting divorced? Maybe he is GAY, himself! Amazon has already banned authors perceived as anti-Islam. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Amazon should be broken up based on antitrust laws.
- Carlos7 • 2 days ago
- “God is too great to prove, too near to see”
- John • 2 days ago
- Amazon will do whatever they please, because they are all about the bottom line.
- Stealth Fighter•2 days ago
- I don’t use Amazon….. AND, I have plenty of Bibles!!!!!…..
Here’s the thing: these people seem to actually believe the absurdity in the article. I am sure none of them have either read the author in question’s book, nor bothered to further research the issue. They engage in blind hypocrisy, condemning Amazon for being “all about the bottom line,” (which is unquestionably true), and yet somehow thinking that those in charge of their messaging (WND included) are working honestly to promote a better world. The cheap and confusing attacks on this site, from both the essayists as well as the reading public are not at all different from a thirteen year old bully attacking a smaller, shy kid at recess. It’s childish, infantile. And yet this is our political culture.
Lest you mistakenly believe me partisan, here’s a sample of left-wing conspiracy tripe and it’s followers:
“Signaling just how dishonest and out of the ordinary its battle to get a citizenship question on the census is, the Trump administration has completely replaced the team of Justice Department lawyers working on the case. The change, which comes days after the original lawyers were in court claiming to have been blindsided by Donald Trump’s tweet saying the citizenship question effort would continue, was made without explanation, but it’s such a major and unusual move that there are few possibilities.
“There is no reason they would be taken off that case unless they saw what was coming down the road and said, ‘I won’t sign my name to that,’” according to former Obama Justice Department official Justin Levitt. What’s coming down the road is the Trump Justice Department arguing that the June 30 deadline it had previously claimed was necessary for printing the census is now flexible, while coming up with an entirely new rationale for the citizenship question, even as a federal court hears evidence that the real rationale was that it would be “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”
The Trump administration’s “’heads I win, tails we’ll see’ approach undermines confidence in both their ability to conduct the 2020 census and public confidence in the rule of law,” the groups fighting the citizenship question argued in court. “If any ordinary litigant engaged in such conduct, sanctions would be the minimum relief provided. And defendants are no ordinary litigants.”
With a whole new team of lawyers from an entirely different part of the Justice Department than federal programs — which is usually responsible for defending any administration’s policies in court — it seems likely that the Trump administration’s fight for a citizenship question is going to get even more dishonest than it has been thus far. Which, since its story has changed 10 times in four months, is saying something.”
Like the vaguely circular ideas on the right-wing sites, there is a degree of merit to the allegation here. But the extreme exaggeration offered to the dedicated reader results in comments like this:
Trump administration replaces every lawyer on its dishonest push for a census citizenship question
Attorney General William Barr continues to shatter norms in service of Donald Trump’s whims
Signaling just how dishonest and out of the ordinary its battle to get a citizenship question on the census is, the Trump administration has completely replaced the team of Justice Department lawyers working on the case. The change, which comes days after the original lawyers were in court claiming to have been blindsided by Donald Trump’s tweet saying the citizenship question effort would continue, was made without explanation, but it’s such a major and unusual move that there are few possibilities.
“There is no reason they would be taken off that case unless they saw what was coming down the road and said, ‘I won’t sign my name to that,’” according to former Obama Justice Department official Justin Levitt. What’s coming down the road is the Trump Justice Department arguing that the June 30 deadline it had previously claimed was necessary for printing the census is now flexible, while coming up with an entirely new rationale for the citizenship question, even as a federal court hears evidence that the real rationale was that it would be “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”
The Trump administration’s “’heads I win, tails we’ll see’ approach undermines confidence in both their ability to conduct the 2020 census and public confidence in the rule of law,” the groups fighting the citizenship question argued in court. “If any ordinary litigant engaged in such conduct, sanctions would be the minimum relief provided. And defendants are no ordinary litigants.”
With a whole new team of lawyers from an entirely different part of the Justice Department than federal programs — which is usually responsible for defending any administration’s policies in court — it seems likely that the Trump administration’s fight for a citizenship question is going to get even more dishonest than it has been thus far. Which, since its story has changed 10 times in four months, is saying something.
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The Judge
Jul 08, 2019 at 08:52:36 AM
I just hate this racist pig so much.
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24Recommend
singe
The Judge
Jul 08, 2019 at 09:30:59 AM
Yes we must frog march him out of the Oval office in 2020.
Reply
5Recommend
TulsaGal
singe
Jul 08, 2019 at 10:53:00 AM
Perp walk is better. Maybe, Letitia James could send someone to get him, right after the new President is inaugurated?
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0Recommend
Hopefully when the judge is told by team Trump that the “inflexible” date is now flexible, the judge will reply:
I’m very glad to hear that the printing date is flexible and that there’s no rush about printing the Census.
So I’ll tell you what: If you want to print the Census forms without the citizenship question, you can do that anytime you want.
If you still want to include the citizenship question, then I guess we’ll schedule a date to hear your arguments.
Since you said there’s no rush, the date I’ll order for the next hearing will be: January 20, 2021. Does that work for you?
Reply
9Recommend
indycam
DMentalist
Jul 08, 2019 at 09:25:24 AM
The calendar is fake news …
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3Recommend
BronxInTN
DMentalist
Jul 08, 2019 at 09:26:56 AM
Two points. I think that Trump is considering a parallel avenue of litigation, namely a direct appeal to the Supreme Court with some new BS reason for the citizenship question. With four members in his camp already he is almost guaranteed that the SC will certify this new appeal for expedited rule. Roberts has told Trump that he needs to come up with a better lie for including the question, a lie that Roberts can hide behind without being laughed at by any fair-minded person.
Second, I believe that Trump ordered the replacement of the old team of lawyers because they said in court that they did not know what was going on with Trump’s tweets.
Reply
4Recommend
These replies range from petty, angry attacks to pretentious, wannabe thoughtful ‘explanations’ of what is ‘actually happening.’ While the language might be different (either weaker or more intelligent, depending on your perspective), it really does amount to the same thing. Our political discourse. This is where we’re at.
I began this piece with a title on the dangers and convenience of complete political withdrawal. The convenience is obvious to everyone. We’ll feel better about ourselves. We will be much less angry and far more calmly confident of our own beliefs. An argument can branch out into a debate on the issues instead of a shouting match, our own moral outlook legitimately centering the discussion in terms of mostly mutual respect. Of course the danger in this way of life is that you are cut off from reality in a far different way than the outrage, lies and conspiracy theories provide. You have lost a voice in the ear-deafening Babel of screaming from every direction. You have stopped even trying to get a word in. Good for you, truly, honestly. But you won’t even know, any longer, how you are being taken advantage of, how you are being used and exploited by unscrupulous corporate politicos, and the threat to your very life will suddenly come out of nowhere, reminding you of the time you used to sit behind a cracked window blind, or a fluttering curtain, clutching a shotgun to your chest and expecting, at any moment, the storm troopers to enter and the whole world to come to its bitter end.
