The State of the Political Union
The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.
When lies and hypocrisy are treated as the rhetorical and moral equivalents of truth and fact In public discourse, reason and reasonableness no longer matter.
Politicians who demonstrate a willingness to be openly ignorant and publicly stupid are able to win elections with lies and hypocrisy on the basis of political popularity even as they lose or refuse to engage in the debates that are predicated on matters of public policy.
The logical thought process is being displaced by irrational mob violence online and in the streets….
Hate is not an ideology.
Hope is not a strategy.
Far too many Americans can’t, or don’t care to, discern between a political party and a cult of personality…
Far too many Americans are indifferent to the extremes and extremism in public life and are mischaracterized or misrepresented by the media as being middle of the road, ideological centrists or undecided fence riders.
Far too many of the people who are classified as ‘undecided’ are uninformed, misinformed, unknowledgeable, unimaginative, and semi-literate. They are the gullible dolts, incapable of thinking for themselves, who are looking for a demagogic magician to pull their political rabbit out of a hat.
The problem is their votes count as much as the votes cast by the well educated and well informed portion of the electorate.
If the Republicans had their way, the only votes counted would be the votes of the indifferent and unaffected regarding the plight of our democracy which is in dire straits.
The existential threats from within our borders are real. If left unchecked, they can and will be the complete and total deconstruction of the American administrative state and the complete and total undoing and destruction of the American political experiment in democracy and the ideal of the ‘American Dream’.
Far too many Americans believe that the promise in the American experiment in universal liberty and justice is proprietary and belongs to them exclusively.
Far too many Americans are bereft of an understanding that the promise of liberty and justice for all is the inclusive social and political imperative that cannot and should not be relegated to the trash heap of meaningless euphemisms and empty platitudes.
Liberty and justice for all is the bedrock principle and paradigm upon which the concept of America is predicated and must be applied to all citizens evenhandedly and equally irrespective of race, creed, color, gender, national origin or sexual orientation.
American freedom belongs not only to those who believe that they can buy the blessings and benefits of freedom to the detriment of others less fortunate.
American freedom belongs to all citizens who have the right and will to endeavor to earn the blessings and benefits that American freedom can bestow.
This is, or should be, the force that unifies us as Americans for it is this unity that will continually operate to preserve, protect, defend and guide our pathways and courses as we move forward toward the achievement of the vision of that more perfect union where America isn’t merely ‘great again’ but simply great; period, full stop….
09/08/2021 @ 5:58 pm
Totally agree.
09/09/2021 @ 12:05 pm
Thanks Art…
09/09/2021 @ 11:00 am
Very well written. America isn’t great, never had been, never will be, nor has any other nation ever been “great.”
I don’t even know what that means, for a nation to be “great.”
Mohammad Ali was a great boxer…and a great person. Paul Newman was a great actor and a great person. I can recognize greatness in a person but I can’t recognize it in a nation because there is no definition of what makes a nation great.
What is greatness in a nation? Was Greece great, when Alexander was trying to conquer the world? Was Rome great when it tried to do the same thing? Was England great when it achieved that objective, albeit briefly?
The United States has done awful, terrible things during our history…and we have done great and wonderful things. When we do good, we are great. When we do bad, we aren’t.
Calling this nation, or any nation, great is a form of chauvinism, to wit, extreme, xenophobic nationalism. Wasn’t it strange that George Floyd was murdered by a man named Derek CHAUVIN while demonstrating extreme xenophobic nationalism in action? (A racist belongs to a xenophobic community.)
Was America’s greatness summarized as the land of opportunity? If it ever was that – and many immigrants never found those opportunities – it is no longer.
09/09/2021 @ 11:58 am
Alan, I would tend to agree with your assessment and your assertion…
However, the word ‘great’ need not be an adjectival modification applied to America as it would be applied to a person or an entity…
The fact is that as a sovereign nation, America has not been ‘great’ in too many respects.
But the fact remains that for some America has been, and is, a ‘great’ place to be.
For too few citizens, America is a ‘great’ place in which to live and work.
For too few Americans, this country is, and has been, a ‘great’ place in which to imagine and dream about the fulfillment of aspirations and goals because of its richness in opportunities to work at the fulfillment of what may be characterized as the ‘American Dream’ however that may be described and/defined.
In my view, the problem is that the opportunities to envision and achieve aspirations and goals have been, and are, limited to those who believe that the freedom and liberty to aspire and work at accomplishing and achieving the fulfillment of aspirations and dreams belongs to them exclusively.
The notion that American freedom and liberty are proprietary is the bane of equality and justice.
Far too many Americans believe that the rights they enjoy and take for granted are their exclusive property and as such they can arbitrarily, capriciously, and unilaterally choose to withhold those rights from those perceived as unworthy or undeserving.
No, America isn’t’, and never has been, ‘great’ ..
But, wouldn’t it be ‘great’ if we all shared in the promise and potential of America as cooperative, compassionate, and collective equals and not as abject, zero-sum, predatory competitors?
09/15/2021 @ 6:02 pm
Well it’s another ‘cook-for-greater-good’ Sabbath here at Shelter 23 (floors so clean you could eat off them—hey now don’t try this at home) even though my inclination is to tool South to Shelby, Co. TN and read Gregory Corso’s ‘Gasoline’ aloud. Ol’ tyrannical Trump certainly has imploded the GOP and O my goodness when will the subterfuge truncate. Their deadly ‘game’ of oligarchical electoral cash flows (I mean c’mon really?) has become as ham-handed as ‘at ease on a trapeze’. Diabolical consequence awaits continued acceleration of these flagrant denials of our blessed empiricism. The wicked obstructionists to life liberty and containment of this DAMNdemic no doubt are the living end to world-wide tranquility. To what result or goal must THEY overwhelm our sacred caregivers with insouciant, egocentric selfish, greedy agendas? The tally-ho and end game of those who speak falsely blatantly emphasizes that THEY are a clear and present danger to themselves as well as others. Ladies and gentlemen: the dream is not impossible. And the bizarre empty rhetoric of the mean-spirited Elders among us toward personal agenda aggrandizement is naught but neofascism.
AL: I appreciate the sad news and I’ll remember the crew as we bid momentary adieu. I’ll remember you and reflect on your genius as I climb the watchtower. Those bright sunny days the breeze just so at the John Lennon Peace Plaza. Enroute to the glimmered Lake Monona where Otis Redding disappeared, where the wounded warriors and me fist-elbow bump as well as salute. Misty eyes oh yeah we hear their cries. Now if I could only control my bawling whence taps sounds. Those grandkids’: hands on ears when the rifles bang seven. Transcendent our dove. Those struts of the wild turkeys.
Sandhill cranes. O yeah finches & bluebirds. Eagles aloft: swoop and holler yeah dem guitar pics sharp as bayonets sharp as our talons of FREEDOM FREEDOM FREEDOM!
Hey gone to see Dave Matthews Band @ 18:30.
Good luck. Godspeed.
09/16/2021 @ 7:20 pm
And there you have it, JP…
09/18/2021 @ 8:49 am
Let us know how Dave Matthews is. I never saw him. Jonah did.
09/19/2021 @ 3:16 am
Missed! VGF from Palo Alto experienced flight delay in Denver; I wound up extending our tickets to buds at Habitat for Humanity.
Great Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review:
‘Miley Cyrus nearly had a panic attack at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. By the end of the night, it was ‘the greatest concert in the world.’
Alone, I shuttled to Lodi, WI and Barcalounged with William H. Gass’ ‘Life Sentences’.
Good day photographing the sunset from Wildcat State Park.
Shot iPhone vid of ‘Rock ‘n Roll Heaven’ outside Middleton’s sea to shining sea of twilight sunflowers. Whoosh and waft: goodness through the ages!
☮Jonah❤
{…} God Bless, Godspeed {…}
Koshersalaami — may peace be with you!
09/23/2021 @ 12:54 am
And also with you
10/30/2021 @ 3:00 am
Exeunt…