Dispatch to My Fellow Americans #005
some thoughts up until the 2022 election
This set of dispatches is actually my first shot at working with substack. Frankly, I didn’t realize I actually had any followers on substack but, in fact I have 104 of you guys getting these emails! I figured I was talking to myself since I really didn’t know how substack works, I am just now exploring it and I noticed I was getting likes and comments. So that is a nice surprise. Thanks to those of you actually reading my stuff. I am just shooting from the hip on the political topic mostly to start getting in the swing of writing stuff but also to feel like I am doing my little part to have a voice in this coming election.
The problem for all of us is that we are usually only ever ‘preaching to the choir’ as they say. It is hard for any of us to get out of our own communal networks. It is hard to tolerate others who have a completely different view, even an adversarial view of the world and how it works especially when we are pretty certain of our own views that we have worked hard to develop and live by. This is especially true when interacting with those for whom the truth and the facts have no apparent influence on their stance.
Still, there needs to be a clear distinction between what is actual reality on the one hand and batshit crazy on the other. A little crazy, OK, it adds spice to the mix. But batshit crazy, that is beyond the pail. It is a form of drunken self-indulgence. So how to deal with that? That is the question many are grappling with.
Maybe it is sun spots or something, but now and then the whole world seems to go crazy in large numbers. What is that all about? Is it humanity under stress? Stress can make people do some pretty crazy stuff at times. We can suppose that the pandemic caused incredible stress all over the world. With instant global communication and travel, crazy that happens in one place can now spread all over the world faster than Covid-19 and we all witnessed what Covid-19 wrought.
There are those who, in stressful times, like to inspire stress in others or to amplify that stress for their own purposes. Ideas spread around in communities just like a virus can and if those are bad ideas or ideas that have no basis is fact such as conspiracy theories that are invented merely to stir up trouble, then pretty soon, large numbers of our fellow Americans can start getting confused. While I am thinking about the circus-like spectacle of the whole MAGA phenomena, this can and does also happen to almost anybody under the right conditions. It is one thing for an individual to go a little crazy but it is quite another thing when you have ‘group crazy’ where all the members of the group are sharing in and reinforcing each other’s crazy ideas.
Artists do this all of the time among each other but it is mostly for fun and entertainment and to hone our creative skills and test our limits. A good example among writers is the ‘The Onion’
Then there is crazy like a fox (not to disparage foxes). After the 2020 election for which Donald J. Trump had been preparing almost from the moment he got in office in 2017 and did one thing after the next to sabotage his possible democratic opponents - especially Joe Biden - as well as working to sabotage the vote itself, Trump progressively employed one strategy after the next, all of which failed (since he is a malignant narcissist and a total loser because of it) with the final effort in a long string of increasingly illegal efforts being the January 6th insurrection.
In case you didn’t click on the link above, here is a list of symptoms of a malignant Narcissist
Being extremely arrogant and self-centered
Disregarding the feelings and needs of other people
Manipulating, using, or exploiting others for personal gain or pleasure
Having an extreme need for power
Acts of revenge against those who criticize them
Fantasizing about ways to obtain more power or dominance over others
Lacking conscience, regret, or remorse for their actions
Being cruel and taking pleasure in the pain of others
High levels of aggression towards other people
Paranoia or mistrust of others
I don’t know about you but that nails Donald J. Trump if you ask me.
Coming back to the insurrection. This intricate and compulsive attempt to remain in office with complete disregard to the American process developed over two plus centuries of practice, Trump attempted at every turn, to find and undermine any soft spot in the system that previously relied on the good will and honor of those working in the system.
This assault on American norms has created seemingly irreparable damage to Americans’ ability to easily vote for most and impossible to trust for others. But intimidating voters and making voting difficult and scary for both voters and election workers, forcing many to quit, is exactly the point of the rethuglican program.
I make a distinction here between what we used to think of as Republicans and how the party has been taken over by rethuglicans. These are the members of the Republican party that believe in sowing chaos and confusion, imposing fear and intimidation, ignoring social and political norms and working in a completely unamerican way, willing to tear down the whole thing if they are not in control of it. This is not how America works but it is how America can fail.
Remember to vote.
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