American Insanity.
Nikki Haley was the last hope of preventing a megalomaniac from living in the White House. Again. How is that possible? What's wrong with us?
I have abandoned politics as a pastime, a discussion topic or an interest, purely out of self-preservation. But now, I am truly fearful.
Over the years (since 2016 to be exact), my frustration with finding the truth of things led to despair and apathy. Polarizing discussions with people who may have had different beliefs incited heated animosity, and sometimes they seemed to have more ‘facts’ than I did. I did not have the time to devote to the reading and listening that is required for truly informed understanding, and thus I became silent, but incredulous, at the insanity I was witnessing. One doesn’t need to spend hours reading to understand the implications of January 6, 2020. You only need to watch a few minutes of video or hear the testimony of those who were there. I own Liz Cheney’s book which I asked for as a Christmas gift, but I have not read it yet, because I know it will just make me furious. June 24, 2022 Roe v. Wade was overturned in an inconceivable (pun intended) decision, and I wanted to run away from the burning building that was our country.
I had high hopes after those two events that saner minds would prevail; we would find our ballast again and unearth reasonable choices for future leaders. Or just different choices. Any other choices, which is dangerous in itself, as we learned in 2016.
Nikki Haley was a reasonable choice. A brave choice, a lantern, not a lighthouse, in the hurricane. DeSantis, Christie, Ramaswamy, yeah, ok I can live with that. Williamson? Dear, but näive. Kennedy? Oh my, no. But..could he be right? That’s the thing…I don’t know what’s true anymore. Anything could be true.
We will end up with Trump and Biden. Again. While Biden is very, very old, and just a figurehead at this point, Trump is wildly unstable, vicious, vindictive and a megalomaniac. I don’t think I’m being dramatic in saying that.
I just can’t work out how he can (still) have so many supporters. How is he still standing as the leading Republican candidate with 91 criminal charges, convicted of at least 17 of them, he clearly incited a riot which led to the death of three people, is a notorious misogynist, can’t string an intelligent sentence together and has about three phrases that he trots out for every speech, like a person who has just learned a language? And people cheer and applaud him.
He made promises to the white blue collar community in 2016 to get elected and didn’t keep them. Now, it’s the college-educated middle-and upper-middle class that seem to be providing the trampoline for him. They cite immigration issues, ‘unfair litigation’, and a ‘strong personality’ as reasons for support.
To me, this is the ‘la,la,la’ version of political belief. The ‘what he says, not what he does’ version. Just make it up so it feels good. And if it fails, it’s the oppositions fault. Trump’s losses, crimes and failures are not real, they are the result of persecution, which rings true for minorities. But in this case, it’s all just a story. It’s not the truth.
Where do we find the truth? Or, is it really just relative?
One thing I’m fairly sure of: once you create a population that can’t fathom what the truth is (too many sources, too many agendas, too much ambition, too little regulation) they can give up.
We can’t give up.
this is so well written... I think I need to reprint it on my blog. You good with that?
let's not forget, trump is also really old. his dad had alzheimer's.
i am still shocked how many of my friends overwhelmingly support him. his campaign seems based on vengeance. it's going to be bad, i fear.