CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: A Scorched-Earth approach to government, from the top down, is the only way to accomplish meaningful change in our country  Sat Nov 06, 2021 12:05 am | |
| To them, it's just a game
This line of work forces me to cover politics at the local level every couple of years and on a few other occasions. Most of my other forays into that minefield are by choice.
And lately, I’ve been choosing not to plunder onto that treacherous terrain.
That’s why, in recent columns, I’ve written about more uplifting topics, like baseball memories with my late dad and my misunderstood murderer best friend who died 30 years ago.
I don’t avoid political commentary because I’m afraid of offending anyone, mind you. No, it’s because I can’t express my frustration with the whole damn system without offending everyone. My take on politics makes me sound like a raving lunatic to people with conventional mindsets.
In my humble estimation, a Scorched-Earth approach to government, from the top down, is the only way to accomplish meaningful change in our country. (“Scorched Earth” would be a good name for the movement.)
First, we need to get rid of the two-party system, then we need to establish term limits to get rid of The Establishment. Yes, that would eliminate a few good public servants, but it would ultimately serve the greater good.
I lean conservative-Libertarian, but unlike many of my friends who are staunch Republicans, I’m not mad at liberals like Biden or Pelosi or Schumer or AOC. No, I’m mad at the people who put them in power.
Just like I hold the people responsible who keep putting the likes of GOP-labeled politicians Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and even our own Roger Wicker and Steven Palazzo in power.
Despite the different letters beside their names, all are opportunists who work from the same playbook with the same goal: To keep themselves and their party in power.
That’s it. Self-interest. The recent “referendum on liberal policies” in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races don’t have me feeling victorious. In a way, they left me with a sinking feeling about the political prospects for the future. Why?
Because the easiest thing in politics is to be part of the opposition party. They’re not expected to accomplish anything, and they don’t have to take any responsibility for what’s going wrong. The worse it is for us, the easier it is for them. All they have to do is point their fingers at the other guys. And never in recent history has it been easier to be a member of the opposition party. All they have to do is grouse about the current state of affairs, spew a little red-meat rhetoric, then ride the waves of discontent into office.
And after they get there, then what? They’ll experience all of the roadblocks to actually getting anything done, and they’ll either sell their soul to stay in power or they’ll get ousted by someone from the opposition party — the same way they got in.
It’s a merry-go-around — always moving but getting nowhere. Merry-go-arounds make me dizzy, so I choose to not get on them. Both sides point at the lunatics on the fringes of the other side of the aisle and call them a “threat to life as we know it” with their radical proposals that will never see the light of day, and they know it. But that stuff is great for riling up the bases and getting their believers to make donations so they can campaign on the premise of ”saving the country!”
Idealistic supporters really do believe they’re helping facilitate change, and politicians know how to harness their passion. Then the opposition and an equally adept (opportunistic) politician gives the lunatic credibility by soliciting support to fight the crisis du jour.
It’s a screwed-up system that always works to the benefit of the politicians and their cronies — whether they’re on the left or the right.
It’s the same principle that benefits televangelists and megachurch pastors. They love it when there’s an ACLU lawsuit that threatens prayer in public schools because it lets them drum up donations to fight those demons who try to kick God out of our lives. Or the NRA when there’s yet another threat to our Second Amendment rights — which always boosts membership for that organization and creates a surge in sales for donor gun dealers. Win-win!
It’s like the old saying that a lone lawyer in a small town will go broke, but if there are two lawyers, they’ll both get rich. One does the suing to create the need for the other to do the defending.
The whole political system is a sham, and the people who aren‘t in it or part of the donor class are the rubes. The national media’s interest isn’t ideological, it’s financial. The creation of all sorts of media platforms and countless TV networks fragmented the advertising dollars the major networks received in campaigns in recent years. Trump won without spending money with them, and that terrified TV executives more than his politics. The old guys at the big networks weren’t used to not getting the bulk of the ad dollars, and they didn’t like it. Biden brought the bucks back their way, so they backed him ... and they had to beat Trump to prove that it was a fluke to win without them.
Trump possesses just about every personality trait I hate. I don’t think I could stand to be around him for more than five minutes. But the country was flourishing under him, humming along like at no other time in recent history. Focusing on his tweets and ego was all they could do. And it’s too bad he couldn’t stop himself, because if he didn’t provide them with ample alternative material, they would have been forced to focus on his record.
Establishment Republicans hitched their wagons to Trump out of political expediency, but it always felt like they had a finger on the eject button for when he inevitably imploded. That’s how they roll. True opportunists. Powerbrokers who had been benefitting from the system as it waspre-Trump (government workers, academia, big tech, national/state media, etc.) followed their usual political playbook. They appealed to the disenfranchised — the perpetual underachievers who blame others for their failures and all of the littlegroups of various weirdos — and they all pulled together for the common goal of getting rid of the evil orange man. With him gone, happy days could be here again.
But the removal of Trump put the Democrats in the uncomfortable position of actually having to govern, and they outdid themselves in the amount of time it took them to drive the country into a ditch. Barely six months. Impressive. They’re taking no responsibility for the shocking results in this week’s elections, of course. Biden blamed the economy and gas prices ... which is sort of like an arsonist blaming the fire for causing the destruction.
The stage is set for Republicans to regain power. Again. In years past, they squandered it. Last time, things were going great for more people than ever, yet the powers lined up with a frighteningly large segment of the population to dismantle it.
And why? Because feelings mattered more than facts. That left me feeling angry and hopeless. But to the people pulling the strings, it’s all just sport. It’s a game, and we’re just pieces on a board that they move around and manipulate to benefit themselves and their party. That’s why I hate politics.
So, how about them Braves?
.https://www.leader-call.com/opinion/column-to-them-its-just-a-game/article_5c176b96-3e59-11ec-9200-ab772795c510.html
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