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Democrats Want to Believe Their Hallucinations
Charles Cooke has a good piece today about a Politico article which laments the setbacks that have been faced by (…or, some might suggest, caused by…) President Biden so far. Mr. Cooke describes this article as an “hallucinatory missive” which is “a good example of the sort of reported essay that begins to crop up ineluctably whenever it dawns upon the D.C. press corps that its personal hopes for the incumbent Democratic president are likely to be dashed“. Mr. Cooke notes that this essay seems eerily familiar to him (emphasis mine):
The assumptions that undergird Lemire’s report should be depressingly familiar to anyone who follows American politics. They are, in no particular order: that Democratic presidents should get whatever they want, and that if they don’t, something is broken; that the Republican and Democratic parties secretly agree on everything, but, for some reason, keep failing to put their agreement into action in the legislature; and that all Democratic presidents are kind, reserved, bipartisan, avuncular figures who, having lived unblemished lives of purity and goodwill, eventually become shocked by the coarseness and misanthropy of their opponents.
One wonders how many Democrat voters were expecting a “kind, reserved, bipartisan, avuncular figure who, having lived an unblemished life of purity and goodwill…”, and were disappointed when they ended up with Joe Biden, a vicious, bombastic, hyper-partisan narcissist who has led a disastrous life of corruption and destruction. They voted for the public image of Bill Clinton, and they got the private nightmare of a senescent Lyndon Johnson (on a combination of Quaaludes and crystal meth). Surely some of them must be disappointed. Surely.
Mr. Cooke is starting to recognize a pattern, here.
I wonder if any Democrat voters are starting to notice the same thing?
I doubt that they are.
I also doubt that it matters.
But geez – it must be getting harder and harder for the media to maintain the hallucination that Mr. Cooke describes.
Surely some Democrat voters are noticing that the Democrat policies they voted for are not working out all that well. Surely some Democrat voters are starting to notice that the media coverage of President Biden is not entirely accurate. Surely some Democrat voters are starting to wonder if perhaps there might be another way. Surely.
Right?
Published in General
Can’t help noticing the pattern of disaster when the left steals an election. They stole the Presidency in 1960, to give us the Vietnam war and a broken generation of screaming campus garbage babies.
I have a theory on this. I don’t think they are hallucinating. I think they know pretty much what is real. I think they are gaslighting, trying to shape what people think by a constant repetition and a credible façade. And I think they they think they have the media to carry their water and make the gaslighting seem real. just a theory.
I’ll just mention one thing that stands out that is not part of your list: Biden, and some others, try to convey a pretense of religious belief and conviction but the performance is an utter failure.
LBJ never tried to shake hands with someone only he could see.
That we know of.
The Democrats are upset that Joe is being such a wimpy centrist. Where is there is socialized medicine? Why are cars still allowed on roads? Why are American flags still being flown instead of their Skittle flag in DC???
People of all political persuasions often come to a point where they realize their guy is hopeless, but content themselves with the certainty the alternative would be worse.
Keep in mind that the kind, reserved, bipartisan, avuncular figure lost the first few primaries by catastrophic margins. Only after he appropriated Bernie Sanders entire platform and got blessed by Rep Clyburn did he win S Carolina.
Every time you see a statistic about how unpopular FJB is, remember that half of those people are unhappy because they think he’s not progressive enough
I know some Democrats who are conceding privately that Biden is hopeless and “embarrassing”, and at least starting to understand the destruction he has ushered in. Cracks are forming. The country is obviously not doing well and the facade of competent governance is harder to maintain by the day. And mandatory CRT struggle sessions are not helping.
No matter what you or they think of Biden. You have to understand he is better than Trump and the GOP. Trump and friends are racist, NAZI, white supremacist and just not the right sort of people. They have to be stopped at any cost. The internet headlines tell them so. Over and over, all the time.
The Democrats are coming to the realization that time is running out if they need to make a change. Should Biden not be able to complete his term, the only way they can replace the VP (with a viable candidate for 2024) is to act before November. Come January, the third and fourth in line for the Presidency will likely be Republicans, who will have no reason to confirm a new VP before 2024, and so will become second and third in line.
That is, if Joe is unlikely to complete his term, due to infirmity or corruption, he has to go soon, or he’ll have to be propped up to the bitter end.
I know a couple California Democrats who are saying that maybe they should have just sat out the election. They would never vote for Trump, but acknowledge that Biden is worse than they could have imagined.
There are a whole bunch of people, all over, who shouldn’t be voting. Because they don’t know how to do it properly.
How I felt about both Bushes, McCain, & Romney. They were never the candidates I wanted, just the lesser disaster. I thought Trump was a disaster as a candidate in the 2020 election.
Dukakis, Biden, Hillary, Obama, Gore & Kerry all made convincing arguments that they would be worse. Obama & Biden have managed to pull worse off.
The key word is “some.” There are some Democrats who have critical thinking skills and exercise them, although maybe not all the time. Things like gas and food prices get their attention, as well as their children asking them what sex they are because the teacher said otherwise. Crime also gets their attention when it hits too close to home.
Dear Dr. B,
Honesty compels me to draw attention to the hallucinophobic nature of your post, together with its implications that these phenomena are somehow undesirable, unsupportable and–in a word–wrong, and that those who undergo them need to get their minds right and embrace reality.
The correct term to describe what these individuals are experiencing is “nonconsensus realities,” and they do not need treatment or correction, merely support, understanding, and acceptance from those whose perceptions are limited by what is actually happening in front of their eyes.
It is we who are hobbled and limited by restrictive concepts of “sanity,” “truth,” and “facts.” Those who are free of such constraints are to be commended, not condemned.
We have a lot to answer for.
Please try to keep up.
Love,
She
Nonconsensus realities. All righty then.
under the heading of nonconsensus reality consider last night’s Democratic primary for the US Senate. Faced with all of FJBs colossal failures and an impending reckoning in the midterms, PA Democrats did not opt for a moderate, but rather went for the most progressive candidate available – Lt Gov John Fetterman. They are doubling down. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.
Others have touched on the same idea, but being on the Left and voting (D) is far more of a cultural/quasi religious pledge of affiliation rather than a rational political choice of what policies would be best for the Country and for the voters themselves.
Moreover, the Left has done a truly extraordinary job of beating up the Conservative (R) brand for the past few decades by virtue of the Left’s near monopoly on the MSM and various cultural outlets(ie: Big Tech, Television, Movies, Music, Education, etc.).
For many on the Left it is far more important to NOT be a Conservative (R), than it is to vote for a corrupt, cognitively impaired, octogenarian whose polices are proving to be a dangerous disaster to the Country and the world in real time right before every ones eyes.
Outstanding points.
Just heard Armstrong & Getty discussing a poll asking how important issues are to voters. Summary: I don’t live on the same planet those who were polled do.
Maybe it is possible to get through to Democrats in some cases. Apparently Skankowicz had drafted a resignation letter.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/05/breaking-biden-white-house-shutting-down-disinformation-board.php
EDIT: And submitted it:
You know that any system that relies on making compromises is irretrievably broken. The only way to achieve the vision is that one side must be totally destroyed. Dissent is the biggest obstacle to progress.
I think I am guilty of the same bias against Democrats as they have against Republicans. I tend to think there are legitimate, rational reasons (though I may disagree with their opinions or actions) for whatever the Republicans are doing most of the time and there are no good reasons for whatever the Democrats are doing. In fact, I rarely pay attention to what the Democrats are doing because I don’t trust the mainstream media to give me accurate information. I tend to blame the Democrats, past or present, for whatever problems the Republicans are dealing with from one moment to the next.
That is overstated I think. Only 1/2 of the people in the US wanted him in the first place. Then of the people who elected him probably 1/3 – 1/2 didn’t want him but wanted anyone but Trump. then of the 2/3 – 1/2 of Biden voters probably 1/4-1/2 of those think he hasn’t gone far enough left or he is playing to nice by not forcing people to do what he wants them to.
That is a feature though because we are a racist country that was conceived in the original sin of slavery and has to be completely destroyed an rebuilt. Democrats, at least the elites, do not like this Country.
It comes down to trust. Clearly our founders did not trust the king. The English pressed their neighbors into naval service, raised taxes on a whim and brutalized dissention while the colonists had no say in their governance. After independence and a failed attempt at a confederation, the founders drafted the constitution and the bill of rights to ensure that the government’s primary directive was to be the champion of individual rights, not a tyrannical arbitor. Its powers were weak, limited, diluted, conflicted and temporal. But this construct gets in the way of power and control for those who lust for them. They must dismantle every single aspect of our founding to get control and then they can do whatever they want.
What they claim to want changes on a whim. Their “causes” are a means to overrun the constitution, crises to mine, that will justify lockdowns, riots, chaos, animus, war, illegal takings and imposed restrictions on protected liberty. Goverment is used to punish, to castigate the opposition, not just to provide a different governing philosophy. It is a club to wield, a cudgel. Power is the means and the end. It is self-justified. That’s why Trump was impeached not just once, but twice. Their job is to gain power and if that means eliminating a firebrand of opposition, you do it. If he survives, you do it again. You keep doing it until the threat is extinguished.
We often wonder why Republicans are so polite, so nice, when they are in the majority. Why? Because they want to govern, not dominate; to protect liberty, not diminish it. Their opponents do not share a belief in a fragile and God given liberty worthy of protection. To gain power, they don’t care about legitimacy or accountability. They corrupt our elections. They lockdown our nation. They open our borders. They hobble our energy production and enrich our adversaries. They promote conflicts abroad and fund them. They ignore our sovereign currency and bankrupt our treasury. They erode our liberties and cast their opponents as evil and violent. They indoctrinate our children.
We can only hope that US citizens wake up to the travesty that is unfolding before them.
Our founders distrusted government; authority, no matter how weak, seeks permanance and the spoils of power, and so evolves into tyranny. It is not always obvious, but now it is. Trust not the government, but the people. Their collective wisdom must prevail.
I was preparing a response to @raxxalan‘s #25 but you expressed it better than I could. We really need to understand this motivation and what it means.
If I were cynical, I might ask the following question: What if Democrats secretly think that the President has EXCEEDED their expectations?
…If I were cynical….🙄🙄🙄
Exactly what their reactions convey. They want more of it.
How’d you get Flicker to sit for that gif?