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The Unwashed Masses, or No Longer a Political Snob
I’ll admit it. When it came to assessing our citizens’ knowledge of the issues and policies in this country, I secretly believed that most of our population—including Republicans and Democrats—were clueless. I was a political snob. These people would rant and rave on Twitter (where they got most of their “news”), share their politically correct ideas on Facebook, and line up at the ballot box to vote for the party that they had chosen for generations. When politicians (especially Republicans) would say that we had a smart and informed populace, I would snort and roll my eyes. Tell me honestly—didn’t you do the same?
But now I have just a glimmer of hope that our citizens might, just might, be waking up. Not because they have read up on the issues; not because they are reading more than the drivel from the mainstream media; not because they have suddenly become enlightened. But because of one major change: their own direct experience.
It’s like this: I can tell you to stand right in front of me, and I’m going to slug you with a sledgehammer, but it will only hurt for an instant—which technically is true. But it’s the aftereffects—the pain when you crash to the floor and the agony that travels through your jaw and the horror of being taken to the hospital to wire your jaw shut, while you drink through a straw for months on end. But I didn’t bother to tell you that part.
You trusted me. And now you’re learning that all I shared with you was one big lie.
And in real life, you know that I lied because your direct experience is showing up on your credit card. Your direct experience is revealing empty shelves at the grocery store. The gas you need to fill up your truck’s tank is stolen from your vacation road fund. And everything you want to purchase is costing much, much more.
There are a number of questions that arise from the current situation: how bad will it get? Will the damage carry us through the mid-terms? Will Biden make any headway in blaming everyone and everything but the kitchen sink or Vladimir Putin or the oil refineries? Will people get even more curious to discover what else they haven’t been told? (Well, I can dream . . . )
Right now, people are angry at the party in power. They will want to get rid of as many of them as they can. But do they believe there are other Democrats that will serve them well? Or will they become convinced that they have to allow themselves to be completely transformed by a different agenda?
I’m not optimistic.
Republicans may have a chance to make a dent into the Democrat mindset if they can actually show that they are not clones of the Democrats and are prepared to take them in a completely different direction. They will have to convince all of us that the Democrats are not a party of “good faith,” but a party of misdirection and falsehoods. Are you listening John Cornyn?
I think that the time for compromise between Democrats and Republicans on any major issue is over for the foreseeable future. We have to educate our citizens that the Democrats will continue to mislead them and ignore them. The Democrat elite (and some of the Republicans, too) are operating from their own agenda, and we may have to vote for them in November, but they had better show their worthiness after that.
My message for Republicans: Don’t take anything for granted and stop pandering to the elite.
Your time in power may be short.
Published in Politics
I am not in a position to judge whether it was ego. It could also have been a mistaken notion of “unity.” Maybe some of each.
Constitutional is a good word.
Or a rare call for unity that was rebuffed.
And if “conservative” has lost it’s meaning and appeal, “Constitutional” Caucus would be better anyway.
I must admit I do like “constitutional”; we are, after all trying to preserve this special document.
I like it, but I offered “American” because it has appeal even beyond “Constitutional.”
But “American” can be interpreted may ways. “Constitutional” really does still refer to the Constitution.
As in “Barack Obama, Constitutional Law professor.”
Sure, one can deceive about being a Constitutional scholar, but we certainly know what Constitution and what actual scholarship he’s talking about.