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Watching a Slow-Moving Train Wreck
I’m surrendering. Well, I’m pretty close to surrendering. We had a lively discussion on my most recent post; I worked very hard to point out not only how unjustly the Republicans have been accused of the problems in this country, but also how feckless the Republicans have been in responding to the lies. And I was hoping that all of us could identify not only the glimmers of hope that we are already seeing, but also what positive outcomes could unfold in the future. To your credit, you were honest and direct with me.
There’s little to no hope.
The train wreck has been in process for many years, and for the most part, people shrugged their shoulders: it’s been bad before; we’ve always turned it around; we’ll take care of the problems once we’re back in power; and other assurances.
But the future looks pretty dark right now.
Republicans are still wringing their hands. When we make progress in some areas, we’re still playing a game of whack-a-mole—ban one CRT program and another appears. The Progressives have no reluctance about lying, whether they are describing inflation, the border, or crime. And when they run out of lies, they can always blame Donald Trump and his MAGA constituents.
So, here I sit after clearing my head by cleaning out my refrigerator. (That’s how desperate I was.) After over 1,500 posts, what else do I have to say about the state of our culture and country? Yes, I know I have other subjects I enjoy writing about (religion, personal experience and reflections, even a few fun posts), but I feel compelled to do something to make my tiny contribution to help my country.
But am I doing anything helpful?
My problem is that I can’t imagine not doing or writing anything about our state of affairs. But what’s the point? How does that make a difference?
* * * *
I’m assuming that most of you are interested in current affairs, in particular, the state of our country and our politics. For myself, I read the WSJ, glance at the Orlando Sentinel and am not on any online platforms except this one.
How do you “hold” all the news in your mind and in your heart? Have you stopped reading newspapers? Do you discipline yourself to create a “news-free” zone in your head? Have you found a way to maintain a balance in your outlook and attitudes?
Or have you simply given up on our country? Can you tell me how you do that?
I have had my sad moments these eight years on Ricochet. But I’m just about at my lowest. The next two months seem like forever; the next two years seem like an eternity.
Can you offer suggestions for me, or others like me, for coping with the potential disaster ahead?
[photo courtesy of unsplash.com]
Published in Politics
“keep banging the drum”. That’s hysterical coming from you. Physician, heal thyself.
Win or lose, I don’t think they see themselves as on the side of Republicans. Not with the way they talk about the party.
There I detect a slight difference between the two. The Bullwark is openly anti-Republican. The Dispatch has a more scolding tone but isn’t quite as blatantly anti-Republican. As I said above though functionally I don’t think there is much difference.
Mitch crushed the Tea Party. He said they couldn’t win. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey proved him wrong in 2010 and 2012. It pissed off Cocaine Mitch and Angry McQueeg terribly. They hated that they had to deal with those Wacko Birds messing up their cushy little minority party kabuki theater gig. And they vowed that they would do whatever it took to prevent any more such independent upstarts to win in Senate primaries after that. Even to the point of letting democrats win seats rather than allow some independently minded newcomer give grief to Cocaine Mitch and his strong arm on his coveted leadership position.
I lose Internet service for two days and you guys put 7 pages of comments up, so this is reading back a way.
Anyhoo, Mark, no need to rely on the die roll. Simple and easy…