Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Others Drink from the Wrong Cup. And We Gag.
I have three little girls, who are in college now. When they were young we rarely gave them candy or soda. Those were special treats for birthdays, or travel, or holidays, or whatever. But that was not part of their everyday diet. We weren’t fanatics about it, but we avoided junk in their diet. Nothing wrong with the occasional treat, but that wasn’t how we lived every day. And we raised three very strong, healthy kids.
We lived in the mountains of Tennessee, and often would have a fire at night, out on the deck (That’s me, on just such an evening, pictured to the right.). We’d sit around the fire, look at the views of the mountains, admire the sunset, and enjoy the cool evening mountain air. It was idyllic. I enjoy bourbon, and on those evenings I would often have a bourbon and Coke. Or three. I mix them with an emphasis on the bourbon, adding Coke mainly for color, and to avoid the appearance that I’m drinking straight bourbon. Anyway, on one of these lovely evenings, the adults were sitting around the fire, and I had a beautifully potent BOURBON and coke sitting on the ground next to my chair.
My daughters were running around, catching fireflies, chasing the dogs, playing tag, and doing the things that little kids do on beautiful summer evenings. Until my middle daughter noticed what appeared to be a Coke sitting on the ground next to my chair. “What a special treat!” she thought to herself. “He won’t notice if I just take one drink!” she thought.
So I’m listening to one of the adults tell a story, when all of a sudden I hear a little girl choking and gagging on the ground behind my lawn chair. I jump up, run around my chair, and try to help her.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“Daddy, what’s wrong with your Coke!?! Ewwww!!!!”
It took me a second, and then I realized what she had done. A good father would have been very sympathetic and gotten her something to drink to get the taste of bourbon out of her mouth. I, of course, laughed myself silly. Along with the other adults. I still chuckle, just thinking about it. Maybe you had to be there. She looked so horrified and disgusted and green around the gills. She was maybe eight years old. She was so cute.
With entertainment like that, who needs TV?
I thought of that night today for some reason, and I smiled. What a great night.
And then I thought of Americans who voted for Joe Biden.
They thought they were being rebels. Going against the grain. Sneaking around, maybe even cheating a little bit to get what they wanted, and sticking it to the man.
Now, having taken a drink from that red Solo cup sitting on the ground – now we find out how much they like it.
If we’re lucky, they’ll get sick, and gag when they realize what they’ve done. And if we’re lucky, the adults around them will laugh at them. And if we’re lucky, they’ll eventually laugh along with the adults, learn from their mistakes, and change their behavior (and their votes) in the future.
For some reason, I find all of those possibilities to be unlikely. And I suspect that the consequences of their little fit of pique are likely to be painful for everyone. I hope I’m wrong, but I see the next four years involving a lot of disgusted gagging from all of us. Not just from those who decided to drink from this cup for questionable reasons. But from the rest of us, too.
Maybe I’m wrong. Hopefully I am.
Someone else took a drink from the wrong cup. And now he’s gagging.
But from a society-wide standpoint, drinking from the wrong cup can be extremely unpleasant. Not just for those who snuck a drink from the wrong cup. For everyone else, too.
Those who do so hope it will be like a little kid drinking from Daddy’s cup – C’mon! It’ll be fun! Let’s stir thing up a bit! What do they know! Haha!
And honestly, when it’s just a little kid getting a snoot full of bourbon, it is sort of funny.
But this – this is not funny.
This is not funny, because I feel like my kid took a drink of something that they weren’t expecting, but I’ll be the one gagging.
This is not funny.
Published in General
Yes, I can’t see any PR advantage in abstaining that conceivably comes close to the practical advantage of maintaining a Senate majority. I think calls to abstain make no more sense than never-Trump efforts did, and for the same reasons. Expose cheating, fight cheating, but don’t surrender to it.
Are you unaware of the discussion about how even if Biden takes office, he won’t have a “mandate” due to the narrowness of his “victory?” Many people seem able to understand how that works. It was the same with things like Obamacare receiving not even one Republican vote. And it’s really the same in this situation too.
They’ll have a better claim to a “mandate” if they win – likely by cheating – with 95% GOP turnout.
The Democrats claimed a mandate when Clinton won in 1996 with 43% of the vote. They’ve always stunk at math.
Is the MSM talking like this? Are Biden and Harris talking like this? Are Nancy and Chuck talking like this? Or is it just the Right that’s talking about it? Because if it’s just the Right, it doesn’t matter because the majority of people won’t hear it. The only thing the majority of people will hear is how the Democrats have a mandate – especially if they take the Senate as well.
“Winning” in an election with 95% GOP turnout gives the Democrats a stronger appearance of a mandate? In a couple of elections that are taking place in one state because no candidate took the majority of votes the first time around? Winning under those circumstances would give them a better claim to a mandate? When about half the country voted against them? Really? I’m not buying it. They’ll claim one, no doubt. But that won’t make it anymore legitimate than it is now.
The Dems will claim to have a mandate just because of still having control of the House, which is “The People’s House” whenever they’re in charge of it.
So what?
KE, I understand the logic. But, again, I have the same objection as I did with the never-Trumpers. Their argument was that conservatism would be better served, in the long run, if we lost the White House now. But that was trading an immediate and concrete victory — four more years of Republican governance — for a hypothetical gain.
Similarly, hoping that the intangible value of “no mandate” somehow outweighs the very real, immediate value of victory now and a Senate in Republican hands seems, to me, to be making a bad trade.
Think about it. A simple majority of the population was probably against Obamacare when it passed on party lines. They didn’t care that they didn’t have a mandate. They had the votes to do what they wanted, and they did it. I think we should work hard to prevent that happening again, if possible.
The other thing is that abstaining doesn’t reveal fraud. It just gives away the election. If we want to reveal fraud and put an end to it, we have to confront it every time it happens. Blatant cheating in Georgia, if it happens, will help us do that.
I think the greatly-increased evidence of vote fraud inevitably changes a lot of these calculations. If I had some solid evidence that there would be no cheating in the GA runoffs, then I might tend to go along. But the Dems certainly don’t want that, and I’m not convinced that GOP “regulars” even in GA want it either, at least not enough to make a stink and stick to it.
The so what part is that the Democrats are going to claim a mandate – period. Republicans choosing not to vote in the run-off elections in Georgia is not going to change that. So if your goal in choosing not to vote is to keep the Democrats from claiming a mandate when they win the elections, you’ve failed. The Democrats have won, and they’re claiming a mandate – no matter how few of you turned out to vote. A better approach, in my opinion, is to turn out and vote for the Republican candidates. Why? Because then you at least have the hope of keeping control of the Senate – something that might be a long shot but is still possibly attainable. In other words, an outcome that’s much better than just handing the Senate over to the Democrats.
Dems claim a mandate even when they lose, because they’re “on the right side of history” etc.
Exactly. Which is why I think it’s best to vote and try to keep them out of office.
First it’s important to make sure that your vote actually matters.
Such talk has always been utterly meaningless. We got Obamacare. We still have Obamacare. The claims for “mandate” are illusory. Election is the only mandate needed.
Exactly correct.
We’re never going to agree on this, ked. Perhaps it’s time we jumped off this particular merry-go-round?