Tag Archives: GOP

Our Continuing Sheldon Crisis….

Philosophy, Politics, ,
Foundation

With the 2022 primaries true and well started I’d like to stop and take note of the ”Sheldon” crisis we are in. I know I’ve been talking about a crisis for several years now and before I go on, I’d like to point out some things usually over looked when talking about ”Sheldon” Crisis’. First, the ”Foundation” novels never really give us a good time frame for just how long a ”Sheldon” crisis takes to start and end. Shoot, we never get a good idea of how long it takes to travel from Terminus to Trator. Weeks, months? No clue, just that it is not too long for the people making the trip.

Also we are never told just what a ”Sheldon” crisis is. All we know is that it is a phenomenon of ”Psycohistory” a science that was invented by the mathematician Hari Sheldon. We are also told that ”Psyohistory” can predict the actions of very large bodies of humans (very large being the populations of entire planets if not multiple planets). So just how am I using the phase ”Sheldon” Crisis? What do I mean by it.

Simple put I’m talking about the phenomenon of a Sociopolitical science where a sudden, often violent events occur that mark a distinct change in a socialites social, political, and/or economic state. a good example is what happened between 1914 and 1945. Yes that is 31 years. But in the history of people and nations it is shorter than a blink of the eye. So live with it. I will go on from there.

What I’m looking at today is the possible death of the Republican Party that came into being in the last half of the 20th Century. If you look at the demographics of the Republican Party in the 1950/60 and the 2010/20 you can see a significant difference. (Please note that you can see a related demographic change in the Democratic Party) These changes are most notable in the rise of extreme politics. The shift from seeing someone with a differing political/economic/social/religious view point not just as opponent, not just as the enemy, but as fundamentally evil. Something to be eradicated at all cost. My side, right or wrong, but my side.

One of the key issues with this phenomenon is that it has a strong tendency to concentrate concentrate “The True Believer” (See Eric Hofer) into one political party or movement. It also has a tendency to concentrate the Authoritarian-Autocrat personality into one political party or movement. When it is in one political party/movement we have a very explosive mixture. This is what I see happening with the Republican Party of the early 2020’s. I shall give some examples of what I think of as symptomatic and/or diagnostic events in my next posting.

Any Takers Out There?

Politics, ,
Child Sacrifice

One of the great lies in the debate over legal abortion is the ”Right” saying they are the side of “Right to Life”. I’ve done a little research on just where this mime came from and unfortunately I’ve come up with too many answers to say for sure. What I can say for sure is that it is only half true. They really don’t care about the life the fetus gets, only that it gets to live. Once Born, most, if not all, Right to Lifers could care less about the newborn.

In fact they really could care less about the unborn child. To confirm this just look at all of the programs the Right to Lifers, or Conservative Movement, GOP, and/or Republicans support that provide pre-natal care. I’ll wait for you to list them (please do in the comments). ……….. Done? As for myself I could find none. zip, nadda, none. Not to be too brutal but it seems that the babies involved are of little importance to all of the political leadership. Quite Trumpian.

So, what is the Republican who thinks of themselves as apposing abortion on moral grounds. And who does care about the newborn to do? I’d recommend you start promoting programs for pre-natal care. For newborn care. For child care. For very good schools. An this should be for all children, no means testing, no testing on the parents. Any Takes Out There?

On the Election Police of Florida

Philosophy, Politics, Rants, , ,

USA Constitution

Just read in “News & Guts” that the Gov. of Florida has signed a bill that will establish a special election crime unit to ‘end’ election fraud. This is a great unit, even before it is established the crimes it is to prevent are already almost non existent. I know of only two cases of actual election fraud in Florida in 2020 out of over 11 million voters. Given those numbers the election fraud rate would be 0.00001818%. A veritable crime wave? Nope.

But what the election police can do is keep all those people who shouldn’t be voting, but are, away from the polls. You know who I’m talking about. All those ‘not white’ people who just don’t know how to keep in their place. The ‘uppity’ ones who demand to be treated like all the ‘good’ people. By ‘good’ I mean all those who agree with what the MAGA is saying. That those who are at the top are, by their very position are “right, good, just”. Or if you like, the ‘Elect’.

Political Scientists, and Historians have seen this all before. It happens way to often in our history. It has happen in Russia in the 2000’s, it happened in Germany in the 1930’s. It has happen in the USA in the 1870’s. First you identify a ‘problem’ that really doesn’t exists and then you create a solution to fix it that lets you control the people. Since the 2020 election MAGA and it’s captive political party, the Republican, has been crying ‘wolf’ over election fraud.

They are telling us that it is ‘rampant’ in the nation. Their proof is that ‘election fraud’ is the only way to explain Donald J. Trump’s loss, even thought many Republicans won their elections. (This, by the way, is classic double speak.) So they now create a police force to eliminate the non existent crime of election fraud by apprehending the fraudsters.

An like any newly created unit the EP (election police) unit(s) will want to show they are doing their job by having a large arrest record. Thousands, ten’s of thousands can be arrested. Most, if not all will be let go, after the polls close, with only a few actually being charged and even few going to trial. An those who do go to trial, the ones who are not “The Right People” will get nice long prison sentences. Those that are will get nice, understanding suspended or public service sentences.

All I can say is I hope the electorate of Florida is paying attention and does the something about this come November.

Boss Tweed and the Modern GOP

Politics, Rants, , ,
Boss Tweed

For sometime now I’ve been intending to put my two cents in on what has been happening in many many “Red” (GOP controlled) states over the past year. I shan’t bother with the “Great Lie” about the 2020 election being stolen as that is a whole nother post. What ‘m gong to talk about is just what the people in the GOP hope for with all their “protect the vote” laws.

The first thing to remember is that, to date, no one, left-right-or center, has show any significant degree of voter fraud in the 2020 election(s). By significant I simply mean the amount of voter fraud is so small it would have not effected the results of even the tightest of races anywhere in the United States. So to say you want to change the laws on how/when/where/who participates in an election is simple a ‘Red Harring’ and I hope to show what they really are after here.

My view is that the MAGA hats that currently control the Republican Party, National, State, and Local, are actually after the control of who actually counts the votes. Partisan control of the vote count has a long and dubious history in this country. One of the most famous, or infamous, was “Boss Tweed” of New York City. Others though history, even dictators, have sought to control the power by controlling the vote count. It is the perfect way to keep the shiny veneer of legitimacy to those in power with the risk of actually loosing an election.

Don’t believe me, just look at the elections held in places like North Korea, Russia, or Iran. The control of the vote count is kept carefully in the hands of those who control the power. Some like “Boss Tweed” did not hold public/elective office, others did. So am I saying all of these laws, both proposed and pasted, have the control of the vote count as there true goal? No, I don’t. What I do say is that they are attempting to control who/where/and how we vote and much of it obfuscates the actual counting of the vote. Many laws also, whether intended of not, have the effect of limiting the vote.

That’s all for now. No proposed solutions. No call to action. Just a warning of what I see on the horizon. An just like a twister of on the horizon I have no idea if it is going to hit me. But I’m sure going to take precautions just in case.

A Symptom, not a Cause

General, ,

For quite sometime now I’ve been hearing the people on the Media talking about how Donald Trump has/is destroying the Republican Party, conservative movement, etc. To my way of thanking this is not just wrong, but also bad for the country. Donald Trump and/or Trumpisum is not doing anything to the Conservative Movement, nor to the Republican Party. Donald Trump and Trumpisum is a symptom of what ales them, it is not the cause.

Everything that is happening to the GQP today has its roots back in the late 1960’s. It was then that liberal Republicans started migrating to the Democratic Party and conservative Democrats started migrating to the Republican Party. In the 1968 elections Richard (Tricky Dick) Nixon came up with his famous ‘Southern Strategy’ to woo the former Dixiecrats to vote republican. It is also when the unholy alliance between social conservatives and financial conservatives was truly formalized. Now in the 21st century we are seeing the results of what was started back then.

If you just do a little work you can see the seeds of all the ‘Great’ issues of today in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The thing to remember is Donald Trump is not smart enough, nor Machiavellian enough to have created what we are see. In fact he is just arrogant enough to both claim credit for and to bring it out into the day light for all to see. An just like the high fever lets us know we are truly sick, Donald Trump is letting us know just how much trouble our body politic is in.

Our body politic is no longer facing a quiet infection slowly destroying our democracy. No, the raging fever has broken out and we now know we are in deep trouble. An just like a high fever we must first take action to rid ourselves of the disease. We must not only take action to get rid of the symptoms, just like we take medicines to bring down a fever, we must also take medicines to rid us of the actual disease. An to do this we need to identify the infecting agents but also what is being infected. This is not easy, nor pleasant.

So just how do we identify the agent of infection in our Body Politic? I say lets get more transparency and more truth. I’d start with making the fundamental source of all funds coming to any political campaign be public. Next only natural people may fund any political campaign. (By the way I’m using natural person in the legal since of the words.) An I don’t mean just cash money, I mean anything of value. The next thing is to change are libel and slander laws to take in the new cyber media. An we also need to bring in the use of algorithms that either internally of unintentionally case harm liable for the harm they cause. By this I mean that the person or persons who knowingly or should have known that the algorithm they are using has, or would have, caused harm are liable for the damage caused.

I know the above is very complex and it will take a lot of work to get right but we have done this before (just look at the history of the telephone, radio, and tv) but we can do it. It will be done. The only question is what shape our nation will be in when it is done.

January 6th and the GOP

General,
The 8th Circle of Hell

Both House Minority Leader McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader McConnell Have done the GOP great harm and the President great good this week. McCarthy’s reneging on the deal his personal representative crafted, and where they got everything they asked for, shows to one and all that the GOP does not negotiate in good faith. Like their Great Leader, the Trump, they see negotiations as a ploy to be used to take down their “enemy”. An the “Enemy” is anyone who is not slavishly loyal to the Great Leader Trump.

The GOP has been head down this path for over 30 years, perhaps longer. It started when they took up the idea that “Wining isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” It got worse when they started seeing the people on the other side not as the opposition, but as the “Enemy”. It has reached it’s current state when it choose to see politics as a “Zero Sum Game” and so it became ripe for a Conman to take over. Unfortunately for the GOP they are now on the road to the 8th Circle of Hell. (Yes I know I don’t believe in Hell, but they do.)

President Biden is now in a very simple negotiation position, you don’t. It does not mater what they will agree to, even when you give them everything they ask for, they won’t take it. It has the “Enemy’s” name on it so it can not be agreed to. The “Enemy” will get something out of it so they will get nothing out of it, so they will, by definition, loose. An if you think this sounds like nonsense, your right, it does and is nonsense. But it is logical. But logic can be nonsense if you start out with “skewed” premises (just Ask Alice in Wonderland). Negotiations with the current GOP is no longer about finding common ground, by definition there is no such thing, it is about achieving useful goals no mater what the opposition does.

When it comes to investigating the events of January 6th this means finding out, publicly, just who knew what, when, who did what, when. Only then can we start to take action to do what needs to be done to correct the system to prevent it from ever happening again. Unfortunately for the GOP this will most likely mean the end of the GOP as a major political party. This will not be an easy time for the country, we are in for a time of whoa

The Republican Party is No longer the G.O.P. it is the T.O.P.

General, , ,
TOPSHOT – A supporter of US President Donald Trump wears a gas mask and holds a bust of him after he and hundreds of others stormed stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. – Donald Trump’s supporters stormed a session of Congress held today, January 6, to certify Joe Biden’s election win, triggering unprecedented chaos and violence at the heart of American democracy and accusations the president was attempting a coup. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP) (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The time has come that we must accept that the nickname of the Republican Party, “Grand Old Party”, is no longer applicable . It should now be known as “Trump’s Own(ed) Party”. I don’t say this lightly. Nor do I contend that this is primarily the results of the growth of the MAGA movement in the party. I say this mostly because of what has happened the last two and a half months. From the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol, to the failure of a majority of both House and Senate Republicans to act responsibly and reject the attempts invalidate the lawful election results. To the failure of all but seven Republican Senators to vote for Trump’s conviction in his 2nd impeachment trial. To the blatant two-faced actions of Senate Minority Leader McConnell in his speech condemning President Trump on the Senate floor and his statement that he would support Donald J. Trump in 2022 if he was the Republican nominee.

The reason why I think we should call the Republican Party the “T.O.P.” is that:

1)The effort of several State Republican Parties to censure those elected party members for their actions in aforementioned impeachment.

2) The public statements of both House and Senate members of the Republican Party finding nothing wrong with the actions of the mob on Jan 6th.

3) The effort to either stop completely, or at least make totally impotent, the proposed independent commission to investigate just what happened on 6 January.

4) And let us not forget the numerous trips down to Florida by elected and non-elected members of the Republican Party for ‘Photo-Ops’ with Donald J. Trump.

5) And finally, and most complex, the fight between the National Republican Party and Donald J. Trump over the use of his, Trump’s, image and name. And then his counter punch stating that his, Trump’s, supporters should stop giving to the National Republican Party and instead send their donations to his, Trump’s, private PAC. The National Republican Party has asked the Trump Organization to host a major fundraiser at Mar-a-Logo.

I fully expect to see the complete and total capitulation of the leadership of the Republican Party to both the Trump Organization and to Donald J. Trump in the next year. Therefor we should be calling the Republicans by what they truly are: Trump’s Own(ed) Party or the TOP.

One Know Trump

General, ,
George C. Scott as the Film-Flam Man
George C. Scott as the Mordecai Jones (The Flim-Flam Man)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been following a fair number of discussions on why the Republican Party has not done an ‘autopsy’ on why they lost in 2020. In most of these discussions the continued faithful loyalty of the GOP rank and file is almost always touch upon. What is often totally ignored is just why the rank and file of the GOP are still loyal to Donald J. Trump. There are, undoubtedly many reasons for this but I would like to just touch on one that seems to being ignored.

What I will be talking about is the known reluctance of a Con-Artist victim to actually admit to the con. This phenomenon is well know to all those in law enforcement who’s job it is to track down and lock up the Con-artist. The reasons for their behavior is legion and I will not attempt to go into it here. What is important is the attitude of the victims that keeps them from admitting, even to themselves, that they have been conned. All that is important here is the phenomenon itself.

This disinclination to admit to being conned by Donald Trump is the starting point to understanding why so many GOP Rank and File are staying loyal to him. At some level they know that if they start looking for some other leader than Trump they will be starting down the road to admitting that they were conned by Trump and they are not yet ready for that. It is just too painful. It is also to shameful. We all know the old saying “You can not Cheat an honest man.” And, fundamentally, a con is offering the mark a way of cheating. In the case we are addressing here we are looking at getting something you have not really a right to.

There is no nice way to say this, it is not just possible. Donald J. Trump has offered the GOP something for nothing. The problem is TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) and at some level we all know this. The genius of Donald J. Trump is he offered something different to all the segments of the GOP. Each and every faction was offered what they most wanted, without having to pay for it. The White Supremists were told they could, no matter what the law said, do as they wish on all non-whites. He offered some the ability to take from the public coffers all they could manage. This list is both long and well known so I shan’t go on here. I will close with the most fundamental thing Trump gave the GOP rank and file the confirmation that “You are in the right! No matter what anyone else says.” He gave them the freedom from self doubt and questioning. He gave them permission to say “it is self evident that I’m right so I don’t have to explain.”

And there is the rub, eventually it will all come out. Eventually you will have to explain yourself. You will have to admit you were conned and admit you were being dishonest. Some people will not be able to do this, ever. Some will, but it will take time. What we, who recognized Donald J. Trump for what he is, have to do now is wait. Stand our ground. Be understanding of the MAGA but not give one inch in holding them responsible for what both Donald J. Trump did and what they did even though he told them they could. Eventually the lunch is paid for. We just need to be sure that it is paid for by those who eat it and not by us.

The Death-throws of the Republican Party

Philosophy, Politics, ,
Dead GOP
The Dead Elephant

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there will not be a political party known as the Republicans. Not at all. What I’m saying is the political party we know as the Republican Party will be no more. It will go the way of the Federalists, the Wigs, and the Know Nothings to name just a few. What do these all have in common? They all have gone the way for good.

No to say the political ideals the stood for, an fought for have all gone away. In some cases, like the Federalists, many of their ideal the stood for have become totally institutionalized in the American political landscape. Something every American takes as a given and is proud of. In other cases like the Know Nothings, while their ideals also became a part of the American Political landscape they are not something we can take pride in. But in all cases’ the political movements these parties represented have faded away in history. And this is what is facing the Republican Party from Lincoln to Eisenhower.

From the late 1960’s the the Republican Party has been an ill advised wedding of the Economic Conservatives and the Social Conservatives. On the surface it would look like a match made in heaven. But it was not. All too often Social Conservatives were not Economic Conservative votives and Economic Conservative were not Social Conservatives. All they agreed upon was their knee jerk reaction to the label ‘Liberal’. They were told by their leaders that “liberals’ were a monolithic block. If you were ‘liberal’ on economics you had to be ‘liberal’ on social issues too. An for many years this worked. Thru the Regan/Bush administrations the Economic Conservatives could depend on the whole ‘conservative’ base to vote Republican. An this base grew.

But not only did it grow, it ossified. At the turn of the century the base became more and more under the control of the leaders of the Social Conservatives. They gave bear the to the ‘Religious Right’. People who said ’No need to think or examine critically, just ‘Believe’ us and you will be in the right. When the leaders of the Republicans saw how well this worked with the ‘Religious Right’ they took it one step further and told all their followers “Accept what we tell you. The ‘Liberals’ are lying to you. Don’t accept all that scientific mumbo-jumbo they spout, it will just confuse you”. An when they did, the base did exactly what it’s leaders wanted. It ossified into a sold base that would do what the leaders wanted, in mass. Unfortunately it had one or two faults.

The first fault to be seen was that it was unruly. It wanted to think it was choosing it’s leaders. An so the “Tea Party” movement was born. Followed quickly by the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives. The next fault happened in the Republican leadership. They became committed to “winning”. They accepted the old half-time idea that “Wining isn’t everything. It is the only Thing!” That power, and the un-restrained use of power became their only political principle. This meant that if the leaders wanted to keep their power they had to lead where ever the monolithic base decided to go.

An that leaders us to the age of Donald John Trump. A man who had spent his entire adult life selling the same people who made up the Republican Base and many of the Republican Leadership ‘Snake-Oil’. In 2015/16 he saw that the Democratic Party was going to make one of the biggest mistakes in it’s long history. Maybe as big, if not bigger, as the mistake(s) it made in 1860. They were going to nominate someone who was either personally distrusted or not like by lots of the electorate and someone who could and would motivate many of the undecided away from the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton. In 2016 there were very few people who had not heard of her and did not have an opinion of her. It was the perfect time for someone who had great name recognition but almost no-one really knew. So Donald J. Trump jumped in and won.

He not only won the nomination, he, against everything, won the election. Not that he really either want’ed the job or knew what to do with it once he had it. An along the way he convinced the Republican Base that they were no longer the Republican Base, they were the Trump Base. That only he knew, truly, what they wanted. That only he knew how to get it for them. That anyone, anywhere, who attacked him was attacking them. He started with the ‘Deplorables’ and moved on from there. An the Republican leadership quaked in their boots every time he roared and his crowds roared back.

An so here we are, 2020. They year that everything started to come apart. The election is over and it is looking more and more likely that Joe Biden has won. But while it is totally understandable that Pres. Trump can not bring himself to accept the lost, it it not so understandable why the Republican leadership is following his lead. We will have to wait and see after the Senate run-offs in Georgia to see if they will follow Donald J. Trump down the rabbit hole. Only time will tell us that.

Covid-19 and the Republican Party

Philosophy, Politics, ,
The GOP elephant is on his deathbed.

After the first full day of the R/TNC (Republican/Trumpian National Convention) I think it is time to talk about the Elephant in the ICU room. The GOP is now on life support caused not only by the Covid-19 Pandemic but also by its pre-existing morbid condition(s), of which selecting Donald J Trump as its “Leader” is just one symptom. And just what symptoms am I talking about? Well let’s just start with the latest and work backwards.

Monday, the first day of the R/TNC, instead of having the Nomination of Trump as their candidate and the ‘roll call of the states’ to elect him, the R/TNC did it in the middle of the day. They also passed what they, the R/TNC called their “platform” which just said “What ever Donald Wants, Donald Gets” (With apologies to “Damn Yankees”) until 2024. To my knowledge this is the first time a major American political party has ever not had a platform. So what does this mean for the “Old” GOP?

Just this, what we saw last night in prime time is what the R/TNC wants every Republican candidate to run on. You get to pick your speech and run on that. You get to run on hate, or you can run on fear, or you can run on “Those Were the Good Old Days” (again with apologies to “Damn Yankees”) or you can run on any combination you wish. You will probably be able to run on anything that comes up for the next three days as long as you throw in “Trump” every now and then. The one thing you will not be able to do is run on anything that used to be core Republican principles. Those are things are of the past and not allowed in the GTP (Grand Trump Party).

There is one other thing you will not be allowed to run on, the new guiding principle of the GTP. You can’t mention that it is all about one thing . “POWER”. Who has it. Who doesn’t have it. Using it as you will, without any restraint. As once was written by George Orwell “The purpose of Power is Power”. An yes I’m talking about “1984” but what most people forget is Orwell was an anti-communist Socialist, as strange as that might seem in this day and age. What most people don’t know is that an unrestrained authoritarian state is the same whether it calls itself “Communist” or “Fascist”. An what MAGA is selling is an authoritarian state dressed up in “Free” enterprise lipstick.

And now here we are on Thursday waiting for the closing act. It is as a shame that the R/TNC doesn’t seem to have a director like Leni Riefenstahl to create a masterful production like “Triumph of the Will“. Instead we have gotten something more like a four day “infomercial”. An once again we see what the dreadful effect of abandoning their principles has had on the Republican Party. I cannot think of any single speaker who was able to sound a hopeful Theme. The GOP media masters seem to not have studied what is considered by those who study propaganda to be one of the greatest works of the art.

So just remember this the current Republican Party has only hate, fear, and loathing to campaign on, not a principle one.