Ever noticed that a room can be completely hijacked by one asshole? Seriously, think about this for one second; if there are ten people gathered together and having a good time, one boorish soul can suck up all the good vibes and replace joyfulness with a feeling of static and stress. The light of people can be extinguished by one angry person who vacuums up all the oxygen with his bitterness. It’s as though people who are rational and sane defer to irrational oafs who are imbued with abject enmity.
What I just describe above is true about life in general and equally true about the state of politics we find ourselves being mugged by. At the risk of sounding like a famous brute Richard Nixon, I truly believe that there is a silent majority in America who throw up their hands and vacate the stage to the obnoxious fanatics on the “right” and the “left” because they realize the folly of trying to reason with political parrots. Add to this our broken political system that is intentionally set up to cater to the whims of unthinking partisan lemmings and what you get is a society that is being driven into the ditch by a tiny sliver of the nation that is utterly disconnected from reality.
I myself, not too long ago, resided in this lane of abject buffoonery as I went around quoting Democratic talking points as if I was some type of political dilettante. I just knew that I knew it all, I would take to social media to eviscerate “right wing nut jobs” as I partook in nuttery that would have made Jiffy blush. Hindsight is the greatest educator since Imhotep! I look back at my foolishness in astonishment realizing that I was nothing more than a useful idiot to a political party that used me to advance their interests as they buried the rest of us in despondency and debt. Shedding partisan handcuffs and viewing this world through the lens of our common humanity has been the most liberating of accomplishments.
But liberation also gave birth to a deliberation and the realization of this one thing. We are screwed. Our nation has been so trained to think through the prism of this two party duopoly that we are collectively blinded to any other alternative that does not involve the duplicitous Democratic and Republican party. Most Americans have realized the folly of this paradigm and the concomitant false-choice of voting for either party–that is why only 30% of the people vote while the vast majority stay home. Alas this is problematic; 30% of Americans who view life through the goggles of politics end up driving the agenda and the conversation for the rest of us.
The same 30% of Americans also end up giving cover to an coercive government that no longer governs through consent. When the president and the titular head of the “free world” has an approval rating south of 40% (this figure is actually worse if the Corporate State Media included the vast majority who don’t vote anymore) and Congress has an approval rating that is below 10%, this is a recipe for a government that has not only lost the confidence of the people but an indication of a government that is illegitimate. We are somewhere between a banana Republic with a better marketing campaign and North Korea with more street lights and shopping malls.
If there was ever a time for a political revolution and a time to reboot the government, it would be now. Except the nitwits on the fringes continue to think their “team” is virtuous as they blame the other side for all the ills of society. Right wing nut jobs incinerate the left wing nuts and vice versa, both sides stay torching each other even as they lack the self-awareness to realize they are projecting their inner-irrationality on each other. The political discourse is thus turned into a mockery as partisan jihadists blow apart dialogues as they keep leading with insults and ad hominem.
Just today, Jeff Flake, a Republican Senator from Arizona, is facing the ire and the flame of right wing zealots because he dared to criticize their dear leader Donald Trump. This will likely lead to Jeff Flake being primaried by a more insane right wing nihilist. The most motivated voters are the ones who vote with partisan tinfoil hats on; consequently, our boy Flake better start updating his LinkedIn profile. The same fate awaits Democrats on the “left”; let anyone dare question dear leader Barack Obama and the liberal sycophant come out of the woodwork to bay at the moon and march heretics out their supposed “open” tent–this kool aide fountain for non-thinkers only. The incentive for the already craven politicians on both sides of the isle–who have less spine than invertebrates–is to coddle their cockamamie base while ignoring the rest.
If this paradigm does not change soon, our nation will implode for a country that is led by a bunch of carnival barkers who are empowered only by their clowns will in time be mauled by the the twin beasts of debt and social unrest that await in the circus tents. This is why nothing gets done in DC, politicians who are intentionally bleeding this nation are able to blame “the other side”. Double-dealing con artists in DC are thus able to point their fingers at the other side and get away with it even though both Republicans and Democrats are complicit in the continued decay of America at the hand of the corporate agenda that is equally pillaging the world. The rational voices in the middle, the silent majority who are being drowned out, need to assert their voice and lead us out of the wilderness.
The ratio is thus 15/15/70 where 30% of Americans are blinded by political identity split roughly down the middle between the “left” and the “right”. The rest, 70% of Americans, are silenced as their voices are nullified by the obnoxiousness of the Democratic and Republican bases. It is high time for the 70% of Americans who have thus far conceded the political stage to the cacophonous loons to stop biting their tongue and step up to the task. The only way forward is for the adults to emerge from the wilderness and reclaim the steering wheel from the partisan toadies who have commandeered the political discourse of our nation.
Let me wrap it up with this thought that Soto wrote in response to the Bill Maher article I wrote yesterday (link). She noted that the blame should not be placed on the people as a whole for we are being led to act upon our baser instincts. Soto stated:
I disagree with this idea that we the public are given what we demand. I hear it all the time. I do think there’s much we can all own. Do we rubberneck at, say, a fender-bender. Sure, but I don’t think we would ‘will’ it. Nor do most of us easily accept preventable accidents. I maintain that the powers that be create the culture (or lack there of) we live with. Intentionally. I doubt that most of us would deliberately choose a lying, thieving, planet-destroying, warring cabal for government. That we tolerate what we get, what we have, what we unleash on the rest of those we share the planet with—that is our shame. Or ought to be.
In writing this article and reflecting on the words that Soto wrote, I kind of came to this realization. Even as I was writing against the antipathy and contempt for divergent ideas that is the hallmark of partisan ideologues on both sides, I too let my words revert to antipathy and contempt. It is easy to fight ignorance with yet more ignorance; the harder task is to fight against hatred with love. Yet if we want to make a difference and bend history towards the arc of justice, we must do so with good will towards those we find the most disagreeable and fight the good fight with malice towards none. The rational middle can only win over the fringes on both sides if we do so without judgement or else we become zealots and fundamentalists too. #FringeSociety
“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
If you appreciated this write up and agree with the message behind it, share this article on social media using #FringeSociety
Check out the Ghion Cast below where I discuss the very hustle of our politics and how we are bamboozled by political hustlers and vacuous pundits on all sides.
Closing message: don’t be a political parrot, hell at least Polly gets a cracker for his troubles, political parrots only get indifference and then ignored. I’m not preaching, this is me in the video below only a few years ago acting every part of a political parrot before I woke up to it.
- An Open Letter to People of Faith: Overcome the Devil’s Divisions, Unite as One or Perish Apart - May 17, 2021
- Governments Don’t Censor Liars, They Censor Truth-Tellers - May 14, 2021
- Toxic Grievances: Being Marginalized Does Not Give Marginalized People the Right to Marginalize Others - May 13, 2021
