At Gen Democrat Karlyn Borysenko explains her reactions after attending a Trump rally in New Hampshire:
Today, I voted in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary for Pete Buttigieg. I genuinely feel that Pete would be great for this country, and maybe he’ll have his opportunity in the future. But tomorrow, I’ll be changing my voter registration from Democrat to Independent and walking away from the party I’ve spent the past 20 years in to sit in the middle for a while. There are extremes in both parties that I am uncomfortable with, but I also fundamentally believe that most people on both sides are good, decent human beings who want the best for the country and have dramatic disagreements on how to get there. But until we start seeing each other as human beings, there will be no bridging the divide. I refuse to be a part of the divisiveness any longer. I refuse to hate people I don’t know simply because they choose to vote for someone else. If we’re going to heal the country, we have to start taking steps toward one another rather than away.
I think the Democrats have an ass-kicking coming to them in November, and I think most of them will be utterly shocked when it happens, because they’re existing in an echo chamber that is not reflective of the broader reality. I hope it’s a wake-up call that causes them to take a long look in the mirror and really ask themselves how they got here. Maybe then they’ll start listening. I tend to doubt it, but I can hope.
For me the message here is don’t demonize other people. Ever. Simply that they are human entitles them to our consideration and respect. Disagree with their actions if you will but don’t attribute evil motives to them. Motives are tricky things.
When the demons are found to be ordinary, decent people with whom you just disagree, it is perfectly natural to become suspicious of those doing the demonization, believing, as Booth Tarkington might have said, that they deserve their comeuppance.
This may be the same piece that has gotten a lot of attention the past couple days. Its essence: I went to a Trump rally scared for my life and expecting white supremacists everywhere, but found out they were just normal people and friendly as could be. A rock concert atmosphere, not a satanic cult.
But Sir Reynolds has managed to call me every vile adjective he could find over at OTB, finishing with a flourish: STFU.
So there’s that……
If you want to remain a member of your family these days, you don’t broach the subject of politics. You just don’t do it.
But here we can.
The new spark from the DNC is to run their own New York Billionaire, mix in the spice of the Most Admired Woman in the World as VP, and it won’t even taste like leftovers.
But, it’s guaranteed to energize lukewarm Trump voters.
She’s ba…aaak!
My belief re Bloomberg-Clinton is they’re chumming to see if there is any enthusiasm for it. It’s almost guaranteed loser in that Trump’s people have had four additional years to expose her corruption and that Bernie people will sit out or vote independent or Trump and the Democrats badly need them for any chance. I see Stacy Abrams in the mix somewhere to try and placate the Blacks and the Communists. Emphasis on the ‘try’, she’s still establishment to the AOC crowd and black men won’t be keen on voting for an obnoxious black female.
A lot of the demonization can be laid at the feet of the MSM and the pursuit of clicks and viewers and inside scoops of leaked info. For over three years now countless pundits and talking heads have spread misinformation, repeated false talking points, outright lies and slanders, refused to acknowledge untruth, and then doubled down and demonized those pointing out errors. It’s become self-referential. Trump is a racist because everybody knows he’s racist but just won’t admit it, and asking for evidence of racism besides edited spliced-together transcripts and videos is proof that you are a racist Trumpkin and if you deny it it’s proof that you are. Yeah, it’s hard to walk away from that kind of attitude without getting irritated.
I believe pretty strongly that both sides mostly are made up of good decent people. If you look at the people with whom you work or go to church there are people in the opposite tribe. They are still good people. I would hope that wouldnt be a surprise to the author. It is at the extremes where things get dicey. I also reject the idea that one group is morally superior. For every instance of bad behavior by one group you can find one on the other team.
Sine the author is dealing with Republicans who have been demonized by Democrats let’s not forget that the Republicans have been doing the same to Democrats at least as long.Liberal has become a dirty word. Story after story about stuff some college kid, SJW did that was awful, as though teenagers make up most of the Dem party. And of course Trump leading the charge on demonizing those he disagrees with. This could go on forever but I hope the point is clear.
I mostly end up thinking the author is naive. All of talk radio has the goal of demonizing the other side. Most of the political blogs have the same goal. Most of the political think tanks have that goal. Really, how often do you see bright, well informed people from both sides sitting down to talk about and compare their best ideas? Just doesn’t happen.
Steve
“All of talk radio has the goal of demonizing the other side”
In a roundabout way, yes. But the main goal is always to increase listener numbers, station numbers, and advertiser dollars. All about money and power.
When Speaker Pelosi ripped up her copy of Trump’s speech, who was her intended audience? The Democratic house members of course.
Self interest should always be the first suspect when assigning motive.
And now in the interest of my self interest I’m busy re-assessing Bernie Sanders and Socialism, as it’s occurred to me I’ve worked for a farmers co-operative all my life and never been near a gulag.
An important lesson I learned from the Obama administration is that it’s damn near impossible to fundamentally change America. I haven’t yet decided to throw Sanders my endorsement but have come to believe the harm he could inflict on the country is greatly exaggerated.
I also think Bezo’s 150 million dollar house is an embarrassment and he should build a rocket and move to colonize Mars personally.
Sure. Farmers coops have nothing to do with state socialism.
It’s already happened, almost entirely long before Obama was elected president, and little of the change is for the better.
My take? The standard model of human politics,
“Us/them,” with one set of rules for “us” and another for “them;” and
“Live/let live,” so long as “they” aren’t causing “us” too much trouble;
is standard for a reason. It is easy, it requires very little information, and it works, no matter which political label it happens to be wearing at the time.
Or at least it USED to work, before everyone became so technologically interconnected and interdependent! These days, there is nowhere left for “them” to be exiled to, which is why everything has become so existential. The Information Age has changed the game, for both good an ill.
I think the key observation here, the one that holds a possibility of escape, is this: everyone sorts the world into “us” and “them,” but no two people have ever agreed on exactly who is “us” and who is “them,” and likely never will. To me, that strongly indicates that some deeper symmetry is being missed.
I think the short-term and long-term strategies for solving both problems converge to the same operational premise: Expand the “us” value until it incorporates all possible values of “them,” including even the people who believe that is not possible, and work together from there.
Easy, right?
Right?
I’ve already read that piece by Karlyn Borysenko. I think frequently, after being exposed to alternative political venues, some are jolted awake to how their heretofore political perceptions have been so deceptively groomed by an ideologically-driven MSM and radio talk show counterparts. Such people also seem more susceptible to opting out of both major parties, identifying themselves instead as “independents†– a growing portion of registered voters, who I believe will ultimately decide the 2020 election.
Furthermore, as Borysenko mentioned, ancillary byproducts, of being politically awakened, are Twitter hashtags indicating party dissent, as well as formation of the small but vigorous Walkaway movement. Videotaped testimonies of those walking away from the Democrat party, purely out of party disappointment and distrust, is pretty remarkable, especially in light of the spectacularly diverse array of people contributing testimonials as to why they left the democrat party.
Dave, I presume you mean the New Deal and the WPA. You can’t mean that it was harmful to the American social fabric, so what do you mean?
The business of America is business sink or swim?
And as to Ag co-ops, the ConAgra’s of the day considered socialized marketing communism.
Farmers coops are self-help organizations. There isn’t much similarity between those and presumably benevolent services provided by the government. The latter are always influenced by politics.