For years, we've been told to fear the right. They've got the guns. They've got an echo chamber of Fox News and right wing radio. They even believe in QAnon. You don't want to anger them because they're gonna show up at your house, they're gonna camp on the statehouse steps, they're going to invade the Capitol.
Now the insurrection...people told them to do it. It's not like it was a secret. Almost no one expected them to breach the Capitol, but everybody knew a rally was planned, to support the inane belief that Trump had been cheated, that he'd actually won the election.
And since the election, southern states have clamped down on voting rights. The Republicans changed their strategy, they realized they couldn't win on the national level, and therefore they focused on the states. And now we've got the Texas six week abortion law. And open carry. And voter suppression, under the guise of voter security.
So if you're inside the bubble, you're smiling, pinching yourself, it hasn't been this good in eons, maybe forever!
But it's not only the rank and file, it's the news institutions. "The New York Times" has been neutered. As has been Fauci. If it's run by the left, it's no good. Ergo supporting Trump in his deal with the Taliban to pull out of Afghanistan, but excoriating Biden when he actually does so. And we can debate the smoothness of the extraction all day long, but these flip-flopping officials and pundits wanted the U.S. to stay there! And there are foreign policy hawks on both the left and the right. Afraid of the bogeyman, they never say no. Communism was not only going to come to Vietnam, further dominoes were going to fall thereafter. They say our exit from Afghanistan sets the table for Chinese influence. Then again, if the Russians and the United States couldn't make lasting progress in Afghanistan, maybe no one can. The territory has been fought over for centuries.
And McCarthy is telling corporations not to cough up data on the January 6th insurrection. It's a full court press. If I write anything political, it's the right I hear from, they're working the refs 24/7, trying to make you doubt yourself, about speaking up. The right sets the agenda and the left cowers. Hell, look at supposed Democrat Joe Manchin, he's more afraid of the Republicans than he is of those in his own damn party!
As for the legal system...
People have little faith in it anymore. The richest, most prominent people, lie on the stand, and the appointment of judges has become completely political. Ergo the Supreme Court. Which resulted in yesterday's decision not to stay the enforcement of the Texas abortion law.
But the Democrats are mostly silent. Unsure exactly who their constituency is, afraid of pissing off the progressives and at the same time afraid of pissing off a theoretical middle. If you're looking for leadership, you're not going to get it from a Democratic politician.
But then we had that pesky little event last spring. A policeman kneels on a black man in Minnesota who then dies...AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!
What do we know, George Floyd was no picnic, he didn't have a clean record. Then again, did you read about Beverly Hills' crackdown on crime? They arrested 106 people, 105 black and 1 Latino. It's hard to be a person of color and not have a record.
Anyway, George Floyd dies and there are protests not only in Minnesota, not only in the United States, BUT ALL OVER THE WORLD!
We can argue all day long about the ultimate results of said protest, but one thing is for sure, the world came out in force, far in excess of any protest on a right wing issue. Because this one man died.
Remind you of the Arab Spring?
One college educated fruit vendor in Tunisia gets pissed about harassment and lack of opportunity and he sets himself on fire and the whole region is destabilized. After decades of in many cases iron fist rule. Unfortunately, after brief democratic experiments authoritarians moved in, but I'm talking here about the conflagration. It's not like there was a build-up, it's not like anybody could see this coming, just like no one could see the protests in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Which is a talking point for the right. Look at the destruction! That was their response re the Capitol invasion on 1/6. It's always a false equivalency, they start talking and won't shut up and hope to tire you out. But were the George Floyd protests really like 1/6? Let me see, was there damage to infrastructure last spring? Absolutely! Did anybody demand that the entire system of government be thrown overboard, invade the Capitol and threaten to kill elected officials? Of course not. It's not even the same conversation. But on the right...
But the right is now self-satisfied. Hell, McConnell stacked the Supreme Court. But soon they're going to stack one too many things on the edifice and the left will awaken and tear down the entire enterprise. I can't tell you when it's going to happen, but between the ridiculous recall in California, with so much money spent by a minority in what appears to be a completely fruitless effort, and the endless push of their agenda, the right never sleeps, if you think the left is completely somnambulant and will suffer any indignity, you're just plain wrong.
And it's the left that's got the numbers on its side. Forget the electoral college, Democrats won the Presidential election popular vote handily in both 2016 and 2020. Gerrymandering and an antique system wherein North Dakota gets as many Senators as California has resulted in the tyranny of the minority. And history is laden with revolts upon said paradigm. When the majority of the public is on the side of the government, not so much. But when an authoritarian is clamping down on the majority, blowback happens not only in Tunisia, but in France, remember the famous phrase "let them eat cake"? It's hard to even get unemployment in many red states, including Florida. As for the canard that unemployment checks were keeping people from getting jobs...turns out in states where government payments were not stricken, the jobs numbers were nearly identical to where they were, and this is not only the "New York Times" speaking, but the "Wall Street Journal" too.
And then there are the states that refuse to take federal money for Medicaid. Now the truth is people are hurt by this, individuals, you can stand on principle all day long, but these policies have effects. Just like wars kill people, done deal. You want to go over there, you want to die? I didn't think so.
So what is going to break the left's back?
Sotomayor went ballistic on her fellow Supremes. Let's not forget, supposed right winger Roberts voted with the Dems. And if the playing field had been level, Kavanaugh and Barrett never would have been appointed, it would be two Democrats, and the Texas laws would be stopped. Don't think those on the left aren't aware of the weaseling of McConnell. You think people are ignorant, but they're not that ignorant when it affects them personally, and if you've never been worried your girlfriend is pregnant, you've never had sex.
But the same party that says their bodies are inviolate want to have dominion over yours. Forget the logic, it hasn't worked up to now, they don't see the hypocrisy, because that's not what it's about, truth and justice, it's just about getting what they want.
And they're afraid that vaccine passports will be akin to giving Hitler power over them, but then they turn the entire populace of Texas into government agents, tattling on others, sounds exactly like East Germany to me.
But the left sits here and takes it, over and over and over again. To the point that the right is patting itself on the back. It's working! Fight every point of the left's agenda, manipulate the game so you win.
But this isn't sports, it's people's lives.
So am I worried about living in an authoritarian country run by the Trumpers? ABSOLUTELY! But after the enactment of the new Texas laws I know we'll never get that far, not at first. The right believes the left are pushovers, that they can do anything and get away with it. But now the metaphorical battered women are dying. And those in a similar position are agitated and on guard, they know what they've got to lose, and they're ready to rise up when just the lightest feather is added to the right wing pile. It won't be a major event that wakes up the left, it'll be the smallest thing, which will have major consequences.
In the south one Black woman didn't want to sit in the back of the bus and the entire region erupted, they came from the north in support.
And these new laws affect everybody. If you don't know a Catholic family with an abortion, you know no Catholics. Because when push comes to shove, they know the baby will ruin the person's life. As for rape and incest? Almost no one is anti-abortion re those. As for open carry? Statistics tell us even in Texas they're against it. But the right keeps pushing and pushing and when they get away with it they push a little more. It's a scorched earth policy, every issue is black or white. You're on their side or you don't count. They're organized, the left is disorganized, but there's a lot of disgruntlement on the left.
The arts are secondary to politics in today's world. If I write anything political I get light years more e-mails in response. And isn't it interesting that the right always says to stay in your lane, when they're certainly not staying in theirs.
If there's not an adjustment, there's going to be a realignment. It'll be something relatively trivial that is going to wake up the beast, it'll be like the George Floyd protests on steroids. And they'll far outweigh the numbers on the right, who won't even see it coming.
But it is.
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