Yes.
Of course I know this isn’t and never was a Democracy. However, considering the parlance of our times, when one speaks of our electoral process, the majority of Americans view this process through the prisms of Democracy. However, Russia was successful in undermining my faith in the Republican and Democrat parties, in our media, and in the American People (as voters) in the context of our electoral process.
2016 proved that Americans will believe just about anything they read on the Internet. Objectively, 2016 was plagued with “Fake News”, but to most Americans, “Fake News” is merely news they disagree with. This undermining of objectivity and truth now allows Democrats and Republican politicians to dismiss anything negative as “fake” and their moronic supporters will believe them.
And why shouldn’t they? Honesty and integrity are dead. Raped and tortured and burned to death, the ashes of truth have been scattered to the wind and carried by populism to the four corners of the planet. (And if you believe that the planet has four corners, I’m most definitely addressing you here).
The number of lies told during this last Presidential campaign was extraordinary. The number of people who repeated these lies and believed them was extraordinarily depressing. Donald Trump destroyed his opponents, not with truth, but with slander. Hillary Clinton built her entire political empire on the foundations of dishonest narratives. Bernie Sanders ran an entire campaign predicated upon fantasy and a good portion of the American people ate it up.
I miss Bill Clinton’s integrity.
I miss George W. Bush’s competence.
That’s what 9 years of President Obama and President Trump has given me. The Russians get it. The Russians see that our greatest weakness is our lack of character and objectivity. They know that Americans only care about winning and defeating our domestic enemies. They know that half of us would rather have a morally inept and utterly dishonest Democrat running this country than a wise and virtuous Republican; and they know that half the country would rather have a Republican President who brags about grabbing women by their “pussies”, than elect a well-intentioned and moderate Democrat to the Oval Office.
President Donald Trump employed a large number of folks in bed with the Russian Government. The Democrats have been negotiating with the Russians for years trying to develop their own political advantages.
What 2016 taught us, was that the Russians have figured out that the whores in the Republican and Democrat parties are all willing to get into bed with Putin, so long as they see an angle that benefits them politically.
One of these days, we’re going to witness the rise of character, morality, and vision – and it won’t come from the Democrat or Republican Party. This individual or individuals will declare a pox on both houses and speak directly to the condition, heart, and beliefs of the American people. When this happens, we’re going to experience an electoral revolution in this country. The rot at the center of our two dominant political parties will bubble to the surface, becoming hideous boils for all to see.
There will be a realignment.
Of course, this is just me being optimistic. It is far more likely that the American people will continue to create smaller and smaller bubbles for themselves. Blue States will become bluer. Red states will become a deep and abiding crimson. The lessons of the past will be painted over with the rhetoric of distrust, low-standards, hatred, and an immoral lust for victory at all costs.
Populism, Socialism, White-Nationalism…
Get used to them. Get used to them unless you are willing to believe in and fight for something greater. Every day that goes by, I hear fewer Republicans mention the word liberty. Every day that goes by, I hear fewer Democrats seeking justice for all (they only care about justice for select groups).
Republicans are no longer talking about our conservative traditions. Democrats are no longer talking about promoting economic growth. Democrats couldn’t care less how bad things get in America, so long as they are the ones in charge. Republicans couldn’t care less how bad things get in America, so long as they are the ones in charge. Even our third parties are a joke. They aren’t trying to win elections. They are trying to raise money for the social clubs that dominate them.
And through it all, here we all are… spreading Fake News. We don’t care. We just want to win. We just want our enemies to lose. The Democrats are trying to paint Gillespie as a White Nationalist. Democrat voters are dumb enough to believe it.
The very people who are supposed to be our friends and neighbors are treated like crap because we place our politics before our neighborhoods and communities. We place our idealism ahead of the needs of our neighbors. Hell, half of us don’t even know who the hell our neighbors are.
I feel like I need to dig up Victor Hugo and say, “Buddy…you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
Whatever happened to philosophy and logic, to history and facts? When did we put “our team” ahead of “reality?”
Whatever happened to friends and neighbors and how the hell did they get replaced with political party affiliations, identity politics, and religious stigmas?
I desperately want to believe in the America I grew up in; but it is getting harder and harder every year. The Russians are winning – not because they are undermining our elections, but because they are highlighting our weaknesses and flaws. The American People hacked our elections. The Russians didn’t do anything except hand us lighter fluid and Zippos. They can’t be blamed for what we chose to do with them.
I read the comments on The Republican Standard, Bearing Drift, Blue Virginia, and The Bull Elephant. I know damn well that rage, anger, and prejudice are what fuels the engaged electorate today. You hate the people that disagree with you. You mistrust those associated with the labels you despise (liberal, conservative, individualist, democrat, and republican). I get it.
You all want to live in a world where all of the people that disagree with you are either dead, relegated to second-class citizenship, or marginalized into irrelevance. You’ll share fake news on your Facebook page. You’ll spread political gossip at work. You’ll accept whatever asinine political opinions you see on television after 11pm, so long as they are presented under the medium of “comedy”. When the comedians are your intellectuals, your worldview is officially FUBAR.
The Russians exposed both political parties…….and they exposed the American People for what we are. Fools. Suckers. Sycophants. Desperate, uninformed, and willing to make heroes out of the lowest of lowest common denominators!
A pox on all houses?
You better freaking believe it!
