This is a sobering time in American history, to put it mildly. We have actually seen a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist be elevated to our nation’s highest office. Again. And now we see him nominating the worst of the worst for the highest posts in government, the most important jobs in the world. This has been made possible because a very jaded GOP decided years ago that if a Barnum & Bailey huckster could get elected to the highest post, then what did values and integrity mean? And they proceeded to divest themselves of their own, and follow the siren call of MAGA.
A lot of them sold their soul to Donald Trump. You’ve seen the changes in Lindsey Graham and J.D. Vance. Not to mention Elise Stefanik and Nancy Mace. They’ve all become puppets dancing on the ends of Trump’s strings as he continues to bring out the worst impulses in our society and say that this is the way and the truth and the light. It emphatically is not that. We have seen nothing but antics, lies and darkness since Trump entered the political scene. Yesterday a health care CEO was gunned down in broad daylight and social media crowed about it. This would not have happened prior to 2016.
So decency has taken one hell of a hit. Joe Biden has been criticized for improper use of the pardon power but Biden’s a pragmatist. He knows that political theater will take place if he doesn’t issue pre-emptive pardons. It’s sad and needless to say, unprecedented, for an outgoing president to insulate relatives and people of note from the wrath of an incoming president, but this is where we are.
Tim Miller of the Bulwark points out to us that the only thing we can control is ourselves. This is true, although it’s not an easy thing. The psychologist Viktor Frankl was interred in a Nazi prison camp and he said that he learned from the experience that the only thing he could control was his own attitude. You might read Frankl sometime. He talks of looking into the eyes of other inmates and realizing that they had gone totally mad. They were walking bodies but with no minds, their spirit broken.
I can identify. The horror of a second Trump administration, a kakistocracy helmed by billionaires, was not a fate I thought could happen. But here we are. Here we are. Miller does have some good comments to make, which we should take to heart in this the winter of our discontent.
“The worst people are vindicated and believe their worldview has been validated by this and the best people are uncertain and scared and angry and confused.” And so for many of these people, the fear and anger has led to a sort of surrender. A hardening of the heart. Accepting a new reality. One where the things they once thought were virtuous are not only disrespected but even harmful to progress. […]
When it comes to the idea that Democrats should fight harder, take a few cheap shots, kick the Republicans in the balls when they aren’t looking, sign me up. I’m down for that. As for the rest, well, I have told several people lately that I am concerned this election will be my Joker origin story.
But I keep pulling myself back from the brink—I think, in part, because I’ve seen how the nihilism infected my Republican friends. That cold, hard-heartedness is an ugly thing. I’ve seen the result of the LOL Nothing Matters ethos at scale, up close, and the result is horrifying.
This mindset doesn’t just corrupt people. It destroys their souls.
Don’t believe me? Just watch Rick Scott:
<Shudder.>
Turning into that is a fate best avoided, for all of us. We all of us have to summon the strength to resist the call of the nihilists.
Can I be corny for a second? I mean really corny. Dad corny. Like roll-your-eyes-so-far-back-in-your-head-that-they-get-stuck-there corny.
Because here it comes.
There is one thing that does matter in this life. And it’s the only thing you actually control: Acting in accordance with your own integrity. In a way that lets you feel good about yourself.
That’s it. Everything else out there? It’s chance. Luck. Atoms colliding.
All you can do is make choices that align with the person you want to be in the world. And periodically do a little self-examination to ensure you are doing right by yourself.
Sometimes it’s really hard. Painful, even. And you won’t always get it right. We all fail. We have blind spots. Temptations. Pride. We convince ourselves that something we want is actually something that is right for us.
That’s okay. As long as you are still keeping tabs and trying to become the best version of yourself.
So, in short, what matters is you.1 Your choices. Your integrity.
The rest of this politics stuff, yeah, it matters too. Of course it does: Lives will be upended. Good people will suffer. Undeserving people will reap unimaginable rewards.
But that’s all out of our hands now.
You can’t make Donald Trump not president. Can’t make your neighbors nicer. You can’t make them care more about the rape cabinet the president is assembling. You can’t make them value democracy or Haitian refugees or climate or reproductive rights or whatever else it may be that’s keeping you up at night over their own interests.
That’s all in the books already.
Here is one ray of hope, however. This video talks of a Trump voter who now regrets his vote. This could be the harbinger of the future. Not saying it will be because I hate to get hopes up and see them dashed. But it could be.
There are more than a few people that have one thing to say about the assassination of one billionaire.
It’s a start.
We can condemn Thompson’s murder, and also condemn the cruel, heartless practices of for-profit health insurance companies. Those are not mutually exclusive.
Watching TV coverage of this story, it’s clear the networks don’t want to address the anger that’s fueling the memes about this shooting. But, by golly, NBC found time in the half-hour Nightly News to devote to Taylor Swift’s concert tour. Priorities, you know. /s
I was about to make a similar comment. When Ursula wrote . . .
“Yesterday a health care CEO was gunned down in broad daylight and social media crowed about it. This would not have happened prior to 2016.” . . .
I stopped and had to ask “What world was she living in before 2016?” Seriously. I mean, you can go back to 2007 for DOYC’s sake and see that people have loathed the health “care” industry for its ridiculously heartless attitude towards the very people who need them (and have paid very handsomely for the “privilege” of being told “No”). A little documentary called “Sicko” pretty much exposed the health “care” industry for just how heartless it is, especially considering the amounts of money people pay just so they can be denied treatments–not simply “recommended” by their physicians but are considered “absolutely vital to save your life” but considered “experimental” by the companies.
I obviously don’t condone the guy’s murder but I’m not really going to mourn him or give much thought to his “loved ones that he left behind.” If it leads to other health “care” CEOs being a little less concerned with the corporate bottom line and a little more concerned with the well-being and the very lives of the people who depend on their service, then, well, lemonade.
Murder is never right. But if the killer lost someone he loved because the insurance d*cked around,,I f I were on his jury,,I would hang it. Insurance companies will often have a policy of denying the first request, figuring most people wouldn’t fight for it.