Hope – Mixed With Fear Mass Individual Selfishness Will End Our Democracy

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I still hold out hope.  Politizoom’s Murfster has noted multiple times that polling is likely off and in some key places because of the influx (a large one) of first time and more importantly young voters.  Polling models are as he notes built on past stuff, and at best accounting for these new voters is a crapshoot for reputable polling organizations.  It’s in the gray area between a WAG (Wild A&& Guess) and SWAG (a “scientific” WAG) so all bets, or most of them are off.

Except given polling, longstanding trends I must add on multiple issues that matter to voters the fact that Democrats should be (and should have been for years) in the political driver’s seat things are close.

Yes, historically the Party of a sitting President almost always loses seats in a midterm so we went into this cycle trying to overcome history.  If you play poker it’s like drawing to an inside straight – possible but one should never bet money they can’t afford to lost on getting that “miracle” card.  Of course, given what’s at stake in this election a lot more than money is at stake.  Given that I say historical trends wouldn’t normally apply and things should be close at all.  But till the day I die I will carry the scars of 2016 and my worries about “how could it even be close?” and in recent days those feelings are coming back.

Money, for individuals and households is what I refer to in the title, and why I have a sick feeling inside.

Remember all that energy after SCOTUS ripped away reproductive rights and signaled they are ready to rip away the rest of them?  It seems to have at least somewhat diminished.  I read a blurb somewhere today that Independent women, WOMEN are moving back towards the GOP!  What the hell?

It’s my fear that major news outlets are doing exactly what the big bosses are instructing them to do – hammer the hell out of the inflation issue.

It’s not like we don’t see it in our daily lives.  Gas, food and other stuff costs more and those costs have been going up for a while now.  It sucks.  I was forced into early retirement on disability and with a fixed income lower than I’d expected now that I’m officially a senior citizen I’m as pissed about paying more for stuff as basic as food and other stuff at the grocery store as the next person.  I just don’t happen to believe it’s the fault of the government.  I believe that the quite real supply chain problems that arose during Covid have been exploited by corporate America.   Stores still have empty space on the shelves or run out of things for a few days.  And gas of course has always been subject to major oil company’s manipulations of the market.  With the war in Ukraine they have something to point to as they gleefully but artificially create “shortages” and then point to the old stuff about “supply and demand.”

But thinking through all that requires digging in and doing some thinking.  Most people in our intentionally (thanks to conservatives) dumbed down society have trouble doing that type of critical thinking.  That’s assuming they have time to even engage in it.

They are angry (and not without reason) and by grab want to blame someone.  But, led by major news outlets and prominent journalists who aren’t about to risk their big salaries the average American isn’t blaming the right people.

Instead, there are tens of millions of Americans out there who want to lash out.  And it’s not just Fox telling them who to blame.

Again, I don’t like higher prices.  Like so many on fixed incomes the higher prices are increasingly tough to bear.  But even if a given President, or even a Congress had as much control over the prices of necessary goods and services as most American’s believe is the case (and they don’t) this election is about so much more than my having to pinch pennies.

Lashing out to “teach Democrats a lesson” and handing Congress, and just as importantly statehouses & legislatures AND even the ability to overrule election results will be the end of the American Experiment.  “The Great Experiment” was coined early in our history by foreign powers who expected us to fail.   We’ve had some trying times along the way.  Franklin’s “A Republic, if you can keep it” has been tested.  But not I think, even taking into account the Civil War has it been tested the way it’s being tested now.

This time the problem/issue is nationwide.  Petulance, anger, economic pain & self-interest might I fear win the day next month.  And as a consequence forever after.

I think of what my parent’s and grandparent’s generations endured during WWII.  The sacrifices they made here at home with rationing and high prices and STILL digging into their pockets to buy War Bonds.

Look at us now.  It seems increasingly like America is a giant classroom of whiny school kids complaining that their milk money will now only buy them white milk for snack time instead of chocolate milk!

Speaking for myself, even IF Democrat’s and their economic policies were responsible for inflation (at least to the degree the media is telling everyone!) and they’re not, I still will be casting a straight Democratic ballot when Early Voting starts.  There is a LOT more at stake than my not being able to afford some things that not so long ago I could afford.

My fear is that too many Americans are too effing selfish to do the same.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Well said Denis, thank you. And for you or anyone curious enough to explore the thread about who is behind our current inflation, check out Robert Reich’s recent comments on the subject. He’s been chipping away at the common wisdom which continues to claim it’s a wage / price issue and raising interest rates is the solution. He has recently testified before congress airing his contention that it is a profit / price issue. Most of the major corporations are profiting well above their pre-covid levels, simply because they can and their is nothing or no one to tell them they can’t.

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  2. It would be nice if these Americans who are so concerned about the economy would be asked, point blank, “What EXACTLY will the Republicans do to rein in inflation and improve the ecoomy if they’re put back in charge of Congress?” Republican politicians have been more inclined to talk about how they’re going to impeach Biden (not actually explaining which law/s would warrant an impeachment proceedings) and how we need “secure elections” (without explaining how they can be elected to improve election security if the current elections aren’t “secure”). Not one of them has described what they can do (or think they can do) to improve the economy.
    Apparently, they believe Americans are so stupid as to imagine the mere existence of a Republican Congress will magically bring down oil and gas prices and suddenly get supply lines completely cleared and store shelves will magically be filled and all those prices will just come down. Of course, anyone who’d vote for a Republican IS stupid but anyone who’d vote for a Republican while believing the content of the previous sentence is an utter f*cking moron (and really needs a lesson in reality).

  3. Not to beat a dead horse but where have all these assholes been as the Republicans have done everything they can do to CAUSE more problems? They are helping putin at every turn as frump is in bed with the Saudis. Goddamnit !!! You have to be a goddamn zombie not to have seen how Trump destroyed everything he touched & the fascist party wants to end elections & keep all the money they can grab, average people be damned. A nation of cretins! Hey I’ll gladly eat crow should the voters turn out & slap these fascists back into their spider holes. Gladly!!!

  4. Thank you Dennis. I do not comment here much but I always read your posts. I am planning to semi-retire at the end of 2023. Physically I just cannot keep up with full time. I hope beyond hope people vote their hearts out for the Dems. If not things will be much much worse. My retirement plans may a dream then.

  5. Corporations have had increasing power over our government and politics for some time, and the Citizens United ruling accelerated that trend. If Republicans gain control of Congress in the midterms, it will be awful. But we can hope that their march toward fascism will shake mainstream voters out of their complacency before our democracy is lost.

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