Grading and politics

[acamp]

Of course it was one sided. I have 2 responses to the last comment:

1) The post I was responding to was about how we can’t agree, how we collectively can’t see across the divide. I was merely echoing and amplifying that point. When the party on the other side from me believes that my party is filled with Satanist pedophiles working toward one-world government and that Donald Trump, of all people, is the solution, how, exactly, are we supposed to bridge that divide?

2) I either disagree with or don’t care about all of the major policy positions of the Republican Party. I do believe that the Democrats have, for the last 30 years or so, not been right in their positions on Israel and Taiwan, Republicans have been better IMO. But why, exactly, so I have to defend people who advocate for policy positions that I find repugnant? Sure, they have right to believe what they want and to say what they want. That’s the nature of American democracy. But it’s not my job to defend people who, in my opinion, prioritize the rights of corporations over those of citizens, who prioritize the rights of white people over people of color, who prioritize the rights of men over women, who prioritize short-term business profits over long term ecological and environmental harm, and who would rather ally themselves with anti-democratic dictators than popular democracies.

For roughly 50 years the United States lived with what has been labeled the “New Deal Settlement”. Workers rights, including union rights were protected. Working people were guaranteed a fair wage for their labor. Urban and rural interests were both taken seriously by both major parties. Our nation steered a generally consistent course in foreign policy. Education was cheap and widely available. Healthcare was cheap and widely available. And then Ronald Reagan and the Christian Right happened. A handful of people realized that they could destroy that settlement, giving themselves vast amounts of power and making huge amounts of money for themselves. They realized that they could weaponize religion, turning it from a unifying and calming force into a red-hot poker that they could use to crucify their enemies. They realized that they could use hot button issues like gun rights and abortion to manipulate a vast swath of the electorate. It has worked remarkably well.

But no, I will not defend it. I will not defend people like Donald Trump who is a womanizer, a glutton, and a thief but who is also somehow the champion of Christian virtue. No. I will not defend that. I will not defend people who lie to farmers and say that they are pro-farmer while writing farm bills that have destroyed the small family farmer but have manipulated rural people to vote red because of “Christian values” and guns. No, I will not support people who lie to coal miners and tell them that coal is coming back while also supporting fracking that has totally destroyed the market for bunker coal. No. I will not support those people and I will not post things that make them and their positions look good. To ask me to do that is, frankly, “Unbelievable”.

And Biden is really a poster child, isn’t he?


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