Tuesday, December 4, 2018

A Quick Explanation of Why We Are F***ed

I am going to keep this short.

As I have said for years and years and years, the Republican Party is not a political party in the traditional sense, but merely a vehicle for an extremist right-wing ideology. That ideology is wedded to a nationalism that proclaims conservatives to be "real Americans" and those who are not to be "un-American." This means that the "un-American" faction has no legitimate role in governing even if it wins elections.

When Republicans gerrymander and suppress the vote they are not just doing so out of political expediency, they really and truly feel as if they are saving the country from ruin. Pretty much any malfeasance can be justified by that fear because that end will ALWAYS justify the means.

What we are seeing right now in Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina is just the latest manifestation of this phenomenon. There is no sign whatsoever that Republicans are going to change their way of thinking. They were rebuked in the last election, but can use the Senate, gerrymandering,  the electoral college and suppression to maintain minority rule.

The only way forward is to acknowledge the brokenness of our system of government and the need to gut the Constitution. That won't happen, partially due to conservative power, and also to the lack of will or even the consciousness of the need to act on the other side.

Instead our democracy will continue to decay and drift, year after year after year. The forces of repression lack any shame or doubt, while this opposed to them are disunited, tentative, and lacking in resolution. None of this is going to end well.

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