doubleplusundead

No, not Bush, but this deal is very machiavellian. Ive been rereading Code of the Lifemaker* for the first time in many years. It’s actually been pretty depressing in its accuracy and how it explains a lot. The future America is mired in “mystic” thinking, there’s a con man/stage magician who everybody thinks is real. It was funnier a decade or two ago when I didn’t see so many parallels to what’s going on today.
This thought crystallized when I read this paragraph that comes after mentioning various crackpotteries.

“A politician can net a lot of votes for a small amount of effort by saying nice things about a guru who’s got ten thousand disciples so brainwashed that they’ll do anything he tells them,” Massey said, “So the guys who run the cults get away with murder, and nobody bothers them very much. The business they’re really in is selling blocks of controlled votes and molded public opinion in return for political favors and protection.”…

 

The Revs Al and Jessie have been in this business for decades.  During Al’s last run for POTUS, he broke so many laws it was ridiculous, he took public money and did not make any distinction between campaign funds and personal funds and left a string of unpaid bills behind.

Leftism is basically a pastiche of these deals. From unions to global warmmongers to afraid-of-the-religious-right to non-global worming eco-wackos (the evil corporations are killing all the darter seals, afraid of Big Oil, etc.) and more (c’mon, you can play along too!).

So the leaders of the various cults all identify an Other (who is usually a rich, white, man of the Republican variety, Dem rich folks are all good and shit) and then let their disciples know that only the benevolent, loving, almost divine, Democratic Party is the only salvation.

These hard-core followers then influence lots of acquaintances. Belief is obvious and it’s persuasive.

What has the GOP done for the last 10 years? Let us know they’re not as bad as the Dems. They don’t stand for anything except power for the GOP. Romney’s only lasting stance was power for Romney, everything else was negotiable.

Now, the Democratic Party stands for power for the Democratic Party, but they hide behind all manner of beliefs and their followers run with it.

Say what you want about Bush (seriously, say it. I do), but he believed in something. He communicated that very well and he won two elections he probably should have lost.

So we are stuck in a time when most people don’t pay any attention whatsoever to politics except for the last few days, but they’re fed a steady diet of “Leftists good, Conservatives bad” in every media everywhere, from movies to tv to radio (non-talk radio, but we all know they’re evil), etc. Yes, talk radio is somewhat powerful, but that’s self-selection. Your average person doesn’t listen to Rush because he called that woman a slut (she probably is) and made fun of Michael J. Fox’ disability (he didn’t, he just had the bad manners to notice that Fox exaggerated his trembling for the commercial, which reminds me, why, after the last 4 years of benevolent Dem rule, why haven’t they cured Parkinson’s yet?)

I don’t really have a point, I just like to understand the mechanics of the destruction of the American Republic.

Well Ben, we hung on to it for 0ver 200 years and I have a feeling we’ll get it back. The current insanity can’t go on forever, I just wonder how ugly it’s going to be. I still think an asteroid is the best-case scenario.

 

*James P. Hogan is hit and miss, sort of like Orson Scott Card, Code of the Lifemaker and the Two Faces of Tomorrow are very good, most of the others are okay. His biggest drawback is how every book ends with skittle-shitting unicorns for everyone.

Oh, and since I notice it’s no longer in our cloud thing at the bottom, sloppy vagina.