Idiocracy Watch
Should I Have My Head Examined?
A helpful home diagnostic checklist
Trump has a history going back several years now of saying any Jew who votes for Kamala (previously Biden) should have their head examined. Most recently a couple of days ago in PA, dog-whistling his dirty-tricksters’ campaign to cast her picking Walz over Shapiro as another sign of the Democrats’ endemic antisemitism as a party.
In our post-modern world of neo-populist hypnotic pandering by short form twitterings, tiktokings and bumper-sticker soundbites … little gummy bear sized thoughtlets designed to stupify the ingesters thereof, to keep Idiocracy idiotic … moderation demands that we balance the scales a bit and point out the echo of Biden’s “you ain’t black” tit-for-tat last go-round.
Which got me to thinking. Indeed, if you’re a single issue voter, there are some cases where you should have your head examined if you’re going for one candidate or the other.
And so to the keyboard to compose a (hope to be) helpful diagnostic, which you can take in the privacy of your home, though depending on the severity, consult a professional … mental illness left untreated rarely fixes itself. Here’s trusting, dear reader, you have none of these symptoms below. Fingers crossed:
- Single Issue: Palestine. Symptom: you’re passionate about the Palestinian cause and aren’t going to vote for Kamala because you’re mad at the Biden administration’s handling of this round of the never-ending cluster that is the Middle East … no, not just since 1948 … back at least to Sargon the Great’s conquest of Ebla in ~2300 BCE. Rx: go read up on Trump/Vance’s position. Hint: it wasn’t the GOP boycotting Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
- Single Issue: Immigration (pro). Symptom: you think there should be open borders and/or the USA is the bad guy in this hemisphere. Rx: go down to the border of Colombia and Panama and join a convoy … vlog the experience, especially at all of the borders you cross. Hint: feel free to take some side excursions en route and document all the good local government you encounter.
- Single Issue: Immigration (con). Symptom: you think all the non-white people scrambling to get in are just slacking criminals, here to sponge off our social safety net. Rx: go work a shift in Salinas or out in the Central Valley, picking a peck of produce. Hint: your hero Steve Bannon got one thing right when he said the border will never be closed because Republicans see cheap labor.
- Single Issue: Abortion. Symptom: you’re an archetype pro-Choice suburban purple, living in a state (either color) that has changed its constitution to enshrine Roe after the Dobbs decision, and you believe Trump that the constitutional issue is now settled, with the matter returned to the states. Rx: read what Speaker Mike Johnson really thinks, before he had to start mumbling. Hint:
In a 2021 hearing on an abortion ban in Texas, Johnson testified that “when a woman is pregnant, science tells us that the new life she carries is a completely separate and full new human being from the moment of fertilization.”
- Single Issue: Social Security. Symptom: you’re a lifelong GOP voter, retired (or nearing) and (expect to) rely on Social Security and/or Medicare, and you trust that your party still hews to the Reagan “third rail” dogma. Rx: read the Heritage Foundation’s policy papers. Hint: “privatization”.
- Single Issue: China. Symptom: You think Putin is a good guy and if we were nicer to him and gave him his way in Ukraine, he would magically flip over to joining us in a strategy to contain China’s rise. Rx: Read what the experts have to say. Hint:
Understanding that history, the younger Xi by all appearances believes that the current relationship between Moscow and Beijing is indeed stronger than it was in the 1950s, and that he can avoid the strains that led to the earlier split.
- Single Issue: Inflation. Symptom: you think POTUS controls inflation and that Biden single-handedly caused the recent spike. Rx: try to understand what the Fed is and how it works … it’s complicated. Hint: look at the top of the front of any US Dollar bill (any denomination) and notice the “United States of America” is below “FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE”. Extra Credit: understand the relationship between tariffs and inflation.
- Single Issue: Democracy. Symptom: you care about small-d democracy and think MAGA is how to protect it. Rx: (re-)read the Utah Sen. Mike Lee (pictured below) controversy from the stretch run of the last go-round in 2020. Hint: it’s both a legitimate political science issue, and a clear homing beacon to all the authoritarians in the electorate … don’t be a trick.
- Single Issue: Freedom of Religion. Symptom: you’re a person of faith — any not of the Mike Johnson, Dixie Evangelical theocracy kind — and you think Trump has been sent by Jesus to save America. Rx: re-read 1 John 4, then James Madison and Thomas Jefferson on the topic of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom. Hint: if it’s ok for state and local governments in Louisiana to require Old Testament scripture in every classroom, what’s to keep the Quran out of majority Muslim community public schools?
- Single Issue: Zionism (pro). Symptom: you’re a non-radicalized Jewish American and you think the Trump-Likud strategy for the Levant (roughly speaking, apart-hood) is what’s going to prevent another Shoah … Trump’s point from the top of this article. Rx: re-read the history of Zionism prior to 1948. Hint: “The Jews will not replace us!” tiki torch crowd wasn’t from the blue team.
- Single Issue: Trump (pro). Symptom: full blown personality cult blind worship. Rx: Outward Bound grade internet and cable detox, go offline, preferably out in nature with some normal people of all persuasions for several weeks or months until the spell breaks. Hint: convicted felon, by a jury of his peers.
