I Don’t Get It
’Tis a puzzlement!
As I’ve made no secret of here, I’m an atheist. I’m also a Progressive.
As a Baby Boomer, that makes me somewhat of a odd man out, but hey, I’ve always kinda been there, so that’s no surprise. My wife seems to like that, so there’s that.
My journey here started during the Gulf War. Before that, I’d been a supporter, in Texas, of the GOP. Voted for Bush, etc. But when he started in on that “weapons of mass destruction” thing, and multiple sources started in telling us that wasn’t likely, it got my attention. Then, when the war was ongoing, and there weren't any reports of finding anything like that, my suspicions escalated. I’d been fine with overturning such a murderous dictator anyway, on democratic principles, but when the real motives became obvious, as we allowed American oil companies to take over the oil fields there, well, that pushed me into Independence territory.
Within a couple of years, that turned more leftwards, and when my mother died in 2005, I realized I was and had been for years without realizing it, an atheist. Well, that was the final straw. My examination of my personal morals made me see that mine and those of the right wing were miles apart!
Over the ensuing years, I’ve slowly become a Progressive.
So, the other day, on Quora, when I ran into a lady who identified as an atheist yet was pushing some crazy-assed right wing bullcrap, I was completely thrown off base.
How, I wondered, could someone with the mental awareness to become an atheist possibly still fall for the right wing bullcrap as she seems to have?
Again, ’tis a puzzlement.
I mean, I get that there are folks who aren’t adequately educated or brought up to actually be able or willing to look at stuff that makes them uncomfortable, and will thus fall for someone like Trump, whose actions defy what they claim to be for. Who will believe anything a politician says as long as that person has the same (R) behind their name that they support.
Also that there are some who support the Democrats who do that too, though I’d argue there are fewer of those.
So, how do we fight this? How do we persuade the middle-of-the-roaders to come over, at least this time, to vote Blue? There are those who demonize both parties and try to tell us they’re both the same. They're wrong, of course, but can we persuade them to help prevent the Republicans from activating their Project 2025 and destroying our democracy?
I read an article today, I forget where, in which some political guy was arguing that the Democrats are messaging wrong. That they’re sending messages of support to both the upper classes AND the poor! But are ignoring the middle class.
Really? I cannot for the life of me see where any Democrat has told their constituents that they support the wealthy folks who are paying them less and hiking their prices. Now, certainly, not all of the Dems messages are clear. They spend too much time trying to respond to the right wing’s attacks and misinformation and too little telling the American people how they’re gonna fix our issues. Things that are truly of concern and affect their daily lives, where the border truly is a side issue for most Americans.
Maybe they need to be clearer. Make sure people understand where the true faults lie and how the Democratic Party intends to make those issues go away. I still wish the Progressives could split off and create their own Party — if the GOP manages to kill itself off.
Why? Because of Bernie Sanders, who, in 2016, ran a campaign for nomination in which he pushed a complete agenda for the Democratic Socialists, though he never used that term. But after the election, numerous polling companies polled Americans and found that almost every single idea of his polled with majority support from likely voters.
Every. Single. One.
And when they used the term “Medicare for All” instead of “Universal Health Care”, the support exceeded 80%!! Even a majority of Republicans polled supported that!
My point here is that if America wants to fix our problems and make our country work better, you know, like the Nordic countries who use Socialist policies combined with a solidly democratic form of government, then perhaps we should copy what they’ve done. Make it clear as clean glass that we intend to use our democratic ideals to take back power from the Corporations and the Rich White Men who control those and our politicians. Help voters understand that we want to improve the lives of EVERY American as much as we can, and we intend to do that WITH THEIR HELP AND PERMISSION!
The chaotic crap going on that the media is cooperating in causing needs to be stopped. It’s up to you and me to make that happen. Send signals to the media by not clicking on the stories that continue and keep on pushing that chaos. Change the channel when companies air segments that also do that. Join groups that also fight this. Give money, even if it’s five bucks a month, because if we all do that IT ADDS UP.
Inform the media that we don’t like and won’t listen to their constant re-airing of all Trump’s crap. That we don’t support them giving him free publicity.
Get online and push the Blue agenda. Make sure people understand one thing:
This election isn’t about who is gonna be president. It is about which Political Party is going to take power and either continue or end our democracy.
Doesn’t matter who the individual is in the White House. Too old? If he dies, there’s a VP. The country won’t collapse over a dead president.
Is that person demented?
Again, in THIS context, it doesn’t matter, because the Party they are nominally in charge of has others who will step up and make sure the Party’s agenda gets done. Frankly, I do believe if Biden does end up in that state where his ability to work is affected, the Dems will step in and Harris will take over through the 26th Amendment process. Or they’ll ensure Biden resigns.
But the Republicans won’t, they’ll just use Trump to manage their Project 2025 horror show and will keep on ending our democracy.
Because that’s their goal.
We cannot allow those too uneducated or unable to tell the difference between truth or lies to help Trump win.
Why do I put it that way?
Because as I’ve noted before, Trump only won in 2016 through the EC. He lost the popular vote by a bit less than 3 million votes. IN 2020, he not only lost the EC, but he lost the popular vote by THREE TIMES THAT MUCH and then some.
Plus, before neither election was he a convicted felon, nor did we see any “never-trumper” voters on the right making waves. Given both of those, he has less support today than he did four years ago, no matter how much the polling folks want you to think otherwise. I think their agenda is to scare folks into voting, to drive up the numbers.
But no matter what, you and I still need to do all we can to spread the word and to convince our Democratic fellows to tell the country what we CAN do to actually make their lives better.
Because isn’t that what we have a government FOR?
What’s that phrase in the Preamble to the Constitution again?
“…provide for the general welfare…”?
Yeah, that’s it. The GENERAL welfare, not just the Rich White Men, not just the Corporations.
ALL OF US. Right, left, middle. Any religion, any ethnicity, any political motivation or beliefs. Regardless of what the Rich White Men who founded this country wanted then, they DID give us the means to work hard to make this country better, generation after generation. Those of our forefathers who worked at that expanded the groups who could vote and be part of that effort, and today, we dare not sully their memories by failing to do all we can to continue that legacy.
So join me.
Vote BLUE.
