After years of Trump, “Donald Desperation” has truly begun to set in. Americans are grasping at any straws that might lead to a way out of the trap we’ve dug for ourselves. [Meanwhile, our British friends are in the unenviable position of having out-done us]
I don’t want to dwell on this sort of thing, much – after all, my opinion is worth no more than anyone else’s – but I’m gobsmacked by how many people seem to be on the Beto Bandwagon. It’s an OK bandwagon to be on, when you’re cheering (as I did!) for someone to possibly unseat the oleo-covered servant of oligarchy, Ted Cruz. You could wrap a bunch of deer guts in bacon and it’d be a more attractive candidate, for me, than Ted Cruz.
None of that overshadows the fact that Beto lost to Ted Cruz.
I would expect the aforementioned bacon-wrapped deer guts to beat Cruz, pretty handily, so that is damning O’Rourke with some faint praises, indeed.
The democratic party appears to be doing the same thing that brought us Obama (and which brought the republicans Trump): casting around for a candidate that is not obviously repulsive – which means: a candidate about whom the electorate is largely ignorant. Looking back at it, it seems to me as though Obama may have been only the first president to be elected because Hillary Clinton was so repulsive. There are lots of reasons the electorate despises Hillary Clinton and one of the big ones is that they had plenty of time to get to know her. I voted for her, naturally, because the alternative was worse than a bacon-wrapped bunch of deer guts, but that’s the flaw in the 2 party system: “the menu today is fish” as Henry Rollins says. You could see how, in 2016, the republican base kept flipping toward whatever candidate was least well-known and consequently least repulsive. Ah, hindsight!
Beto makes me uncomfortable because he’s hip and cool and good looking and he seems to be as radical as Obama; i.e.: not very. I’m afraid that he might be the one to run against Trump, and he couldn’t beat Cruz.
What about the rest of the field? Well, we’ve got a year in which we’ll get to know them pretty well. Or, at least, we’ll get to hear what they choose to project. After Obama, I’m keeping my skepticism set on “11.” Sure, Obama was a greatk, competent and eloquent imperial president, but he sure wasn’t the progressive he campaigned as being. He just looked a whole lot better than Bush, but so does any bag of deer entrails. Beto’s going to have to deal with his centrism, his political campaign being bought for him by his father in law (he’s not such a down-at-the-heels aw shucks act as he tries to seem) and his support for the police state and Israel. Biden’s going to have to deal with the fact that he’s an out of touch ancient white guy. Elizabeth Warren’s going to have to compromise, like Bernie did. And Bernie’s probably going to get maneuvered out of candidacy by the democratic party machine, as has now become a tradition.
2020 is shaping up to be a real shit-show, which is why I won’t be writing much about it. It’s not that I won’t be watching closely – I will, but like the rest of us, I know it’s all just the dying screams of our pseudo-democracy collapsing further into oligarchy or autocracy. It turns out that the little bit of democracy the American system gave us,* was too much.
* And by “us” I mean “white men who own real estate” as the founding fathers intended.
It’s probably impossible for Americans to elect a president that is not a fanatical supporter of Israel, though we could do a lot less badly than Trump. I was tempted to include a tweet from AIPAC, who were careful to tag Beto [mondo] as meeting with them. Can you imagine the shitstorm if an American politician met with Iran lobbyists or an imam? Of all the politicians in the US right now, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez is the one I most wish could run against Trump. But she’s going to have to wait her turn, which the democratic party machine will make sure never comes.
I didn’t include any more comments about AIPAC, or a snapshot of the tweet, because I’m not anti-Israel, I’m pro-Palestinian; I reject the dichotomy.
Clarification: by “well known” I mean that the person behind the public persona is well known. I’d like to imagine that if the republican base knew what a sleazebag Trump is, even they would have preferred Ted Cruz or the deer guts.
In recent polls, Democrats say they place a high priority on getting a candidate who can beat Trump. But Beto’s very name screams “second place.”
Ahh, US presidential campaigns. Like christmas in stores they constantly assault you with all manner of tired rubbish you can’t bear to hear anymore. Unlike christmas they never ever stop! Can I be honest? I’m extremely pleased not to be an American. While I can’t say the US election won’t matter over here I have zero stake in it. So I can ignore it without having to feel guilty.
That said, I’m equally sick of “local” politics. A few days ago I finally gave up on the Brexit discussion. It’s not like I don’t care – I am rather fond of the UK, difficult as it is these days – but I simply no longer see any point to keeping up, since every new development is boils down to there being no actual change. I was never keen on politics in the first place and only take a (strictly proverbial) interest so I can reasonably vote against the populist smegheads trying to run everything into the ground. Except that it’s not working, so I’m not sure its worth the effort.
I’ve said it before: It’s not you who inspires my growing cynicism, it’s the news. A steady drip of poison to erode … I’m going to say “your hopes for the future” because I’m too far gone for the “faith in humanity” thing.
I may have wandered off topic a bit. Ah: I for one wouldn’t mind at all if you write about things other than the US election. There, saved it.
komarov@#2:
Can I be honest?
“Do as thou will” is the whole of the law around here.
[I’m going to take your comment as a suggestion to post more project-related stuff ;) I have been investment casting solid silver gummi bears, lately…]
Reginald Selkirk@#1:
In recent polls, Democrats say they place a high priority on getting a candidate who can beat Trump.
Yup. Which means, inevitably, a move toward moderates.
I want someone as radical as Trump, just progressive instead of flaming asshole. That’s not going to happen.
They would have had to have been living in a cave for the last so and so many years not to have been aware of what Trump is. He has never made a secret of being a liar, a swindler, a blowhard, a bully, and a bigot, and it’s been obvious for at least 20 years. Granted, the Mainstream Media never bothered to focus on it during the campaign, but he made no secret of it on the campaign trail; in fact it was his trademark and his selling point.
He’s peddling hate, and that seems to be the important thing for almost half the US population. It’s the only core value that the Republican party has left. Not that it should really surprise us; genocide, exploitation, torture, and gratuitous violence have been USA-an traditional values since the founding of the nation. Every Republican presidential candidate has based his appeal on USA-ans’ love of a sufficiently violent bully, especially if he’s their bully, and Democratic candidates have felt they had to demonstrate their bully cred by ordering atrocities (the “Move” bombing in Phila, or Waco) or promoting racist tropes (the Clinton’s esposal of the “superpredator” myth.)
If the press went easy on him during the campaign, it’s because his brand of bullying appealed to them, too. You’ll notice that the press didn’t start to turn against him until he started attacking them regularly. You won’t see his base turning against him until his swindling of them becomes so obvious that they can’t avoid seeing it.
Allison@#5:
You won’t see his base turning against him until his swindling of them becomes so obvious that they can’t avoid seeing it.
They won’t care until it’s their ox that gets gored, in other words. Sounds about right. And you correctly characterize the press’ reaction: they were effusive in their coverage until he targeted them, and doubled down again and again. They should have seen that coming.
Allison@#5:
They would have had to have been living in a cave for the last so and so many years not to have been aware of what Trump is.
I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve realized how little Americans really know about their elected “representatives” – it’s a tribute to the relentless cascade of propaganda we live within. JFK was shot when I was 2 or so, and so I only remember how people talked about him (until the conspiracies came along) and people seemed to think he was ok, not a monstrous philandering shitberg who nearly got us all killed in a nuclear war that he provoked. No, he was beloved and all that. And Nixon was propagandized as a good old down home sort. Eisenhower was a hero, Johnson a good ole boy, etc. These people were all shitbags.
I attended Catholic schools in my youth. We were taught that JFK was a saint (slight exaggeration for effect). Getting killed fairly early was probably the best thing that could have happened to his reputation.
I want to see silver gummy bears!
I read the Brexit shit because I live here, and I worry about what will happen to my country, I keep an eye on what is happening in the USA as it affects all of us where ever we live, but that gives me nowt leftover to offer other countries except vague sympathy.
I want to see silver gummy bears!
Jazzlet@#9:
I want to see silver gummy bears!
I’ll post some things on gummy bears in the next couple days, then. I need to do the auction for the knives I have in the pipeline but maybe I can add a .999 fine silver gummy bear to the auction list. They weigh just about 1 troy oz, so I won’t be doing gold ones any time soon…
The whole gummy bears thing turned into a much bigger much more complicated process. Surprise, surprise! That’s never happened in Marcus-land before!
And completely unrelated, for chigau:
Yes, I want to try scissors someday. It ought to be easy-ish as long as I avoid having to form European-style shears’ handles, which are way outside of the scope of my blacksmithing ability.
I tend to like your posts about politics and philosophy – the ones about electronic security and metalworking go over my head since they are about things I have basically zero knowledge about and relatively little interest in.*
I don’t necessarily agree with you a lot of the time – I tend to see most politicians neither as heroes or monsters but rather as ordinary people struggling with extraordinary problems.
*Lots of people say you should never end a sentence with a preposition, but I just ignore them.
Canada elected a good-looking liberal who’s pretty hip and cool and look at the mess that got us into.
As for the American presidential election, the whole damn thing is just very long and very bad theatre. Your election isn’t until November next year so why get all worked up about it already? I’m sure that between now and then there will be some political thing that you’ll want to write about and I’ll be happy to read it. I like to hear your curmudgeonly cynical opinions.
Also, I want to see silver gummy bears, too. And the progress of your shed!
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating once more: his name’s Robert. Acceptable abbreviations for this name include Rob, Robbie, Robbo, Bob, Bobbie, Rab, Bert and possibly Dobby.
Let us know when the Democrats have a candidate who’s not known by what was most likely literally his first ever attempt at pronouncing his own name.
> I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating once more: his name’s Robert. Acceptable abbreviations for this name include Rob, Robbie, Robbo, Bob, Bobbie, Rab, Bert and possibly Dobby.
In the English language that would be true, however in Spanish, Beto is the diminutive of Roberto.
Marcus
In this TV series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Gently%27s_Holistic_Detective_Agency_(TV_series)
in season 2, the warriors of Wendimoor fight with sword-sized scissors.
Very fun.
That’s what inspired the question.
The Democratic Party is run by people who have no ‘skin in the game’, as Taleb would say. Pelosi, Schumer, Hillary — they all just retreat to their mansions if Trump wins in 2020. They don’t care, it’s just a game to them.
sonofrojblake@#14:
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating once more: his name’s Robert
I try to always use whatever name a person identifies themself under, along with their preferred gender pronouns if I know them. I was raised that making fun of people’s names is a cheap shot (but that’s probably because of my own name)
polishsalami@#17:
They don’t care, it’s just a game to them.
Their egos are at stake, which make it no game. It’s life or death!
Warriors of Wendimoor:
I didn’t make fun of his name. I am observing that he’s made a choice to be known by a nickname that sounds like baby-talk, and that that says something about him, given that his chosen profession isn’t childrens’ entertainer or comedian.
sonofrojblake@#21:
I didn’t make fun of his name.
I was speaking only regarding how I prefer to behave.
One can only wonder how “repulsive” Ms. Clinton would have been seen as, had she not been the “beneficiary” of an intensive, decades-long smear campaign from the GOP. “But her emails!” ring any bells? “Benghazi!”?
Some where else, it was pointed out how little coverage Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and the other women candidates are getting compared to Beto, Biden, and Sanders.
I forget where, but a short while back there was some interview about one of orange asshole’s policies, and someone was quoted as saying something along the lines of “He’s not hurting the right people”, and I feel that says a lot about most of the populace voting Republican.
The silver gummi bear sounds amusing, so I’m looking forward to any posts about that.
Marcus, as someone with a background in computer security, have you any take on the revelation that O’Rourke was in the Cult of the Dead Cow when he was a teenager?
Marcus #20
Yes. Just like that.
Give it a go?