With one week left ’til the midterms, I think it’s fair to say that the Republican Party is now trying to reap what it’s been sowing over the last few years.
Not sure what I mean? Many pundits and bloggers, such as Andrew Sullivan, noticed more than a decade ago, closer to two decades in fact, that the conservative wing of the Republican Party, even as it took over the Party, looked less and less outside itself, and instead contented itself with information which came from other members of the conservative wing, or was fed in through official conservative news sources, such as Fox News, Breitbart, and others. This became known as the ‘bubble’ or ‘echo chamber,’ a version of the information landscape which has a problematic relationship with reality, sometimes strong, sometimes dubious, and occasionally completely delusional.
By encouraging members of the conservative wing, now simply known as the Republican Party as members who refuse to succumb to the lure of uniform thought and behavior[1] are RINOed out, to utilize only the conservative news sources, the leaders and backers of the Republican Party have worked to ensure their Party members’ support by controlling the news they consume. Additionally, by poisoning the traditional and neutral mass media as having distributed “fake news”, President Trump has participated – put the frosting on the cake, if you will – in the work of carefully fertilizing the crop. Through careful control of the content of the news, as documented by (perhaps former) Republican Bruce Bartlett, the members of the base are carefully nurtured for the big day. That big day might as well be known as The Reaping.
And I think it’s coming with mid-terms. How do we know this? The level of deceit from the Republican side. That’s the point, after all, of the bubble. The bubble members are fed their informational nutrients, no matter what the connection might be to reality, and the favored leaders of the Party receive their votes.
So we have …
- Healthcare pre-existing conditions. Apparently a number of GOP incumbents are claiming they are in favor of keeping legislation that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to citizens with pre-existing conditions. Even President Trump claims he’s for that.
Problem is, the AHCA did not retain that requirement. The AHCA was to replace the ACA, and the ACA brought that requirement into the law; the AHCA would have made it possible for insurance companies to deny coverage again. The AHCA was Trump’s baby, he worked for it, and was exceedingly bitter when it failed in the Senate.
But today? Today, he’d have you believe the Democrats are against it and the Republicans have been for that ban on using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage all along. No, really, that’s what he’d have you believe. Even as his Administration supports a lawsuit brought by some States asking that the ACA be declared null and void, including the all-important ban.
If your GOP candidate is claiming s/he voted for, or would have voted for legislation denying insurance companies the right to deny coverage to pre-existing conditions, but you do a little sleuthing and find they were full-throated supporters of the AHCA, then they’re liars. No shilly-shallying, folks. They’re taking advantage of the ‘bubble’ to feed you bullshit.See here for a more authoritative take on both the lies and the legislative analysis.
- Immigrants are grifters, murderers, and rapists. Well, no. Many statistical analyses (here’s one) indicate that immigrants, at worst, commit crimes at no higher a rate than natives, and often at lower rates. This makes sense, as what’s the point in traveling to the United States to commit a crime in an unfamiliar context when it’s so much easier on one’s home turf?
Furthermore, immigrants often take jobs no native-born American will take, and the recent lack of immigrant labor has lead to major problems for mom ‘n pop size businesses.
However, the dangers of immigrants has been a constant theme from President Trump and his adherents for the last week or two. Frighten the base into voting for their sober protectors. That caravan coming out of Honduras must be full of automatic weapons, because now our Army is deploying troops down to the border. And, dammit, you know the Democrats are for open borders. Trump keeps telling you so directly.
- Democrats are evil. A quarter of America is only evil if you really want them to be. However, to be honest with you, as an independent I see both sides as simply being fallibly human.
The difference between the two groups? Let me share with you, if I haven’t already, my definitions of conservatives and liberals.
A conservative is afraid the future may destroy that which they value about the present, both tangibles, such as communities, as well as intangibles, such as values. The sober, temperate conservative is thoughtful and understand change is inevitable. The emotional conservative is less forgiving, less tolerant, sometimes rigid, and can be manipulated by the canny marketeer. I had not given it any thought before, but I suspect Lincoln might be considered a sober, thoughtful conservative, intent on preserving the Union, but acknowledging that the central role of Justice in a stable society required the freeing of the slaves. An emotional conservative frantically defends everything, while the sober conservative lets those things associated with injustice go.
A liberal looks at the past and is horrified by the injustice s/he sees, and swears to do better. To the conservative, the liberal recommendations can seem like madness; independents may also find them jarring. Yet, one should not abhor those who would do better, but instead offer constructive, considered criticism – and be willing to be persuaded by their arguments. Temperamentally, liberals tend to be impressed with themselves and each other, and, the further out on a limb they’ve gone, the more patronizing they can become. It’s too bad, as I see such luminaries as Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers to be the most liberal: not in position, which never defines liberals or conservatives, but in their thought processes.
Evil is a convenient harvester, though, isn’t it? Voting against evil makes one feel like a Roman legionary holding back the vile Visigoths. (The Romans did eventually lose, BTW, and Rome was sacked.) But, as long time readers and certain spot-readers of this blog may realize, this is really about dividing the country. As an adversary might want, the United States is weak when we’re divided. (We must hang together, or surely we shall hang apart, to quote a Founding Father.) When we’re squabbling and screaming and lying about each other, we’re ripe for the picking.
The words coming out of Trump’s mouth are sweet music to the Russian oligarchs’ ears.
Democrats are not evil, no matter what the Republicans want you to believe. Their lies do not, to these independent’s eyes, appear to be anywhere in magnitude to the Republicans’ lies, to be comparable to the concerted and coordinated Republican attempts to control the information reaching their base.
I could go on, but frankly I find writing this sort of thing exhausting. The cynicism, the abandonment of principles, the rejection of long-established traditions that were constructed to keep us from capsizing on the rough seas of politics, suspicion of outsiders, and even sectarian violence.
It’s tiring. But it should be obvious: The Reaping is underway. The Republicans need the votes, and now they’re banking on how well they’ve insulated their base from the real world in order to reap those votes.
Are you just a stalk of grain sitting out in the field? Or are you beginning to wonder?
I’ll leave you with this.
DON’T TRUST ME.
DON’T TRUST FOX.
Just go out and do the research. The Republicans are for a ban on pre-existing condition clauses in insurance? Easy question: Why didn’t the AHCA contain that clause? Why did the Republicans vote more than 70 times to abolish the ACA during Obama’s years? Why are they once again trying to gut the ACA via their lawsuit with no exception for the ban, no legislation waiting to institute a ban, no nothing?
Go ask the questions. Then there’s one more: why are you voting for the Republicans this year?
1 That is, they practiced the once revered Republican tradition of thinking for themselves.
