A conservative friend and I recently had an exchange which I think I’ll post, with his permission, concerning the current various political leaderships, and the proper way to integrate divinity into the question of governance. We pick up on this in the middle of our correspondence:
[My friend] I’d worry more about the idiots on the other [Democratic] side of the isle.
[Hue] I have to say I adore your typo!
They seem to not be in step with the common sense folks.
Problem is they’re not employed to ‘be in step’ with us. That’s how we ended up with gross incompetents like Speaker Ryan, Gohmert, not to mention corrupt folks like Pruitt, Price, Zinke, Ross, Hunter, Collins, etc etc etc. They’re employed to take care of us – safeguard the nation, and regulate it so low-life scum don’t take too much advantage of us.
Wasn’t it well known conservative and writer Robert Heinlein who said something like ‘common sense is neither’? Well, he was technically trained and thought analytically (and he was a former Navy officer, forced out by TB). Point is, common sense, at best, applies only to your area of expertise. ‘Common sense folks’ have no experience with politics, government, and international politics, and their diagnoses and plans often reflect their ignorance. The only fountain of wisdom is the knowledge that you’re ignorant, and that applies to farmers just as much as it applies to M.D.s or physics PhDs – two groups famous for their hubris.
To me they seem to be in the game for power, glory, and money. The heck with the common folk.
Both sides are attracted to the power & glory, and Trump appears to get off on all three. If you wonder about money, search on the new FBI HQ building and how he’s interfering to keep it right near one of his own hotels.
But since you bring up common sense folks again, I gotta ask why. The way I was brought up, common sense meant you didn’t trust liars, and Trump is the undisputed King and Master of the Liars of Politics. Maybe Nixon was in the same ballpark, but even he was only at 1st base when Trump rounds 3rd and chugs for home. (Brief pause to consider the visual.) There may be a couple of other Republicans who think they are as absolutely unprincipled as Trump, such as Pruitt and this new boy, Whittaker, but they’re no where near them.
No doubt the Democrats do a little lying, but to tell the truth, as an independent, the Republicans appear to be equal parts liars and incompetents. Their campaigns seem to subsists on lies and voter suppression/gerrymandering. How is this something the ‘common folks’ with ‘common sense’ can possibly approve of? Maybe it’s just that I’ve started paying attention to politics, but it seems painfully obvious that Trump has snookered almost half the nation.
Trump has plenty of folks around to help keep him on the straight and narrow—that is if you have faith in your politicians and that’s a se7rious problem,
Trump appears to be attracted to people just like himself, and generals. Defense Secretary and former General Mattis seems like he’s both competent and honorable, although how can I be certain from this distance? The rest? Either hamstrung with ridiculous ideologies or so freakin’ avaricious they belong in cartoons. And as the expert Washington watchers have noted, he’s not nominating competent people who just [have] views that differ from liberals – he’s nominating folks with no relevant experience, often people who just happen to show up on Fox News (such as that Florida candidate for Governor, DeSantis, who was considered a long shot when he entered the race, but arranged to appear on Fox every chance he could until Trump endorsed him). That Acting Attorney General has managed to put himself in the running as Biggest Clown in the Trump Cabinet, and given names like Price, Zinke, and Pruitt, that is saying one helluva lot.
but God put these people in position, but I have to say I don’t really agree with His choices, but He’s running the show—like it or not. I have to keep reminding me of that too.
I cannot agree. The last time people said that, the Bush Debacle occurred. If it’s really God in charge, he fucking well hates us.
But the truth of the matter is that we’re self-governing, we’re no longer under the rule of a God-picked sovereign, eh? It’s no Queen Lizzie for us, and we’ve told ‘God’ to keep his nose out of our affairs. I know that ticks a lot of folks off, but given how poorly theocracies work out I thinkt the Founding Fathers agreed for good reason to keep him/it/her at arms length and take responsibility for our own future.
And a second point – putting this all on God, some sort of mysterious plan, let’s call it what it really is:
Abdication of Responsibility.
How much sense does it make to say that God wants Trump to sit in an Oval Office, give up national security secrets, damage the economy through the tariff wars, lie like it’s an Olympic Sport, and SIT ON OUR ASSES DOING NOTHING BUT VOTING FOR THOSE WHO SUPPORT HIM?
Doesn’t it make more sense to admit he’s an error and work to fix it?
It’s so much easier to blame it on a God with a mysterious plan than take up arms against a thousand foes, isnt it? Yet, I contend, the latter course is far more honorable than navel-gazing about the intentions of some divine creature for which there’s no evidence of even existing?
The Founding Fathers struck out on their own because the navel-gazing of King Henry was going nowhere good. Why deviate from their course?
Make of it what you will.
