Political declaration of independence (reprise)
Political declaration of independence (reprise), Infidel753, Blogger and Commenter
I know Infidel from Crooks and Liars where he would moderate Mike’s Blog Round Up and feature Angry Bear from time to time. Infidel writes some pretty darn good posts on his own site of the same name. This particular post is about the Virginia election pre-Virginia election. See if you agree with Infidel.
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It’s now exactly four months since I declared my independence from obsessing over the minutiae of legislative and electoral politics. While it’s not possible to totally screen out every trace of those things from one’s attention, I’ve managed to do so to the extent that my mental health is noticeably better.
A few other things have happened.
Immediately after putting up that original post in July, I got a large number of supportive e-mails, almost all from readers I had not heard from before, and who as best I could tell were mostly people who read but don’t have blogs of their own. I greatly appreciated these. My impression is that my exasperation with politics and with the way the blogosphere engages with it is widely shared.
There was, as I expected, a drop in the typical number of page views per week, but it was only around 15% (it’s hard to estimate exactly since page views fluctuate a lot from week to week anyway). I assume this was due to readers who had read my blog mainly for the politics losing interest — they’re entitled to their preferences and there’s no shortage of political blogs for them to read. For me, a big part of the reason for blogging is to attract the attention of like-minded people, and a focus on politics no longer fit that purpose. The number of page views has been slowly rising since then, as it had been doing for years anyway, and is now pretty much back up to where it was.
Soon after, my disgust with the political scene plumbed new depths with the Taliban take-over of Afghanistan. An entire country of 33 million people had fallen into the grip of thugs determined to hurl it back into the Dark Ages, with women and girls facing especially grim threats of reversion to virtual slavery — and most coverage in the US manifested the worst of our country’s traditional narcissism, treating a whole foreign land as a mere stage prop or bit player in the game of American politics and assigning blame. Almost every post or article supposedly focusing on Afghanistan quickly pivoted to “this just goes to show that Biden blah blah Trump blah blah…..” I started spending more time reading the radical-feminist sites which were intensively covering the threat of theocratic misogyny over there. Those sites’ ideology can be exasperating in some areas, but at least their posts about Afghanistan were actually about Afghanistan.
To the extent that I still follow the political media and blogosphere, most of it seems stuck in a deep and narrow rut that it hardly ever tries to see over the sides of. Major events like the AUKUS deal, the Great Resignation, or the nationwide wave of strikes suggesting a rising new wave of worker militancy and activism, get barely a mention. Nothing exists except the day-to-day minutiae of legislative maneuvering in Washington, the fluctuating fortunes of politicians in office or running for office, and the flounderings of the failed and crooked ex-president whom we voted out almost a year ago. It’s like reading bulletins from some remote planet.
All fingers point outward, at the other side — there is no introspection. No one asks why Democrats lost so many 2020 Senate races where they far outspent their opponents and expected to win, or why women and minorities voted more Republican in 2020 than in 2016. Right now everyone is baffled about why the governor’s race in blue-leaning Virginia is too close to call, yet I’ve seen hardly any mention in the left-wing blogosphere or the MSM (aside from the NYT’s shitty, desperate damage-control editorial) of the Loudoun county school assaults and cover-up and the arrest of a victim’s father who called out the school board’s bullshit — crimes which inevitably drew attention to policies the Democratic party has been aggressively pushing. Again, kudos to those radical-feminist sites which have kept this story front-and-center since it began. The MSM seemed to imagine that if they themselves didn’t mention it, voters in the very state where it happened wouldn’t notice such an explosive scandal or be swayed in their voting choices by it. That’s not how the real world works.
(This is, by the way, a good example of why it’s impossible to avoid politics entirely, because the social issues I do follow keep intersecting with it. I’ve been following the Loudoun scandal closely since it broke, and that eventually led me to reports about the Virginia governor’s race, which I had previously hardly been aware of.)
If Youngkin wins, or if McAuliffe wins by a scarily-narrow margin, I predict the activist left will reach for a “top-down” explanation — the Republicans manipulated and fooled the passive, easily-swayed masses with propaganda about critical race theory or whatever. They’ll ignore the real, “bottom-up” explanation — voters were giving the Democrats a desperately-needed kick in the teeth for embracing policies dangerous and repulsive to ordinary people. The wake-up call will be as loud and clear as an air-raid siren and they’ll still manage to ignore it, still all lecturing and no listening. The situation is hopeless.
If there is any hope left, it lies in the grassroots, in the rising energy of the Great Resignation and the growing wave of strikes, and the ongoing cultural changes which politics cannot affect or even understand. But I see very little evidence that the Democratic party as an institution is interested in engaging with any of this.
And if the activist left is determined to continue sleepwalking, and ignoring anything that doesn’t fit the narrative, there’s nothing I can do about it — therefore, there is no reason for me to worry about it, since worrying will not accomplish anything, but merely creates unnecessary stress which I cannot afford. I’ve done more than could reasonably have been expected of me to try to wake people up, and mostly just gotten bashed for it. Enough of that. I accept that the left internet is going to continue pretty much as it has been, and that the Democratic party will likely do the same, and that there’s a very strong chance the Republicans will win in 2022 and 2024, profoundly damaging the country — and that, again, there’s nothing I can do about it, much as I dread it. I’m in the process of coming to terms with that and focusing on how to manage my personal situation if it does happen.
[Comments closed, it’s a rant not a discussion, please respect that and don’t post responses in the comment threads of other posts, blah blah blah, you know the drill.]
I not only agree with all of it, but I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. Getting my own perspective on politics coming back at me practically verbatim is a little unexpected, but not entirely since there were certainly signs of this in past AB posts by Infidel. This is also where my wife and I meet, her raised by conservative Silent Generation Episcopalians and me raised by New Deal Greatest Generation Southern Baptists. Infidel may not know it, but there are a great many people that share his view, probably more than follow mainstream politics and its media pets.
Ron:
I suspect he will stop by
Unfortunately enough there is not much of a political movement that can be built on giving up on politics. OTOH, the like-minded may represent a greenfield opportunity for a new movement at some time in the future, if and only if, their frustration and cynicism can be overcome, which would more likely be a matter of compelling events rather than just a new spin on an old game. Depending upon the emergence of compelling events is still a crap shoot, but one that holds the possibility of rolling seven or eleven or making one’s point rather than rolling snake eyes over and over again.
I certainly am not putting forward a withdrawal from politics as a recommended course of action for everyone — only explaining that it feels necessary for me personally. I’ve been strongly engaged with politics for decades; I’ve put in my time.
But as I see it, the primary political task right now is to free the Democratic party from the woke cultural lunacy it has embraced and which now forms an electoral millstone around its neck. If that can be done, it should start winning elections by the more comfortable margins that the Republicans’ nihilistic barbarism ought to be making possible. The koolaid-soaked activist fringe is far too committed to woketardia to allow itself to understand that issue, but eventually, as awareness of stuff like the trans nonsense starts seeping more widely into the mass public mind, the party leadership will be forced to confront the fact that it’s a fatal electoral liability.
In the long run it’s inevitable. As you suggested in your first comment, most of the great mass of people probably have this kind of view of things. They want a stronger social safety net, fairer taxes on the wealthy, and so forth. They just don’t want their kids being taught negativity about “whiteness” in school, or mentally-ill men using the girls’ bathroom. Until the Democrats jettison that stuff, it will be a potent weapon for the wingnuts to use against them, and winning elections will depend on things like how well Biden can sell the benefits of the infrastructure bill or whether some key Republican candidate makes a gaffe or gets too associated with Trump.
I cannot disagree with you at all. Since 1968 I have wandered back and forth between hopefulness and despair for our party. My wife reaches her SS FRA in 42 months, while I have been retired since being laid off June 2015. There is a lot more to life and not much more time now. My hope is that my grandchildren get a better return on their political investment than I have.
BTW, best of luck to you.
Bizarre piece. What are these “policies dangerous and repulsive to ordinary people” that Democrats are supposed to be embracing?
It is Quite Likely that defund the police is the most dangerous and repulsive policy to ordinary people of any in recent broad public conversation. Of course, it makes perfectly good sense that if something about government is really screwed up then spending less money on it will make it far better – if one is a reactionary conservative.
Most people do not get trans for sure and although no one should be beaten or murdered because of their sexuality as long as their S&M does not reach the level of beating or murdering their lovers, then the touchy, feely fringe of public school restroom usage rules for trans runs the risk of getting a bit too touchy, feely for the peace of mind of many parents. IMHO, there should be restrooms for those with a penis and separate for those without a penis and that should be the end of it. Those with a penis can stand and use urinals, others not so much on target.
During the activist days of my youth then gay men were far more supportive for both civil rights and anti-war movements than straight men. My many gay male friends back then knew that I was hopelessly straight, but appreciated that I treated them no differently than the blacks and women that I also relied upon to show up for rallies and protests. It did not hurt that I was a good looking young man with either the gay men or the straight women and even some of the gay women that thought that I was gay because of all those gay men that I hung around with. The antiwar movement did bring out a lot of straight men that did not want to get drafted along with those that were stalking the pretty women that showed up.
Later in life, my youngest daughter did not care whether it was legal for her to marry her lover near as much as she cared about the cost of college for her son. She did not want the Democratic Party to lose elections because of gay rights wedge issues that did not relate to employment or quality of life. She was raised to have enough self-esteem under her own steam. In sixth grade there was only one boy that could beat her in arm wrestling. She excelled in field hockey, softball, basketball despite her short height, and track until she blew out a knee. She had already been woke by one of her gay friends murdering another of her gay friends in a fit of jealous rage. Her romantic fantasies about sexual orientation had been destroyed. There are pigs everywhere, not just among men.
i missed a turn on “perfectly good sense..if you are a reactionary.” if you were being ironic, that’s okay, but some of us are humorously challenged.
most people, it seems, have not had the same eperience I have had with cops. i can tell you of my own certain knowledge that they do not target only blacks.. though so far they haven’t murdered me. i think that is entirely because i know when to stop “disrespecting” them. something i learned from my dogs.
but even i knew that “defund the police” was a stupid thing to say. just as anything approaching a “protest” is a dumb thing to do, as I learned from Martin Luther King. a passive resistance “march” is a far different thing from a noisy mob that’s “been pushed enough,” even a passive resistance march can get you killed. anything faintly resembling a riot is going to lose you elections.
Cob,
Sorry, but irony builds strong blood. I practically live on the stuff myself.
clearly I need more of it myself.
What are these “policies dangerous and repulsive to ordinary people”
This may clarify. Remember that the post reproduced here was written for my own blog, where the regular readers are already mostly familiar with what kinds of things I mean.
Infidel:
This person is not a usual commenter here. This is my fault as i should have answered Quite.
Infidel,
That did not clarify a thing for me since it was exactly what I thought that you meant all along. We do not exactly agree about everything as I am more agnostic than fundamentalist atheist regarding some doubt about all things not readily revealed by our five senses as sensibly uncertain. Also, I was raised sort of Christian even if I was sent to Sunday school primarily to give my parents some time alone on Sunday mornings. I even know some religious people that I have great respect for along with all those that are obviously too hypocritical to believe. On politics in general we match, but on gays my top priority is for them to not be beaten and murdered, life and limb first and rights that are more symbolic than necessary only as that does not compromise my first priority. My youngest daughter does not need anyone’s permission or approval to be herself, but she does need to be alive and whole to be herself. She inherited more than enough self-esteem from me and like me thinks everyone else can go F themselves if they do not like it.
The purpose of that link was to respond to QL’s question about what “policies dangerous and repulsive to ordinary people” the Democrats are supporting, and it go into more detail about what I was referring to (if you read far enough into it — mainly the paragraph starting “People seem to think they can get away with…..”). It didn’t address religion at all.
“…Portland, Oregon, United States Individualist, transhumanist, socialist, atheist, liberal, optimist, pragmatist, and regular guy — it has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of ‘spirituality’ of any kind…”
“…I originally intended this blog to focus on attacking religion (note that the blog name is Infidel753, not Liberal753)…”
[Otherwise, we are on the same page.]
The first of those quotes is from my profile, not the post, while the second was a brief aside in a long post before getting to the much longer part which is the reason I linked to it for clarification (the paragraph starting “People seem to think they can get away with…..”). You are just bickering for the sake of bickering. It was an appropriate link to respond to QL’s comment, which is the only reason I linked to it.
Quite Likely:
I am delinquent in answering you. Perhaps, read the link in the same paragraph from which you pulled these words from in your question. I believe you may find the answer there.
Ron
yeah, I had to wonder if I wrote this and just forgot I had. but the unstated details between what Infidel believes and what I believe could start a whole new civil war I expect.
I have a friend who ignores politics to keep her sanity. Works for her. Drives me crazy: “can you not see the evil?” I ask, silently out of respect for her. I’m afraid it is for us, the insane, to do what we can to stop the other insane from having their way with us…and the innocent sane.
Coberly,
Worrying about politics is a waste of time, but should not be conflated with doing something in the event that there is actually something that can be done. Voting will do it for me until something real emerges. Obama was a let down, then Occupy did not fly as far as hoped, and lastly Trump was the one to dump. For now, liberal movement politics is peeing down its own leg. I await some new direction.
Best of luck to you. To a great extent I trust AARP to keep the barbarians from the gate of New Deal remnants.
unfortunately AARP wants to be a player and will drift whichever way the wind blows. they, like almost everybody including the honest left take the Right’s premises as the starting point of their argument against privatizing SS… so they are completely unable to understand the problem… which, as I modestly suggest… is they have forgotten Roosevelt “we put that [payroll] tax in there so no damn politician can take it away from them [the workers who “paid for it ourselves”], and the fact that continuring to pay for it ourselves would cost an extra dollar per week per year, which is not an even small burden on the poor.
Coberly,
I did not know that AARP had drifted that far, but it makes sense now that are connected to so much private financial direct marketing. That is why we did not renew with AARP, to save the trees or at least the time we spend at the shredder.
Good to know. Thanks.
Quite Likely
he tells you in his comment here. I happen to agree with him as far as “politics” goes. but there is a whole raft of other issues that we need to learn HOW to fight for….which could mean agreeing with our enemies, or at least respecting their rights, from time to time.
Right now we are facing more than a crisis. the enemy has organized and perfected his power and is now…. in a position to pretty muh destroy everything that makes life worth living…and half the population agrees with him..protecting, as they think, what makes life worth living for them.
note..ambiguous use of “enemy” above. first time I meant “perceived enemies…actually people we should be able to agree with as to limits of what we do in disagreement. second time I meant “the” enemy. which I believe you will recognize if you look at the R “leadership” in Congress, the think-tanks, Trump, “moderate” Democrats…
as to gays..
i had to have “gay” explained to me when i was almost a grown-up. okay, the concept did not bother me. but a few experiences being groped by sad lonely men, and being terrified by a young man who would go on to murder,,,i was told,,,two boys, left me feeling not very friendly toward “gays.” i was schooled about this much later by a gay man i did not know was gay, and who became a friend of sorts. so i learned not to “hate” gays.
but i know that people who did not have the schooling i had are very likely to be stuck in the mind set i had from personal experience and popular “understanding.”
initially i thought there were ways gays could get their rights without making themselves obnoxious to the “straight” masses. but in fact, they seem to have understood politics better than i did. they have very great public acceptance right now. i still wish they wouldn’t make a fuss about someone who refuses to make a wedding cake with two guys on it. finding a gay caterer or enlightened baker is not like finding a place to eat or a public bathroom in the pre-civil rights South.
I only offer this probably fatal personal biography in the hopes of helping people understand why there is no need for losing elections, one way or the other, over this. i don’t expect anyone will actually understand. but i am old enough now to expect that and don’t mind the sticks and stones as much as i would not trying.
and I agree with you (Ron) entirely about public restrooms.
Cob,
Concur with all that too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States
…The United States has the world’s largest Christian population[5] and, more specifically, contains the largest Protestant population in the world. Christianity is the largest religion in the United States, with the various Protestant Churches having the most adherents. The United States has been called a Protestant nation by a variety of sources.[6][7][8][9] In 2019, Christians represent 65% of the total adult population, 43% identifying as Protestants, 20% as Catholics, and 2% as Mormons. People with no formal religious identity form 26% of the total population…
*
[Coberly,
My guess is that evangelical atheism alienates more voters away from liberalism than even gay rights does. Nowadays, don’t ask – don’t tell may be more important regarding religion than it is sexual orientation.]
Ironically enough back in the 60’s Martin Luther King relied on his Southern Christian Leadership Conference for support. Likewise, the majority of each my civil rights and antiwar activism was back by church affiliations although not the Southern Baptist tradition that I was raised in, but rather Unitarians and Quakers and eventually even Catholics. While still in high school I left my church because they had voted out the older minister that had supported my civil rights activism and replaced him with someone younger and more practiced in the ways of self-righteousness. The SDS came in second on antiwar, but was a no-show on civil rights in VA.
Let me just add in this discussion; if only sexual/gender identity were as simple as a bathroom for those with a penis and those with a vagina. Sexual behavior that goes against society’s moral code is the issue. The moral code is struggling with having to refine what is sexually deviant. The struggle comes as the human species comes to terms with just how narrow a view we’ve had of what is natural as we learn what is natural in the rest of the animal world. Our improved understanding of how the brain matures as the body matures along with how often DNA mess ups are happening resulting in gender identifying body parts not matching the rest of the body and/or the mind just adds more difficulty to coming to terms with our moral code.
Lastly, the right/Republican/christian right will not let the Democratic Party or society avoid a cultural thus moral fight. It’s their weapon, their means of leverage, their tool. And, they understand that morals only exist in the moment. Morals are what those holding sway say they are. The fight is over who holds sway. The tools used in this fight are everything society has created for living/surviving since the species has come to be. The difference is the sophistication of what is available to use as leverage today.
Yeah, it sucks to have to deal with this. I know about burnout from fighting for what one believes is fair/just since I told my fifth grade teach she should not punish the entire class for my speaking out to setting state president in my divorce. It did not end there. But, that’s life.
I get someone finally saying I have had enough. Unfortunately, you’re still going to be living in the results of the fight that continues.
Becker,
When we are talking about the parents of school children in the context of rules in schools then gender identity is as simple as which rest room to use. The state once regulated sexual activity, but now consenting adults are free to do as they choose. The state cannot regulate what people think, but can control some of what they do in public, particularly public schools. When we screw the pooch in public schools then there is a loud yelp.
“When we are talking about the parents of school children in the context of rules in schools then gender identity is as simple as which rest room to use. “
Isn’t that the approach that got us to this moment of realization that it really does not work well for those children who do not identify so clearly as a boy or girl?
As I understand it, children don’t seem to have an issue with gender identity and bathrooms. As I understand it we’re rather behind in this issue compared to Europe. By coincidence, I heard this news article on the way home tonight. :NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with authors and parents Vanessa and JR Ford about their new book Calvin, which explores one child’s experience of coming out as transgender.” https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/1054032293/childrens-book-calvin-shows-how-a-community-can-embrace-a-trans-childs-identity
I get making this a focus of a political fight is not the best fight to pick, however, the Republicans are not going to let it go. As noted, it is how they work to win elections. They leverage moral debate. Purely driving emotion. It can not be ignored. And, if not this issue it will be another.
The state stopped people from stopping blacks from not being allowed to drink from the same fountain. What is the difference regarding what the state can do?
Becker
if the issue is which bathroom, and you say “children don’t seem to have an issue with gender identity and bathrooms.” then what’s the problem? kid says, i feel like a girl but look like a boy”….so use the boys’ bathroom. I don’t know about gender issues or gender identity but i was made pretty miserable as a kid by other kids because i was “different” in some way i did not know about, could not have changed, did not want to change. i suspect any kid who is “different” is going to be made miserable by other kids. it seems to be the way “they” are. better for him(her) if he(she} can to avoid making an issue of his(her) being different. i would suppose that a time will come when gender identity becomes widely known and understood by the sane adult population, the kids will find some other reason to torment kids who are different in some other way.
meanwhile the nasty people mob will be glad to hate you for being different, and the party of the hate will be glad to have their votes. that’s an issue we don’t need to take on. i wouldn’t think it was much of a problem to just not talk about it with them. there’s lots of stuff we don’t talk about with people we know are not ready to be as enlightened as we are.
global warming is a matter of iife and death. I still don’t talk about it with people who don’t think it’s a problem…except here on AB back in the old days when i still thought it was possible to educated them. right now, i think the only hope we have is that people at a high enough political/social level can convince other people at the highest levels of political power that we need to do something even if it costs money. that’s something we have not yet even convinced our own political leaders to take seriously enough to spend more money on than on tax deductions for million dollar homes. or to recognize that bigger highways are not the answer to. don’t want to make it easier for them by making half the population hate us because we are against god and nature and want to take away their guns and manhood.
Becker
what is the regarding what the state can do?
the state can do anything it wants. in a democracy it is us to limit what the state can do to us. the best way to do that is to limit what we do to other people by means of state power.
it also behooves us to pay attention to what our political opponents believe and feel..so we have a chance to get them to vote with us on things that matter.
it occurs to me that i really don’t know what you are talking about or where you are coming from. so rather than think i am disagreeing with you, it would be better if you thought “this is where he is not understanding what i am trying to say; i need to try to say it in a way he can understand it.
“…What is the difference regarding what the state can do?…”
[Wrong question. What the state could do is not a good measure of what the state should do. Anyway, this is about the politics of how far we are willing to go to pander to one group despite the consequences for others. As a preschool child visiting my mom going to the hospital with my dad to visit my mom, then I saw the separate fountains and bathrooms for blacks and questioned it. The answer was not satisfying to me, but I had already found that adults had strange ideas not grounded in fact. I never questioned separate rest rooms because I realized that gender was determined by a difference in biological plumbing for the urinary tract not whether someone was Butch or Nellie.]
was going to try to answer that question. found it a little hard.
thing is separate for blacks was part of a systematic deegradation of people on the basis of skin color..or more accurately: prior condition of servitude. that rose to a danger to the nation as well as a moral affront, and the people were able to organize and end it.
i find this a little less convincing than i would like it to be. i believe people can and should differentiate between the trivial and the important, but in fact i have seen that they don’t do a very good job of it.
so i am trying to my little bit to try to convince people that making a big problem out of a small problem is different from making a small problem out of a big problem.
so far that isn’t working for me. but that’s politics..and the history of human relations.
Becker
“if only it were as simple…” is not much of an argument. as far as I remember we did not defeat the Nazis in one fell swoop. we took it one simple step at a time.
pretty much the same principle with everything else we humans have accomplished.
a simple and obvious solution such as Ron’s would be a good first step. as far as I can see solving at once the political problem. “the looks like a boy but thinks he is a girl” using the girl’s bathroom then becomes a matter of individual psychotherapy or maybe learning to hold it until you get home. or finding a “one occupant only” public restroom.
does that make me insensitive? well, I guess I am. I do try to be mindful of people’s feelings, but maybe not so much when they are not mindful of others’.
Becker
as far as i can tell probably you are right.
but there is, i think, a deeper “moral code.” let’s call it “treat your neighbor as you (should) treat yourself.” this of course is open to interpretation, or need to grow morally.
in the present issue, we could do well to treat “unusual” sexual orientation with a decent respect for “human” rights. “they” could do well to treat the people who don’t understand them with a decent respect for their feelings.
won’t happen. has never happened in the history of the world. but thinking about it would be a good start. and it might be worth trying to keep in mind that there are degrees of “harm” caused by different examples of “intolerance.” they don’t all need to be treated as physical assaults or economic privation or intolerable psychic pain.
Ron
there has always been a hard cruel “evanegelical” something. calling itself Christianity after they killed Christ. Jesus is said to have said it would be like that. I agree that don’t ask don’t tell would be a good place to start (but I remember that the gays thought this was a crime against them). I am a little superstitious about Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednigo, and all the martyrs killed because they would not “deny Christ.” Reached the place where I would be “lukewarm” (unlike Luke), who, I think, are much hated by some evangelicals. On the other hand, I think what old JC meant when he pointed in that direction (as reported) was not that his “name” was important, but that “the way, the light, and the truth” was. not that any of us can claim that we know what that is, or that we have it.
anyway, it’s just a thought.
biographical note, to head off certain extra-logical objections:
i never heard the word “God”, for or against, in my home or school. i have never gone to church, except one or three times when I felt I was missing some important nutrient in my Science Diet.
The Bible left me as cold as The Brothers Karamazov the first half dozen or so times I tried to read it. Then, perhaps when I had lived long enough, certain words began to make sense…but only when I learned to think just a little behind the words on the page. A useful exercise even when reading “science.”