It’s a terrible time to be a conservative, in other words. You hate the Democratic platform but you can’t abide the president. Which party keeps the best company? Biden with his protesters and climate-change dreamers? Or Trump, who embraces QAnon, white supremacists and skinheads?Unless Trump pulls a covid-19 vaccine from his sleeve Thursday, I’m placing my bets on the goodness of the American people. My wager is that most would prefer a guy from Scranton, Pa., whose moral compass has been forged through suffering and humility, to a quack from Queens, whose moral compass is a wheel of fortune, where the needle always lands on Me.
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Yosemite under Orion's gaze
Friday, August 21, 2020
Moral Compasses
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker has an excellent opinion in Today's WaPo, The party of Trump is already a convention of ghoulish clowns. I recognize that many of you can't get through their paywall and offer the last two paragraphs for your perusal.
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6 comments:
Here, here!
So the best we can muster is Trump or Biden ? I shake my head in sorrow.
Kent, rather than shake your head in sorrow, there is another option that you may want to utilize. Kanye West. What have you got to lose?
I doubt that many in US history have seen presidents as great leaders. George Washington was a stuffy aristocrat who looked down on the masses. Lincoln was just despised in his day and presided over a cabinet of sharks who fought him constantly. The evidence of disgust with sitting presidents is stronger than the evidence of adulation. Trump is a different animal though those that love him love him excessively often without any thought or serious evaluation and those that hate him often hate him in the same way, excessively and without serious evaluation. Should Biden win we can return to our previous state of not liking the clown in office but somehow being able to hold our nose and get through. I think a functioning democracy offers at least the chance to hold your nose at the questionable product of the system. Should Trump win a second term the irrational love and hatred on both sides is likely to either boil over into serious civil unrest or to be suppressed viciously by the first American dictator since King George.
I think a lot of republicans simply won't vote rather than vote for Biden. They certainly haven't said much against Trump's horrible behavior even tho they don't like it, so that tells me they don't hate it enough to make the effort to vote at all. That's one reason I was disappointed with the centrist nominee and mild Kamala, obviously chosen to lure alarmed Republicans into feeling comfortable enough to pull the trigger for a Democrat. They may be alarmed, but they won't vote Democrat, so the choice has wasted any progressive enthusiasm out there. I hope the kids don't opt out completely for lack of a progressive ticket. It's interesting to think about a complete party reshuffle after this: new right party with center/corporate Dems picking up sane Republicans, taking over the GOP spot, new left party of Bernie Progressives, greens, new-deal Dems. The Republicans will exist as a rump racist/anti-immigrant far right wing who will be watching Trumps reality talk show when he leaves office. I'm hoping some canny TV exec is making him a lucrative offer right now so he'll be happy to leave.
Don't over-analyze this, folks. Another four years of Trump in the Executive Branch and American democracy is pretty much gone. Vote for Biden to begin repairing some of the damage to our system of governance, to the environment and to our reputation. Biden is no saviour, but he's infinitely better than the Trump crime family in power.
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