Addressing politicians in desperate times. A series.

 

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Howard Zinn.

These are desperate times. 

Our politicians have made it so.

And therefore, we bear the burden of having made them desperate, by electing, overall, a really bad crop of national and state politicians. We did this by not asking them questions we should have, or just by believing the lies they told as we chose to believe them, or worse yet, we were too ignorant not to disbelieve them.  There's no credit in any of this.  The United States has gone from a highly imperfect functioning democracy to a highly imperfect dysfunctional kleptocracy.  To some degree even worse, we've gone from a country that did not want kings, to putting kings and everything they stood for right back in power.

Part of how we did that is by not asking questions.

Normally I wouldn't start threads about elections so early, and indeed when this blog started off it didn't' deal with politics at all.  But modern times inevitably crept in, and currently, as things are so desperate, there are posts on politics nearly every day.  We are, moreover, at a real crossroads in the country's history.  The Republican Party, a conservative party after the failure of the Progressive Movement to reform it early in the 20th Century, and a Buckley Conservative Party since Ronald Reagan, has collapsed nearly completely, with only remnants remaining, the way the Whigs did in an earlier era.  A party that calls itself Republican and claims to be Progressive exist, but it's neither.  It's a fascisic Protestant Francoist party that holds nothing in common with any prior Republican expression.  The Democratic Party is reforming before our eyes, and in spite of what Republicans say, after the killings in Minneapolis it's rocketing towards the center, picking up the dropped pieces of prior Republican platforms.

Other parties, of course, exist, but for the most part, their natural members cling to some other party in order to get elected.  A Socialist New Yorker ran as a Democrat in New York as he had to.  Independants from New England in Congress have done the same.  The Republican Party, essentially captured by Know Nothings, are fighting with remnant conservatives, like  Thomas Massie, or outright Libertarians, like Rand Paul, who remain in their ranks.  More locally, where more, and often horrified old school Republicans remain, they find themselves in constant rearguard action's against Francoist.

And this is our fault.  We didn't ask the questions.

And the Press didn't do a very good job either, at least on a local level.

I've routinely followed regional elections for years.  As soon as elections get rolling, the Press pretends to be asking the tough questions, and doesn't.  Indeed, I know of one case in which a really worthy politician was attacked by a (successful) opponent and only one news outlet followed up on what should have been seen as an obvious lie.  

Perhaps less excusable, every election cycle, at least locally, the press puts out questionnaires and then publish the results.  I always look forward to reading them, only to find out the questions are utterly lame and the answers aren't followed up upon.  It's as if"

Press:  What is the most important issue facing Wyoming?

A.  The important one.

Press:  Okay, thank you for your answer.

Local debates are almost exactly the same, as in:

Press:  Mr. Candidate, last year there was an effort to sell off public lands. Can you please tell us if you like kittens?

A.  I like them sauteed.

Press:  Okay, thank you. 

I'm not exaggerating much.

As lame as the questions from the press are, politicians have taken up even avoiding showing up for debates.  Republican candidates essentially say; "I love Donald Trump, and the Trumpiness of Trump, with all my heart and soul, and I don't have to talk to you left wing pressmen or the filthy dirty voters". 

Well, generally, they can't avoid everyone all the time everywhere.  The Press isn't going to do it, so you're going to have to.  Indeed, this happened just this past week when Harriet Hageman got a blistering from questioners at a forum at Casper College, causing it to be shut down due to "decorum".

Show up. Ask the questions.  Ignore party affiliation.  Vote for people who aren't going to screw you.