How Does That Work Exactly?
Some people do not understand the irony of their own rhetoric
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Compromise, debate, persuasion… Nowadays, these words seem meaningless if we are describing our political discourse. We are living in the Bipolar Age, a time when winner-take-all, zero-sum politics characterizes our approach to governing ourselves. The pursuit of political power no longer means convincing voters of the superiority of one’s policy proposals: The emphasis is now on attacking and disparaging political opponents during election campaigns. This assault on our civic discussion endures once the dust kicked up by an election has settled and the winners are in office and the losers are feeling cheated. What emanates from Washington and the various state houses is an incessant torrent of ad hominem attacks on the “other side”. Such approaches have always been a feature of electoral politics, but modern media- including the ubiquitous social media platforms- pervade our lives to an extent that was unimaginable in the not so distant past. The recent Juneteenth federal holiday commerates the fact that it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, over two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued, that African-American slaves in Texas learned they were free.
The proliferation of mass communication modes means that information, disinformation, and misinformation can reach masses of people in a very short time. Inane conspiracy theories (Qanon, Jewish space lasers, etc.) and outright lies (Trump won the 2020 election) spread at a dizzying pace, given credence to the statement "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes" purportedly made by Mark Twain. What is puzzling to the rational mind is how often the purveyors of bovine excrement act as if such absurdities have a basis in objective reality: Do they truly not know the meaning of irony, or are they that cynical? Take some examples:
Svengali or Dotard?
The Republican talking point de jour is that President Biden is not up to the job. At 80 year of age, he is no longer physically and mentally capable of handling the duties of the Presidency. Falling while bicycling or occasionally stumbling are pointed to as signs of his physical decline. A popular trope is that his mental acuity is slipping.
But, wait…
If he is so impaired, how is it that he outmaneuvered House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during the recent debt ceiling negotiations? McCarthy is afterall a youthful 58 years-old. Biden’s legislative achievements in his first 2 years notwithstanding and the fact the economy is robust with low unemployment and a decreasing inflation rate, there is still the matter of how he masterminded the plot to fix the 2020 election… Is he a senile senior citizen or Tony Soprano?
How does that work exactly?
Which leads us to acknowledge the crude irony that colors criticism of Biden coming from the extreme right. Take, for example, this tweet from Representative Lauren Boebert, a shining light among conservative intellectuals:
An AMTRAK passenger train just derailed in California.
Two weeks ago a highway collapsed in Philadelphia.
Stuff like this is going on constantly in America.
We’re sending our money all over the world but our own country is falling down around us.
Somehow the rigourous-thinking Ms. Boebert forgot she voted against Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021 , calling it ‘wasteful’ and ‘garbage’. In a further lapse of memory, it apparently slipped her mind that months after that vote she asked the Department of Transportation to fund a $33-million infrastructure project in her district. However, this hypocrisy did not prevent the recent high school graduate from filing impeachment charges against President Biden this month.
Come on, man- how does that work exactly?
Freedom or Free-dumb
Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, is running for the Republican nomination for President in 2024. On the campaign trail, Governor Ron never misses a chance to remind people he is all about freedom. He rattles on and on about the “free state of Florida”. Unfortunately, most of the policies the charisma-challenged Ronnie D is pushing in Florida are much more about limiting freedom than expanding it…. Unless, of course, we are talking about the right to bear arms that is now essentially unrestricted in the Sunshine State. When it comes to other freedoms, it appears the “like-Trump-but-smarter” DeSantis is playing the role of Petruchio to us Katherina’s, convincing us that the sun really is the moon.* A partial list includes:
limiting a corporation’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech
limiting a woman’s freedom of choice in her healthcare decisions
limiting students’ freedom to learn about the history of their country or read specific books
limiting the freedom of refugees to seek asylum in the United States
limiting oversight by the media by blocking access to information
limiting the people’s right to protest
Maybe Governor Mouse-Hunter hasn’t fully grasped the irony of his own words, which is in itself ironic. DeSantis has a history degree from Yale and graduated from Harvard Law School. It is a wonder he doesn’t see how transparent his rhetoric is.
How does that work exactly?
Projection, Deflection, and the Venn Diagram of Irony
Psychological projection and its first cousin, deflection, are malignant behaviors by which a person denies their own faults and attributes them to others. In basic terms, it is the avoidance of responsibility for one’s actions. When it comes to the numerous bizarre falsehoods that Donald Trump spews out on a regular basis, it is a safe bet that whatever misdeeds he accuses others of coincide with his own behavior. Trump regularly projects his lawlessness onto others.
His role as the most dominant figure in the Republican Party makes Trump the avatar for these types of behaviors and he does not stand alone. Having gained a narrow majority in the House of Representives, the Republicans immediately created a new investigative body- the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government- to look into abuses of federal authority, especially by the Justice Department. Led by its Chairman, Jungle Gym Jordan, the subcommittee immediately began investigating those in the government who were investigating the actual weaponization of the government during Trump’s Presidency while at the same time ignoring the abuses that occurred under the former President. To prove it knew all about weaponization by government, the committee held a hearing in Manhattan to look into local District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s handling of criminal cases. This came weeks after Bragg indicted Trump on charges related to alleged hush money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. If you believe that this represents overreach by the federal government, you are probably wondering
How does this work exactly?
Is Objective Reality Even a Thing Anymore?
Yesterday, President Biden tweeted about his Aministration’s economic successes:
Today, the U.S. has the highest economic growth rate among the world’s leading economies since the pandemic. We’ve created 13.4 million jobs—more jobs in two years than any president has added in a four-year term. Folks, that’s no accident. That’s Bidenomics in action.
The Republicans, lacking coherent policies, are left on the dance floor doing the “what-about waltz”, braying about Hunter Biden’s laptop. They ignore the fact that two things can be objectively true at the same time- that the Biden team has done good work on dealing with the economy post-pandemic and that Hunter Biden is a troubled man with legal problems. One does not preclude the other.
The goal of authoritarians is to create a fog of disinformation, to obscure the truth. Confusion crowds out rational thinking, resulting in the apathy that makes people susceptable to the simple answers provided by aspiring autocrats.
And that is exactly how it works.
Suggested Reading:
*William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 5
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First, I'm not in favor of the sophomoric tactic of bastardizing people's names in politics or elsewhere; some may get off on cuties names like Ron Sanctimonious, but not me. Keep on the high road.
It's just GOP and Republicans who abandoned policies and running for election on them. Democrats are more typical of the long time habits of appealing to voters on issues. Pity the marginally and casually interested and involved voters who rely on historic party affiliations and last minute (before election) dipping into candidates qualifications who make elections into mostly beauty contests. They are the ones who put Trump into office in 2016. When will 'the rich and famous' not get voter envy as Trump promised, then passed, lower taxes for his ilk, average citizen taxes lowered only temporarily. Those of us on the right side of history and politics today must open our mouths and personally campaign for the 'go getter' and 'doer' named Biden for 2024. Handful of non-thinking friends and relatives be damned, if they cut us off.
Next, I'm dismayed that Joe Biden doesn't put all of his cabinet members on the hustings to tout his/their many accomplishments for average Americans. They are missing a primary campaign tactic leaving it all to Joe and Kamala to tout accomplishments that make all lives better. Virtually the only cabinet member visible is Pete Butigieg (and Antony Blinking for Ukraine occasionally). Why adopt the Trump--I'm the only one who can do it--strategy with polls showing so many think Biden incompetent to govern?
The House may be held hostage by 8-10 radical rightists behind Speaker McCarthy; they may be in safe districts, but widespread Democratic breast-beating in campaigns could elect a Democratic majority with the other 425 House districts getting infrastructure money thanks to the Dems. Let's start the drumbeat of campaigning today, not primary season next year--too late.
Finally, when will ordinary reporters, investigative sleuths and talking heads on cable/network TV and media resume fact checking all right wing candidates and interviewee stopping them cold at the first whiff of any lies or misrepresentations on air or broadcasting or social media? Only the middle and left leaning talking heads can thwart the Trump style corrupt lying. When will DNC put a cadre of writers together to counter blogs and all media lying by the right?
Trump and his ilk are receding in importance nationally but let's help them out the door of politics with legislative truth, administrative activity, and judicial accomplishments affecting 'Joe Q. Public'.