The Great Game

When I was a young man I remember reading about the Great Game, which was played out on a global scale between Great Britain and Czarist Russia as Britain strove to maintain its dominance of the seas by preventing Russia from obtaining a permanent warm water port. Those must have been the days. But they are long gone. Now the term means something else entirely. Now the Great Game is the effort by Republican leaders to hide the true effects of their policies on working class white Americans - the group that most strongly supports, and votes, for them.

Over the years they have become experts at hiding the damage their policies inflict on their supporters. But once in a while the truth is mistakenly leaked, as Donald Trump recently did when he revealed that if Republicans succeed in having abortions made illegal, then women who have abortions will be treated as criminals. Now to the rest of us, this revelation came as no surprise. It's pretty obvious that those engaging in a criminal activity will face criminal penalties. If you are surprised that this revelation caused so much uproar, you haven’t been paying attention and aren't familiar with the rules of conservative world.

Because, actually, the Great Game, as it is played in conservative world, is more like a ponzi scheme, which can only operate successfully if both victims and perpetrators mutually agree not to reveal the con that is taking place. Whether it is Republican welfare policies that will only cut assistance to those that don’t deserve it and leave it alone for everyone else, economic policies that will only cut the wages of immigrants and raise them for everyone else, or social policies that will criminalize abortion but only punish providers, Republican leaders promise and their supporters invest.

It’s entertaining, and sad, when the Republican ruling class occasionally reveals the truth of the arrangement, like Trump recently did, or several years back when a journalist asked wealthy Republican women if they wanted the option of having an abortion for themselves or their daughters if it were to be necessary.  While many of them obfuscated, some of them in fits of honesty said that yes, they wanted that option, but that if it became necessary, they would only have one for the “right” reasons.

In the case of abortion, that is the arrangement that must not be spoken of: Republican leaders, both men and women, assume that the option to have an abortion for the “right” reasons will always be available to them, due to their wealth and power, no matter its actual legal status.  While at the same time, it will be forbidden to the poor, who would invariably seek it for the “wrong” reasons. Keep that in mind when you try to make sense of Republican politics and what passes for policy in conservative world and the Great Game that is played between its elected perpetrators and their willing victims.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Uncivil War

I'm old enough to remember when there were sensible Republicans - defined as ones who didn't wish the south had won the war.  I even voted for some of them.  That's hard for me to imagine now.  That was before the two parties flipped their roles, back when GOP politicians were often more progressive and the party more inclusive than Democrats. That was so long ago it wasn't even back in the day, it was more like back in the day before the day. It was before the terms conservative and Republican were synonymous.

Now I hate Republicans for what they believe, for what they represent, for what they are.  That's not literally true - I know some individual Republicans I don't hate.  I don't like them, but I don't actively hate them. But as a group, I do hate them for what they are doing to this country.  They seem determined to destroy it along with any hint of fairness, tolerance, compassion, charity, inclusion, and create a new country in their own image.  A new country dedicated to fear, intolerance, bigotry, selfishness, and ignorance.

Republicans and their political leaders don't even seem to consider themselves Americans.  Don't believe me?  Ask them if Obama is their president.  They are citizens of conservative world, with its own rules of governance, its own principles, and even its own reality that have little in common with the United States and its place in the world as the rest of us know it.  The way they describe it, the U.S is a weak, poor, dangerous country, governed by an ineligible president not respected by the rest of the world. In conservative world, George W. Bush kept us safe and Barack Obama hasn't. In the reality the rest of us live in, the opposite of all those statements is true

I live in the middle of conservative world, at least geographically, so I'm familiar with this alternate reality. I see it on television, I hear it on the radio and in conversations.  I get angry at the racism and determined ignorance of the Republicans that surround me, but I get even angrier at their leaders who mostly know how they are damaging our country, but can't force themselves to risk their elected offices by challenging their constituents.

I wonder if any of the leaders of the south in the years leading up to the civil war tried to talk their fellow citizens out of  tearing the country apart.  If so, I haven't read about any of them.  But I'm no historian, so there could have been some.  Are there any today? I'm more confident in my answer to this one.  There aren't any. Not one who will stand up and take the side of America over the interests of conservative world.  And as usual they create their own reality in which they are the patriots.  Not in this universe.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Election time

I'm going to vote for Hillary, even though as a liberal I like Bernie's policies better.  I like his policies, but don't like him very much, and it's vital for the survival of our country that a Democrat be elected in November, and I think Hillary is more electable than he is. And when I say the survival of our country is at stake, I'm not being melodramatic.  The Republicans have gotten so bad, that to elect one as President could actually mean the United States as we know it will cease to exist.

I feel an affinity to her that I don't feel towards him.  I'm about the same age as her, and I feel as if we've been through the wars together.  I've worked in the public sector for many years developing housing for low-income people with disabilities, and I followed the budget wars Bill waged with Republicans in the House and Senate as they fought to zero out the housing and other programs that were the only hope for a decent life for millions of the neediest Americans.  I remember the relief I felt when the final budget numbers came out and he had managed to restore enough funding to keep these programs alive.  I knew that Hillary was his partner in these efforts, and I was one of the many thousands who wrote to her encouraging her efforts to extend health insurance to the millions who had none. And later, it was good to know she was there, encouraging President Obama as he fought the Republicans on the same issues.

And now comes Bernie, looking down from on high, declaring that nothing that has been accomplished by Democrats is good enough. Nothing measures up to his standards. Everything is inferior, lacking in the purity and integrity that he demands.  There's something irritatingly patrician in his manner, like a Roman Senator holding forth on the Senate portico, not willing to come down and mix with the mob.  Closer to home for me, he reminds me of the many politically-appointed administrators in the agencies I've worked for and with in every sector of government. The ones who were unwilling and unable to do the actual work of the agencies, but who were more than willing to criticize the work everyone else was doing.

Do I wish that Hillary weren't so close to Wall Street?  Yes, absolutely.  But Wall Street wasn't always the cesspool of avarice and corruption that it became under Bush.  I have to believe that when it comes time to lance the boil that it has become, Hillary will, as she has always done and Republicans are incapable of doing, put the well-being of all of us above that of the richest and most privileged of us.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

2016

I don't pretend to be a modern-day Nostradamus, but sometimes the future is so obvious that one can't help but know it.  This is one of those times, unfortunately.  Besides, old Nostro was a fake, couching his predictions in such obscure language that no definitive judgement can be made about their accuracy.  But this prediction is crystal clear:

Sometime in 2016 there will be a mass killing at a mosque in the United States.  And after it happens, Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican political leaders, along with Fox news and the right-wing radio crowd, will mock and insult anyone who dares to suggest their hate-filled rhetoric against Muslims had anything to do with it; instead, they will blame it on Democrats for somehow not identifying and treating the delusional individual who is responsible, and hours after it occurs, the NRA will issue a press release stating that the high-powered, high capacity rifle the shooter used can't be blamed and the only way to have a safer society is to make more of them available.

I really hope I'm wrong about this, but I bet I'm not.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Mass Killings

Thinking about the massacres that are taking place in our country, it occurred to me:  If one were so inclined, what strategy could be created that would maximize their number, and the casualties resulting from each.   It’s actually an easy task, since all the work has been done by Republicans.  Just follow their plan.

1.      Cut public funding for the mental health services that might forestall unbalanced, delusional individuals from committing the attacks.

2.      Make sure that powerful weapons with high-capacity magazines are readily available to these individuals.

3.      Give them ideas for targets by demonizing reproductive health organizations, people of other nationalities, other color, other religion, other sexual orientation, other politics.

4.      Assign sole responsibility to them after each incident.

5.      Also blame their victims for not carrying around the necessary firepower to protect themselves.

6.      Repeat steps 1 through 5 as many times as necessary.

I don’t really think Republican politicians are consciously following a strategy designed to kill Americans. Their aim is to get elected, and to do that they need the support of the NRA and other right-wing groups and individuals. The strategy of Republicans is actually designed to create fear and hatred of everything outside the boundaries of conservative world, and to make plenty of weapons and ammunition available for protection from it. At a nice profit of course.  Casualties from mass murders are an acceptable form of collateral damage. 

Remember, guns don’t kill people, people kill people – with guns.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Checklist

Let’s check in on how the candidates in the Republican primary are reacting to the tragedy in France.

ü  Using it to attack gun control measures anywhere in the world.
ü  Using it to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment everywhere in the world.
ü  Trying to convince us that all two billion or so Muslims in the world are our enemies.
ü  Blaming it on Obama.
ü  Blaming it on Hillary.
ü  Strongly implying that it will happen here if a Democrat is elected president.
ü  Advocating for war against somebody, anybody.
ü  Basically attempting to use it to their personal advantage instead of expressing any sincere regret and honest offers of support.

Business as usual for modern-day Republicans:  trying their best to convince us that the world is out to get us and only they can protect us from it.  It wasn’t always like this.  But the days when there were some moderate, sensible, rational Republicans are gone, and it appears they’re not coming back.

I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were generally reluctant to send American troops abroad. Now that’s hard to imagine. Now they love to threaten war.  They seem to think it makes them appear tough.  Kind of like the weird little guy in the neighborhood who owns a pit bull.

If Republican politicians actually had to fight wars themselves, I suspect their attitude might be different, but that’s not the case.  Since most of the boots on the ground will be on the feet of individuals from the lower economic ranks, it’s a win-win from their point of view. Fewer takers means more for the makers.

Never mind that a nation can only truly go to war with another nation, not with a collection of individuals living in different countries among civilian populations, and that to effectively fight ISIS (or ISIL if you prefer) will require a long-term strategy of international cooperation, intelligence gathering and analysis, and judicious and often covert use of military and quasi-military force. 

Much easier to go to war with somebody.  It’s the epitome of Republican public policy: ineffective, counter-productive, wasteful, expensive, they and their friends can make money from it, and they can get away with not paying for it.  

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.

Black Lives Matter

To me, it’s self evident: black lives matter.  I don’t have any trouble saying it, or writing it.  Black lives matter.  And I mean it: black lives matter.  I don’t understand why so many have a problem with those three words, because saying that black lives matter in no way means that other lives don’t, or they matter less than black lives. It isn’t putting relative values on lives. Black lives matter. White lives matter.  All lives matter.  These statements are all true. It isn’t either/or.

But you don’t really have to say that white lives matter, or that male lives matter, or that cop lives matter, or that rich lives matter.  All those are understood.  In American society they are truisms, so obvious that it’s odd to even write them down.  Black lives matter, though, for many people seems to be  something different entirely.

Here’s a test to see if you are a racist.  Can you say black lives matter.  Just that, with no qualifiers.  No “Black lives matter, but no more than white lives.”  No “Black lives matter, but all lives matter.”   If you can’t say black lives matter and stop there, then you don’t believe that it's true, and you are a racist, and almost definitely a conservative, and probably a Republican.

There are no morals more relative than conservative morals, and no hypocrisy quite like conservative hypocrisy.