Well, I thought I was going to take a break from blogging, but...
Democracy has always had one, glaring flaw: that people have the power to vote for its own destruction. Last Tuesday, that's precisely what happened.
It's not Kamala's fault. Don't blame her. Sure, she had some missteps, mostly in not distancing herself from Biden enough and not speaking out enough for Gaza. But she ran a flawless campaign otherwise. As I've said before, in a sane world, she wins in a landslide. Trump, on the other hand, ran a reckless campaign, made one gaff after another, had one October surprise after another go against him, played to his twisted base instead of to the rational center, and somehow won anyway. No, this is not Kamala's fault.
It wasn't "the economy, stupid." Not with inflation down to 2.1%, record job growth, and grocery prices slowly coming down. If Trump had presided over these economic numbers, he and all his followers would be bragging loud enough to rattle everyone's windows! Biden somehow gets zero credit.
No, the real problem, as I've been saying for years, is the Right-Wing Media Machine giving the illusion of legitimacy to utter falsehoods.
Two words: institutionalized disinformation. That's what did us in.
On the surface, the election seemed to have an air of democracy to it. The flawed Electoral College actually agreed with the popular vote totals for once (something we haven't seen for the Republican side since 1988). But here's the thing: There can be no true democratic choice if voters are being systematically and maliciously misled.
As I pointed out earlier, propaganda disguised as news IS election interference.
And that leads into a thorny question for political scientists everywhere: If the general public is fooled into thinking that day is night, up is down, back is front, and demented criminal rapists/racists somehow make good candidates, can there truly be a democratic choice? Or does institutionalized disinformation render the democratic process impossible?
I would argue it does. We just saw proof.
For a long time, we have been less a democracy and more an oligarchy. We have now, officially, slipped down to 100% oligarchy. Our votes were bought, because our news media was bought. And now we face the likelihood of becoming an outright dictatorship. Because roughly half of us were duped into thinking that was actually a good idea.
Because institutionalized disinformation, bought and paid for by the ultra-rich, drove us utterly insane.
So what do we do now? Cry in our beer? Wallow in depression? Wait for the Technological Singularity to come and save us? Flee to some other country while we still can?
No! HELL, no!
I will NOT give up!
And most importantly, I will not SHUT up!
I intend to be at the vanguard of the last guardrail keeping Trump in check. I will endeavor to be a policy maker within the Democratic Party, seeing as how the current leadership is obviously too incompetent to target the primary problem. I will undermine Trump and the Right-Wing Media Machine in every way I can.
And I ask that you join me.
So my message of hope is simply this: It's never truly over if we decide it isn't over.
One way or another, we will find a way to bitch-slap this mass delusion called Trumpism into the dustbin of history. Where it belongs.
Truth! Above! All!
(But I'll also have a go-bag packed, just in case.)
Eric
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