I would prefer to be a member of Team America, but if that is impossible, color me Red.
Team Red or Team Blue?
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Red, white and blue. White stands for God. Let us remember this and always be on His side spiritually and Red politically.
The problem, really, is that 40 years ago we had disputes over policy which were an extension of people’s interests and their opinions on normative questions. There were some structural and cultural pathologies already present in the court system and on campus, but most of the manpower and contention concerned macroeconomic policy, military spending, welfare spending, state intervention in the energy sector, land use blah blah. There was also a courtesy culture in legislatures which had its problems but also regulated disputes. We don’t live in that world anymore.
The liberal set includes some old folks like Alan Dershowitz and Jerilyn Merritt who have consistent principles which cover the procedural realm. Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald have their malodorous aspect, but one thing you can say about them is that they’re not playing calvinball. They have consistent opinions, not just forensic and rhetorical improvisations they employ in the day’s disputes. You have here and there a wonk like Harold Pollack who is fairly emotionally detached. You have Glenn Loury, who has a foot in all three camps.
In the political class, you have power seeking knaves. On the street level, you’ve got people with issues. In both sets, you have people continually striking poses. About street-level Democrats at this moment in time, you can see TS Eliot recognized their kind long ago, “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” These people will not leave the rest of us alone in any venue. Some of their number managed to politicize a site devoted to knitting.
And they’ve got issues. This whole BLM dispute is only at its surface a dispute about police procedure. It’s primarily about the problems in living of two disparate groups – gentry liberals and slum blacks – expressed in a political idiom. Paul Hollandar a generation ago wrote about sectarian politics as a setting in which damaged people expressed themselves. Some sorts of damaged people never get anywhere near the cultural control centers and other sorts were never a critical mass within them.
A personal note: this is playing out on our Facebook wall. We have many partisan Democrats in our social circle and what we’re seeing is almost entirely emotions-driven. And you cannot reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into.
An aspect of what we’ve been seeing is nailed by Mr. Sailer
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-new-childishness/
I STILL vocally oppose the classification of who is Blue and who is Red.
These terms were, I think, specifically chosen to lull and deceive people. They were created after Bush’s Presidential election and the New York Times created a map of two colors, Blue and Red, indicating who voted for Gore and who voted for Bush. At the time I vigorously opposed their selection as misleading. The Democrat Party was definitely a Red party (even then) as defined by history and their ever progressing positions. (Forward!) The Red flag in this post is a perfect example of their beliefs.
Sorry, that flag was in Don’s other post.
Come on Don, wouldn’t you rather be a red subversive in a blue state?
The colors are older than that John. Republicans used to be blue. (Reagan was blue in the ’80 graphics.) I think red was The incumbent color back then. The change became permanent after Clinton defeated Bush in 92.
Seen on the net: seven conservative states: Tennessee, Louisiana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, North Dakota, Mississippi. Vermont and New Hampshire have been ruined by NY and Massachusetts liberals fleeing taxes but still voting for the policies that ruined NY and MA. Maine is economically weak and too high taxed.
Strategery. Every time I speak with my soldier son in Louisiana, he tells me we have to get out of NY. When the fit hits the shan, it will Zombie Land on steroids. Especially so for those of us trapped on Long Island [five or six bridges all dumping you on roads running through NYC where which will be blocked by black lives matter and you won’t be able to shoot your way out]. There will be no escape and no way for the necessities of life to reach the 10 or so million.
“Especially so for those of us trapped on Long Island….”
Ever since Long Islanders shut down the perfectly safe Shoreham boiling water reactor, raising their own electric rates through the roof, I haven’t given one freaking care what happens to them. They created their mess. Let them get out of it on their own.
T. Shaw, I suggest you invest in a boat or know where one is to make your escape in an emergency.
Art Deco, that is one of the smartest and most interesting analyses I have read in a long time. I have to do much more thinking on it but you sure gave me a lot to think about. Thanks.
LDC – That’s what I’m talking about. The main BS to shut down Shoreham was that there is no escape route. It wasn’t us. The Gov. could have allowed LILCO to declare bankruptcy and sold its hard assets to a new provider at reasonable rates to we the people. But, then the stockholders and bondholders would have taken it in the financial chin – must not have that. Instead, the rate payers are still paying for Shoreham.
JFK: On 9/11, ferries were the only way my NJ buddies made it home. Years ago on Zero Hedge [now demonetized by Google for not moderating comments] there was a serious prepper with a few posts and similar commenters. One exercise they recommended was bugging out of Manhattan, scenarios included taking to the Hudson R.
Commandeering a boat is better than trying to drive or walk out.
Seen on the net: seven conservative states: Tennessee, Louisiana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, North Dakota, Mississippi. Vermont and New Hampshire have been ruined by NY and Massachusetts liberals fleeing taxes but still voting for the policies that ruined NY and MA.
Not so you’d notice. At least not yet. Our Initiative & Referendum process has had the heck abused out of it though. So far all they have to do for that is the stupid victim’s rights law Kelsey Grammer was paid to pimp his late sister’s memory over. And a minimum wage indexed to inflation. (I don’t remember if the state legislature successfully repealed that or not.) They also try to legalize marijuana every two years, but so far without success.
I listened to the 13 minute video above. I just get mad – very, very angry. I despise the Democrats, the left, the liberals – whatever they are. And it’s not right to despise another human being no matter how despicable his politics. Sometimes I just have to stop reading things that inflame my passions so much. Not good for my heart. Not good for my alcoholism. Not good for my spirituality.