These past few days, I've been browsing for election perspectives from across the spectrum, and not the places I usually alight.
This one comes from Mike Rowe, the actor and television personality to whom I'd otherwise be completely indifferent (I watch almost no TV), except for his emphasis on boosting vocational education as a means of addressing America's skilled trade gap.
Rowe's thoughts strike me as sensible. You?
Mike Rowe
Last Friday, my dog posted a video that featured a man licking a cat with the aid of a device that’s designed for the specific purpose of making it easier for people to lick their cats. I’ve been silent ever since, because frankly, I couldn’t think of a better way – metaphorical or otherwise – to express my feelings about this election cycle. The entire country it seems, has been preoccupied with finding a way to lick a cat without actually putting their tongue on it.
Too oblique? Too weird? Ok, how about this analysis ...
If you cannot access it via Fb, try here: Mike Rowe weighs in (Tribunist).
Read Mike Row's thoughts on this and several others who take the tact that people who supported Trump are mostly people who feel left out and want attention. They want things their way, change at any cost, and we shouldn't blame them if they don't care about the plight of others or a sustainable future, or validating hate. That a good portion of these people aren't evil, only intentionally indifferent to any but their own needs, is small comfort. That establishment politics of both parties ignored these people, means we will likely all suffer but some more than others. It's true that empathy and generosity towards others seldom comes from a constrained heart laboring from constant fear and want. While both parties can share the blame for our diminished circumstance, one party has worked determinedly to make life harder and to instill fear so when they promise a return to greatness, that its at the expense of others, is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Roger's bartending exiom is that a fixed percentage of the human race is made up of assholes. This percentage varies little, but given variable circumstances, others become "asshole fellow travelers," prone to emotional backs and forths and alignments. Others might call this the middle of the pack. Better directed effort might have offered fellow travelers a reason to vote other than Trump, though I question whether it would have mattered given the length of time both parties have practiced identical economic policies. Ultimately, my concern is with the all-or-nothing nature of political "demands" in our day and age. There's a good case to be made that arriving at a juncture where compromise is impossible brings us to Jefferson's "abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed," which means guns and shooting. I'd hoped to miss this in my lifetime, because the "left" isn't prepared for this, is it?
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ReplyDeleteWhew. Glad you corrected that. Was about to grab my dictionary and learn a new word. vbg
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