CSotD: Chaos, intentional or not
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Telnaes points out that this isn’t the first self-betrayal in our history, and she could have gone back to the beginning of the nation and added the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which would seem particularly upsetting because they were written and passed in the lifetimes of the Founders.
Then again, they were the product of the Federalists, while the First Amendment was the product of the Anti-Federalists, so they somewhat demonstrated a settling-in period while we got used to this new Constitution. Response to the Acts was negative enough that the Federalists were voted out in 1800 and the Democratic-Republican Party overturned most of the laws that had seen publishers prosecuted for criticism of the government.
We can hope for a similar reaction to the excesses of the current government, including what appears to be its refusal to accept the power of the judiciary. That experience, and reaction to those other insults to the First Amendment, offer the encouragement of knowing people will, eventually, respond.
Berryman drew Eugene Debs in the jail cell from which he ran for president against Warren Harding, who waged a “front porch campaign” based on folksy appeal. Debs was serving a sentence under the 1918 Sedition Act for having encouraged draft resistance. What neither Debs nor Berryman knew at the time was that Harding would prove to be corrupt, his administration responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal.
Debs won no Electoral votes and Harding won the Presidency, but, although Debs still carries the brand of socialism, history has largely reversed their reputations.
Similarly, time has condemned FDR’s incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and McCarthy — who intimidated and harassed innocent people in his heyday — is recalled largely for Joseph Welch’s question, “Have you no sense of decency?”
But consider: The fact that you’ve driven drunk and are still alive does not mean it’s a safe practice or a guarantee that you will survive the next time. It’s encouraging that we’ve bounced back from these prior assaults on freedom, but that is neither a guarantee nor a sign that we needn’t make an effort this time around.
As the advice went in the Seven Samurai
Nothing forces you to run like a battle. You run when you attack, you run when you retreat. When you can’t run anymore, you die.
One problem at the moment is that Dear Leader is, as Royaards suggests, spun by every breeze and set in no particular direction, the embodiment of the old political wisecrack “To find out what he thinks, find out who he spoke to last.”
Or possibly Hamlet’s explanation: I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw.
It’s as much a problem for his supporters as it is for his opponents, which may explain the haste to carry out foolish actions like removing portraits of women and minorities on the assumption that not only is affirmative action forbidden, but the existence of any but white men offends Dear Leader.
And perhaps it does. Or maybe it doesn’t. Or maybe it does this morning but won’t by this afternoon.
To raise one more parallel, it’s entirely possible that, when Henry II said “Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?” he was simply blowing off steam.
But once his loyal knights had murdered Beckett, what difference could it possibly make?
How many harmful acts will be carried out before we discover whether Dear Leader is temperamental or inconsistent or genuinely barking mad, and what difference could it possibly make to the victims of his erratic actions?
Bearing in mind that the 25th Amendment relies on the good judgment of the Vice-President and the Cabinet. You might as well ask Curly and Larry their opinion of Moe.
It is interesting to speculate about whether Trump, as in Sheneman’s cartoon, genuinely blames the faltering economy on Biden, which has little in the way of objective detail to justify it and much to suggest otherwise, or whether he has made a lifetime habit of blaming others for things he did himself.
If the latter, it might be of interest to know whether he deliberately blames others as a conscious defense or blindly, through narcissistic instinct?
It might be interesting, but it isn’t likely to be helpful.
Whether he believes it is secondary to whether other people, specifically his voters, believe it.
At the moment, polling suggests that the core group, the MAGA faithful, maintain trust in him, but that others are beginning to peel away. There are now more people who disapprove of how he handles the economy than approve of it.
Which is encouraging as we look towards the 2026 midterms, but we should also remember that a large number of people blamed Biden for the prices of gasoline and eggs, neither of which were within his power to affect.
It’s more practical to watch the price of Tesla stock, which, as Jennings suggests, has been going down in response to the behavior of its CEO. Though we shouldn’t concede too much wisdom to them, the people with enough economic power to visibly influence stock prices are more apt to act on reasonable beliefs than to be panicked like pigeons.
They might be upset that Musk is skipping work while pretending to be president, and they may question his personal stability as he adopts Nazi attitudes and makes bizarre observations about life in general, but they are also reacting to falling Tesla sales, and an upward blip in response to the White House advertising campaign is not a full correction.
The question before us is whether the reasonably well-thought-out market response is more important, overall, than the starkly emotional reaction of voters?
It’s an excellent question. I wish I had an excellent answer.
Debs did:
I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own.
As long as they keep running.
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