Could this election get any sillier? Is the dominant topic really a small, ragtag bunch of refugees fleeing Honduras in Central America? They have just only crossed the border into the most southern part of Mexico, and their numbers are already decreasing. Apparently they are going to walk north across mountainous country full of dangerous criminal organizations. Hardly anyone thinks that many, if any at all, will even make it very far, let alone within spitting range of the US border. And yet Donald Trump is sending US troops to the border now, even though it is illegal for the military to operate as police inside the US.
This is not our greatest problem in the US. In fact, it is almost not worth any mention at all. But even Fox News is talking about it nonstop. Don’t believe me? Here’s actual footage from Faux News:
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Voted early, as staunch conservative, I voted Republican as usual, except for… Beto for senate against Ted and Collin Allred against Pete Sessions (who is much better than Ted, but still). Need to get rid of Trump who is stain on conservatism.
With misogyny, xenophobia, sectarianism, racism and fascism being encouraged by our president, we have WAY, WAY more to fear from some of our own citizens in our neighborhoods. Thanks Hassan for helping to curb this nonsense in our country.
Ironically, the race I’m watching most closely is Beto v Ted. I would just love for O’Rourke to “cruise” to victory, although I know the polls are slightly against him.
I fear that their fear will fuel more fear and fear will win. But will the winning fear be my fear or their fear?
Nice Hassan. Good to know that at least one conservative person that I know of, is not afraid of voting for the sanity of our country.
Go Beto!!!
Hard to gauge what import the polls have this year. For one thing, a lot of people will be voting who do not fall into the “likely voters” group. For another, there have been so many attempts, both sneaky and bald-faced, to strip presumed Dems of their franchise.
As to the main thread of this piece — I think “conservatives” have become addicted to fake fears. My best guess is that it’s a phenomenon like what makes horror movies popular — people enjoy the adrenaline rush, while really knowing that it’s all just made up and they are quite safe.
Add in the pleasure of always having a “safe” but thrilling topic of conversation with fellow tribe members, and you’ve got a powerful addiction.
I’m all for secure borders and a sane and empathetic immigration system (good fences make good neighbors kinda guy), but if you’re one to believe Trump when he claims Mexico is sending their rapists, murderers and drug dealers across the border, and immigrants are threatening to take your job, I’d like to know exactly what it is you do for a living.
But seriously, the immigration issue is largely Congress’ failure, both Rs and Ds, to come to a reasonable compromise (oops, there’s that bad word again) over the years on legislation that the Executive buys into and enforces. And Trump has parlayed that failure into a wedge issue that he is all too happy to exploit to his advantage.
Hassan – I’m not sure how to define conservatism anymore (let alone the “staunch” version, which evokes visions of Joseph McCarthy), but frankly I don’t see much resembling the historical definition in the Republican Congress these days, even by Reagan, let alone Dwight D. Eisenhower, standards. I kind of like the way Doonsbury put it a few weeks ago, satirizing where they’re at in the Age Of Trump.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrFECOWX4AEg6DV.jpg:large
Greg, you are right. All words mean whatever majority want it to mean I guess. For Trump cultist and new Republican party, conservatism mean much different than what it used to with conservative intellectuals (before Trump) like George Will, Steve Schmidt etc. So it could be very well that Trumpists will not consider me conservative, which is fine.
Hassan, you are so right about Trump. He is only interested in Trump, not the United States. He wants to “win” by any means.
If you weren’t able to catch the Rick Steves special on fascism in Europe, I strongly suggest you spend the time and watch it. Having just returned from Europe – including Berlin – it hit home to me that there are truly parallels between what we’re experiencing here in the US and what occurred in Europe in the early part of the 20th century.
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-story-of-fascism-in-europe-pthanf/
OMG, that Rick Steves program is extremely powerful. Thanks for posting it. You can’t watch it without thinking that Trump is trying to repeat many of the same terrible things here in the US.
I can only hope that he is too stupid to pull it off.
Trump was raised German. He is half German. It is in his blood. I read one Holocaust survival book after another Hitler’s trade in life that he passed on to the SS was lying, lying lying. Trump picked that up well. Oh, and the survival books keep on being published. One survivor reviewed the book of his life in January of this year and died in March before it was published. The books are insights in what can happen if we aren’t vigilant.
Notycoon22 – thanks for that link, excellent historical doc and some amazing film footage there, will recommend to family and friends!
I visited West Germany back in the 80’s, when the East-West fence (Der Grenze) was still standing and took a tour, walked along some of the border and by some of the lookout towers manned with armed guards under dark helmets suspiciously peering back from the other side. It’s hard to imagine living under such an oppressive environment and made me appreciate all the more how fragile this thing is we have here called freedom. What we didn’t know at the time was Der Grenze would come crashing down a few years later (like the one in Berlin too), giving renewed hope to a fractured country divided by walls, fences, fear and hatred of the “other”.
It’s raining like hell this morning here in the Philly region, but hell or high water was not keeping me or my family away from the polls. Early turnout was still strong though, they said, so here’s hoping the anticipated Blue Wave is not be quashed by a few cloudbursts. Vote today like your life depends on it. It just may!
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” – Benjamin Franklin, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Anonymous, I’m about half German and I didn’t have any urge to vote Republican. I don’t think it’s in his blood, I think it’s in his upbringing. And it was obviously a very poor upbringing.
Fear won, terrible night for democrats
Hassan, I don’t think it was a terrible night. It is actually about what I expected. The biggest result is that the Democrats now control the House. I didn’t expect that the GOP would lose the Senate. And the Dems also gained a handful of governors, and didn’t lose any. So a good night for Dems overall.
My only sadness is that Ted Cruz will still be in the Senate.