Rage of the Bullies

There I was, standing in the checkout line, reading the magazine covers. This Globe cover is the winner of the day. I took the photo to text it to a friend.

What a day in America when two such people make the cover of the Globe. It is so telling of our current state of affairs. A sort of dumb and dumber representation of us, the American citizenry.

Do not be offended. In a universal suffrage democracy, we are all responsible for a president and former president, sitting on the cover of a cheap journal.

That said, the Globe can go places others won’t. In a way, it is much more honest than the NY Times, or other, “high end” journals. We can laugh at the headlines here, because of their honesty, not their absurdity.

The NY Times has become a journal of absurdities.

There are those who won’t laugh at this cover and the stories it reports on. We know who they are. People who identify strongly with their politics always lack a sense of humor.

Let’s examine this cover.

Of course Biden, who is a creature of American politics, will not release the files on JFK’s murder. Inform me on this, did he ever say he would? No rank and file politician will do that. Partly, because they fear for their own life, and partly, just because they want to play the game by the rules.

I don’t think Biden was ever forced to accept the rules that he plays by. And he certainly wants to keep having fun in the White House. Though he may have to give up his boy, that’s okay. The point is for the Biden clan to get through these next years, alive and well. That’s what matters. JFK files will have to wait for someone else to release them. Someone with a little luster. Biden is very lackluster.

Now, let’s talk about Trump. Here’s a man who has been in business, the construction business at that, his entire working life. Only a truly naive fool would be shocked that Trump had any dealings with New York’s finest mobsters, in and out of government. New York is like most cities; there is an element of pay to play throughout.

Municipal systems and their courts, are all about extorting money from citizens. If you’ve never been extorted, you are living a privileged life, or you live in the country.

The one thing I like about Trump is that, underneath all that bombast, the guy is real. I mean, he deals with the world on a different level than the career politician. There’s another thing to like about him. He’s not a career politician. He did hit a nerve with millions of people, and they helped him become president. However, much of the vote for Trump came because there was Hilary Clinton on the other side. Or candidates who had not chance of winning in the general election. Like Libertarians and Greens, those sorts of parties. The boutique parties never do well because they don’t address what people, the general population that is, want. Liberty, and a clean Earth requires responsibility. Americans don’t wish to be tasked for keeping the Earth clean or having to think about government. Trump gets that, because he is not an intellectual. He’s gut wise. Meaning, he feels it too, so he was able to give millions of Americans a voice for what ails them.

And then, just like that, at the end of four years, he was tossed.

Trump needed a huge margin to win in 2020. There could be no skullduggery if the margin had been, say, 20 million votes. Physically, it would be impossible to whittle all that away. In truth, the American people did not think Trump was the answer, because Biden had a better persona.

Before 2020, did Trump’s followers talk to people outside of the usual characters they talk to? I don’t think so. They were too sure of themselves. They did not read any Sun Tzu. They could not understand it, that a majority of the American voting public did not think like they think.

I get the idea about people being nervous regarding our nation’s state-of-being. There is much doom and gloom; one cannot miss it. Many writers, who have dickered a bit in history, like to compare us to the Romans. It seems odd to me, that these writers are always going on about the “fall of Rome.” They rarely address the making of Rome.

Rome is the first long lasting culture, and civilization. It needs to be looked at from its beginning. Examining Rome in its entirety, we can see it has had a few “falls.”

Here’s the history lesson. Rome did not “fall.” It contracted. It remains with us.  That is the important idea to grasp if you want to compare the United States with Rome. So let’s look at few comparisons.

Rome began as an electoral monarchy, in 753 BC. In 509, their senators found their nerve, and overthrew the king. That’s when it became a republic, run by the oligarchy. Which the senators were.

Does this sound familiar?

This overthrow of the king is the first of many civil wars Rome engaged in. Rome would change her way of doing things, politically, four or five times. Remember that.

You can see that Rome was a kingdom for 244 years. It took America about 169 years to overthrow their established government with a monarch at its head. The difference being the monarch wasn’t local, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, as it was in Rome. Like Rome, we became a republic with a senate of oligarchs. Meaning, the people did not directly elect the senators, like they do today. The local establishment did. The direct vote was for the house of representatives. In Rome, there were four houses of representatives. Which can be compared to the first 13 houses of representatives in 1783.

In states without a monarch, there are men who become famous for a period of time, for their accomplishments. These men, women are not players yet, gain political office, and varying degrees of power. In Rome, most of these important movers and shakers were formed in the army, with generals like Caesar and Pompey, becoming too powerful for some. This led to their second upheaval and civil war, and, once again, the type of state organization changed from republic back to monarchy.

Rome did not fall when Octavian became the only ruler of Rome and its far reaching empire. Rome stuck around for another 1400 years, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Not bad, eh, a civilization that lasts for approximately 2200 years?

The historian Will Durant, said that as long as the Catholic Church is around, old Rome is around. That adds in another 600 years to the age of this still great culture.

European America is 400 years old, give or take. The Civil War was the beginning of our current state of affairs. That lead to our universal suffrage, and we are on way to upheaval, and our “fall.”

We have two men in the ring prepared to duke it out come next year for the monarchy we refer to as a “presidency.”  One is a man of accomplishment. He is not owned by any special interest group. The other is a professional politician. He’s owned. For his years of service to the oligarchy, he has been rewarded with the presidency.

And now, he's managed to get his mug on the Globe’s cover. Good for him.

But so too did the other guy.

Trump is in show business. He’s supposed to get his name and pic on the Globe.

It could be argued that politics is showbiz. It’s certainly trashy. It’s full of people who take their own importance to heart. Their egos are full, thinking they have the answers to better government, which will make life better for all of us.

I hope you read that with my sarcasm ringing in your ears.

The more I think about it, the more I become empathetic towards anarchy, with a longing for a different sort of political setup. Indeed, I am ready for the upheaval, because the division among us won’t last. Nor will it come to a good end.

Here’s what I’m talking about. Last week, on FaceBook, I expressed my views on the latest round of Trump’s legal mania. Here is a post that I commented on:

Todays events [indictments] bring to mind a quote from Nietzsche: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

There were several comments before I wrote this:

Trump's troubles have resurrected him. If his enemies would have left it alone, it would have the death of irrelevance. Ye gods, I am tired of that man and his followers.

And then the angry man, KDK, responded to my comment:

…and I am tired of know-nothing Never-Trumpers who are willing to excuse shady prosecutions of Trump and ignorance of the crimes of Biden because, Orange Man Bad. It shows how ignorant and corrupt people like you are. You are a terrible person.

My response:

KDK, You are exhibit A of what I speak of. Thanks for providing the evidence.

Which led KDK to more assumptions about me:

I am Team Deplorable and proud of it you stuffed shirt Country Club Republican.

And then me:

I have no party. Indeed, you can take your democracy and shove it. You, and your mirror image, are what destroys the nation. A pox on both your houses.

KDK won’t let me go, because I have shattered all his beloved ideals. He then comes up with this eye roller:

…show me on this doll where freedom and democracy hurt you.

Then me:

Show me the doll.

And then KDK:

Trump. Tell me how Trump hurt your worldview and impression of America.

My answer is this blog. As if Trump could “hurt” me. What KDK cannot fathom is my worldview has nothing to do with Mr. Trump. I came to that conclusion long before Trump took over the GOP in 2016. I could see many Republicans wanted a bold guy, and that is quite understandable. But were these the same Republicans who yelled at me when I said I supported Ron Paul back in 2008? Paul is a bold guy supporting bold ideas. Which I still support, because I am disgusted with the oligarchy wasting away  America’s treasures, in terms of humans and money, whenever they fight an aggressive war in some sandlot far, far away.

KDK is intent on playing the bully, because bullies could care less about anything other than there own wants. I don’t think KDK tolerates any opinions, but his own. Indeed, I repeat, he is exhibit A on why Trump’s message is not only stalled, but caught up in the world of the monsters who would bring him down. If Trump wanted to win, he would need good soldiers who would listen and ask questions, not stomp on anyone who voiced a different opinion.

Trump needs supporters who can use friendly persuasion as their MO. Not the bullies raging for his cause.

Isn’t that what our politics has become?  Bull dogs, barking at each other, on either side of a fence? No one is listening, but the peaceful would love it if these dogs would shut up.

Methinks those nasty, angry folks engaged in outrage, have become the monsters Nietzsche warned us of. Or were they monsters to begin with?

And what of the rest of us? Do we want to be Mercutio and Tybalt, fighting to death in the cause of other people’s problems?

Bullying has become the way of American politics. All it will take is someone to pull down the fence, to let the dogs have at it. Then we can all become monsters, in the name of survival.