4D Chess?

Or, are we just complicitly dumb?

picture source

Nellie Bowles, writing in The Free Press, noted that,

The winner of last night’s debate: Pitting Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis against California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, the winner was. . . Donald Trump.

I agree.

I don’t know who is handling Trump, but the game plan is genius. He’s avoided the farcical marketing events that we call debates with a straight face. He is leading in most polls for the Republican nomination. And he’s done so by being, get this, low key. Trump - low key. Never thought those three words would go together. But, here’s the thing:

The strongest argument for Trump at the moment is the Biden presidency.

I said the game plan is genius. But is it? Well only if you are stupid. Trump almost literally doesn’t have to do anything but keep his foot out of his mouth.

And that’s a problem for two reasons.

1. Just sitting back and staying out of the fray is pragmatic, but it doesn’t tell us anything about Trump’s plans for the country. And to vote responsibly, we need to know.

2. Because what truly motivates voters is whether or not they are better off today than they were four years ago. That was Reagan’s genius question to the voter.

See, if life is OK, then you have to get them riled up about stupid shit. But, Reagan could ask that question because gas rationing, inflation, Iran hostages, etc. Sound vaguely familiar?

When people are struggling to buy gas or groceries for reasons that they can’t understand except 4 years ago it wasn’t this hard, voter priorities shift hard. They don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to worry about micro-aggressions and all the other pretend crap out there. Yes, I’m pointing at you, preferred pronoun. So, emotional appeals to pretend problems won’t work.

If Biden is the Democratic candidate, I fear Trump will win this election.

If Trump is re-elected, he will feel vindicated. It is just a short step from vindicated to vindictive. We do not want a weaponized Trump in the White House.

F*** the Constitution!

Look. A vindictive Trump in the White House will be a very bad thing. And I say this having voted for him twice. Why did I vote for him then if I am opposed to him being elected now? Good question.

I recall vividly my dismay when the candidates were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I could not believe that the best this country had to offer were two cartoon caricatures. I voted for Trump because no way in hell could I support Hillary. And, Biden? Come on now, are we living in a mashup of Beavis and Butthead and Dumb and Dumber?

I saw him as the lesser of two evils then. No longer. Except, well, if Bozo the puppet clone is reelected. (C’mon, Barack, the anti-colonialist, is pulling the strings, right?) But, we really need two good candidates, and Trump and Biden are not those candidates.

How did we get here?

I think as a country we had several good comfortable years and we allowed ourselves to be so dumbed down worrying about micro-aggressions and preferred pronouns that we just preferred any emotional roller-coaster to rational thought. Ask yourself this question. Are the people in Israel or Palestine worrying about preferred pronouns? No. They are not. Why are we? We have that luxury. But, we are losing that luxury.

I know thinking is hard. No really. It is hard to spend time thinking through complex topics.

Slogging through all the hyperbole is hard. Sorting real from imagined and simply faked is hard. And the emotional release of simply re-tweeting some dumb crap and feeling like you did something is seductive. It feels productive. It’s not. It’s mental and emotional masturbation. It’s not thinking and it is not creative, and it does not solve actual problems. Yes actual problems.

We need to shock and confuse the mainstream media and the cartoon politicians at the polls. We need better candidates. There is not a short term fix to this. The long term fix is to put better people in the pipeline. That means local elections.

It says something about an older person that will plant a tree knowing they will not live to enjoy the shade. They do it for others. They know it will matter someday. They are future oriented.

Think. Plant trees. Put better politicians in the pipeline. And scare the current crop of cartoon politicians by thinking before you vote. Really thinking. The best thing that could happen right now is for all the pollsters and pundits to be wrong because the American people woke up and accepted responsibility for their government.