Sunday, May 15, 2022

Violence, bad righties and bad systems. All must be smashed, and "going high" isn't enough

I've been in a combination of rage and a funk after more than 20 people were shot in Milwaukee's Deer District following the Bucks' loss on Friday night, and the teenage white supremacist who killed 10 at a Buffalo grocery store, with most of the victims being Black.

Part of it is due to the reality that these horrible events will do nothing to encourage lawmakers to take steps to stop the violence due to our broken, crooked political system. If anything, it'll provide WisGOPs with another reason to play the racially tinged divide-and-conquer game that has held this state back for decade - a game that has maliciously hampered any chance for Milwaukee to take the steps needed to stop the violence, or any chance that they could invest in resources that would lessen the chances of this level of violence and hopelessness continuing.

But another part of it was summed up well by David Rothkopf in this outstanding Twitter thread, which shows how incidents such as these and the poisonous atmosphere that they marinate in is no coincidence. This is merely a piece of it.

And it feels like the forces of decency, equality and fairness are left largely on their own to fight this many-front war. We don't have the time or money that the forces of evil do, and our current political and media systems make it near impossible to get the large-scale changes that are needed to undo that damage.

But losing is not an option - not if we want to live in a state and/or country that isn't an anti-democratic Banana Republic(an) cesspool. And "going high", trusting the system and hoping for a return of "better Republicans" is not going to stop the slide we are on. It's going to require a CRUSHING at the ballot box, combined with a real loss of political, financial power, and having the political lawbreakers get locked up and incapable of using their vast resources to avoid legal consequences.

The frustrating fact is that beyond blasting out our truths and finding ways to break through then fog of (mis)information, I and people like me can only do so much more. We vote every election, we contibute every day, our communities generally do the right thing and are places that people want to move to and visit, and we work to fix what is in our control.

But it's going to take Dem politicians actually USING THE POWER THE VOTERS HAVE GIVEN THEM. This includes the Executive Branches in DC aggressively slapping down rogue red states and ensuring the rights of all citizens, and not passing the buck to voters or courts. It requires throwing out stupid traditions of Congress and dropping the hammer on disgraceful members who corruptly obstruct progress or encouraging violence against other members. And it requries elected officials at the state level ignoring what other crooked levels of government and courts may say, and working in the interests of constituents and good government over a radical, gerrymandered few.

I'm just sick of slogging through things in a state and country that should be much better than what we are dealing with today, and whose citizens voted for and support many of the changes that are needed. But the evildoers are allowed louder megaphones, bigger bucks and are willing to stir up the basest instincts of the worst people to maintain their ill-gotten gains.

And it's really hard for everyday people like me to respond with the massive, harsh, relentless attacks that the bad guys are willing to put on, because unlike RW trash and their oligarch puppetmasters, we have to be functional members of society. And that balancing act is what makes it really hard to grind through on a lot of days. It even made it hard for me to get excited about the Bucks' Game 7, because of the cloud around the Deer District shootings, and the overall ugliness of Wisconsin politics that it reminded me of.

Posted by at

1 comment:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)