Coup de Grace for the Coup D’etat Two days ago in our nation’s capital (and Capitol), one of America’s two great modern political parties committed an act of unspeakable cowardice. That this party had been my political home from 1983 to 2016 has no objective bearing on the corrupt, unprincipled act and the slow suicide of this Party; it just makes it more personal. It resembles I imagine, watching a friend or family member slowly decline from addiction, but in this case, I will not raise a finger to stop it. I will remember what once was, and hope for better things in the future.
attempted coup? More like a protest that got out of hand. It's fun to pretend that it was a coup attempt because that rhetoric ought to rile up the less intelligent among us. You don't believe that it was a coup attempt, yet you pretend. How about some honesty. The rhetoric is fun, but you're no different than Alerx Jones when you engage in this crap.
My thoughts: I don't think the sheep are going to fall off the cliff. I think they'll reinvent their narrative and be fine. Look at how they're all doing it Thur/Fri/Sat so far. "This was the last straw for me!" I'll give the benefit of the doubt to some of them. Some clearly stayed on to keep the house from burning to the ground. For others, nah: a pure political calculus in which they kept devaluing the risk to the country/their party.
As for the Trump voter, I think they loved Trump a tad more than maga (forgive me for not capitalizing that revered slogan). To continue with what Gunzilla writes here, Trump stoked grievance in his voter. There's an interesting article out there in Politico by James Kimmel [Yale] about the brain on grievance resembling the brain on drugs--it explains how "harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics". This triggers a craving for more, which Trump delivered on. He also delivered the promise of revenge. In this regard Trump himself was a shiny thing his followers couldn't stop watching: his tone of voice, his flippant dangling of a promise that revenge for grievance was at hand. It was too hard for them to look away or to stop thinking about. And, honestly, is it any different from the rest of us who stoked our own grievances directed at Trump? We wanted our own 'revenge' too. He really kept us all looking at him from two opposing directions. [These are my thoughts, not Kimmels, btw.] Needless to say, this isn't suggesting the two opposing grievances were on equal, factual footing (real vs imagined).
Trump is now banned from Twitter. Parler is in the crosshairs of Google and Apple, and will remain so. Where does Trump go? This is the 64K question for me. Time will tell. My husband and I predict he will fade along with the fervor for him, but who's to know? Folks are already out there working on the problem of how to pick up his base for themselves, no doubt, and of course.
I share your optimism. I think bipartisanship is more likely now. At least until mid-terms start rolling around. Certainly our global interface will improve, but we have lots of 'splaining to do. I tend to land on the side of optimism generally, though some days it takes more effort. These last several years it's been work to keep that up! But this is always good work to be done. I think we'll continue to do it.
attempted coup? More like a protest that got out of hand. It's fun to pretend that it was a coup attempt because that rhetoric ought to rile up the less intelligent among us. You don't believe that it was a coup attempt, yet you pretend. How about some honesty. The rhetoric is fun, but you're no different than Alerx Jones when you engage in this crap.
My thoughts: I don't think the sheep are going to fall off the cliff. I think they'll reinvent their narrative and be fine. Look at how they're all doing it Thur/Fri/Sat so far. "This was the last straw for me!" I'll give the benefit of the doubt to some of them. Some clearly stayed on to keep the house from burning to the ground. For others, nah: a pure political calculus in which they kept devaluing the risk to the country/their party.
As for the Trump voter, I think they loved Trump a tad more than maga (forgive me for not capitalizing that revered slogan). To continue with what Gunzilla writes here, Trump stoked grievance in his voter. There's an interesting article out there in Politico by James Kimmel [Yale] about the brain on grievance resembling the brain on drugs--it explains how "harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics". This triggers a craving for more, which Trump delivered on. He also delivered the promise of revenge. In this regard Trump himself was a shiny thing his followers couldn't stop watching: his tone of voice, his flippant dangling of a promise that revenge for grievance was at hand. It was too hard for them to look away or to stop thinking about. And, honestly, is it any different from the rest of us who stoked our own grievances directed at Trump? We wanted our own 'revenge' too. He really kept us all looking at him from two opposing directions. [These are my thoughts, not Kimmels, btw.] Needless to say, this isn't suggesting the two opposing grievances were on equal, factual footing (real vs imagined).
Trump is now banned from Twitter. Parler is in the crosshairs of Google and Apple, and will remain so. Where does Trump go? This is the 64K question for me. Time will tell. My husband and I predict he will fade along with the fervor for him, but who's to know? Folks are already out there working on the problem of how to pick up his base for themselves, no doubt, and of course.
I share your optimism. I think bipartisanship is more likely now. At least until mid-terms start rolling around. Certainly our global interface will improve, but we have lots of 'splaining to do. I tend to land on the side of optimism generally, though some days it takes more effort. These last several years it's been work to keep that up! But this is always good work to be done. I think we'll continue to do it.
On target!