The Devil You Know

April 1, 2022

Cathedral City, California

     Here is a quote from a blog posting I put up a couple of years ago, after the confirmation of the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the supreme court:

We suffer when we assume that there are good people on both sides of the political aisle, because we waste time that could be better spent opposing the bad ones.  Perhaps at one time there were "good" Republicans, but no more.   If they're good, they won't be Republicans.  Sorry, maybe your dad was a Republican and you think of him as basically a good guy.  But your dad was foolish and misguided at best, and bigoted and filled with fear and loathing at worst.  Time to stop thinking there are salvageable Republicans, male or female, and recognize them all for what they are--the minions of the devil.

If it weren't so damned long, I'd like that carved on my tombstone.  But my tombstone would have to be the size of that of the Unknown Soldier, which would be pretty ridiculous, not to mention preposterously egotistical.  And really, who would take the time to read it, anyway, before it got covered with lichen and mold?  So I'll just settle for the name and dates, like most everybody else.

     To be sure, there are Republicans who occasionally do the right thing, but I think it's mostly by accident.  And there are Democrats who don't do the right thing, like that idiot senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia and, locally, Alex Villanueva, the wolf in sheep's clothing who presides as the sheriff of Los Angeles County, no less ruthless than the fabled sheriff of Nottingham.  

     As we begin the long off-year election season (longer even than major league sports seasons), it's probably a good idea to keep in mind that the simpler we keep things the better.  If we're not Republicans (as I assume is the case with all my readers, unless they've randomly stumbled on this blog), we should be prepared for a dazzling display of pure mendacity on the part of the GOP candidates for various offices, from national congressional ones to local state elections of governors and other state officials.

     The Republicans will, as has become their usual habit, simply try to tell the public that tax breaks for the wealthy are good for the poor, that racism and xenophobia are the best forms of Americanism, and that the Democrats are responsible for all the bad things the Republicans themselves have brought about by obstructing the Democrats at every turn.  They will tell us that war is peace, that freedom is slavery, and that ignorance is strength.  Sorry, got a little carried away there at the end, but Orwell's lessons from 1984 are good ones.  That Stalinist future he foresaw wasn't nearly as frightening as the real thing has turned out to be.  It would be one thing if the U.S. was living in dull grey, stripped-down, Soviet-style misery, like Winston Smith's world was, drinking watery gin, and all that.  But we're living instead in a colorful world of multiple television and movie channels, Facebook, movies filled with action comic book heroes, and much more.  It's so dazzlingly bright when we look at the screen that we hardly notice the grimness that dwells outside.  Which is simply the modern version of bread and circuses.  And as for politics and politicians, well, we now expect them to lie regularly, so what's the difference?

     But for as cynical as we all seem to be about politics, it's amazing that we repeatedly continue to vote (or not vote) in opposition to our own interests.  Even people who genuinely care about things like racial, social, and economic justice will fail to vote for Democrats, simply because Democrats don't always deliver on their promises, or because they perceive the "Government" to be some organic evil monolithic force that is out to subdue us all, when in fact the government, when decently led, is the only agency whereby we are decently protected and provided for.  And even when people don't vote for either Republicans or Democrats, they are essentially aiding and abetting Republicans, who generally are in the minority in this country.  By not voting for Democrats they oppose no one and nothing, including evil.  I cannot overemphasize this point.  "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around," to quote "Life During Wartime" by the Talking Heads. 

     If you're looking for a mantra--a simple and correct evaluation of the state of the U.S. political landscape in 2022--it is this, set out in syllogistic fashion:

     All Republicans are bad;

     Many Democrats are good.

     Therefore, if you want a chance to increase good in the country, you must vote for Democrats.

See how easy that is?  You don't need to evaluate things any further.  But just in case, here's another thought from a previous posting about the Republican thought process, particularly with respect to the pandemic.  It was written early in the rough going of 2020, but it as relevant now as ever, as people begin to unmask with the thoughtless glee of young children given permission to do whatever they please, but still too immature or uninformed to understand the inherent dangers of the world: 

Right wingers, led by the example set by their leader, are not only heedless and ignorant of the concept of the public good, but also apparently incapable of thinking of anyone but themselves.  Government of the selfish, by the selfish, and for the selfish is their credo as they careen down the highway of destiny.  Can you imagine anyone during the middle ages parading down the streets proclaiming their RIGHT to get the bubonic plague, or to give it to someone else?  People would have thought they were crazy.  They barely understood the disease, or the germ theory of disease, in anything like the way we understand it today, but one thing everyone knew was that they sure as fuck didn't want to get it, and if they could help it, they didn't want to give it to anyone else.

     So, my friends, in this case at least, don't heed the old adage, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know."  Avoid the devil you know and opt for those who might just embody the better angels of our nature.