Tribal Warfare - 1-12-2022

Too bad tribal warfare isn't just a game.

 
In performing my morning ritual this morning, reading the Wall Street Journal and having my coffee, I couldn't help but think how badly divided we are in my beloved United States. All topics, all discourse seems to be between entrenched camps, each getting facts, figures, and news that is totally manipulated,"spun" if you will, to meet the desires and needs of the political party to whom the echo chamber of choice belongs. And "We the People" have fully aligned ourselves with one echo chamber or the other for richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. The political leadership, media, mass and micro, and the loyal followers are aligned into what has been often and very accurately described as "tribes".

Me? I'm fed up with the Republican party, but still conservative. I'm totally opposed and completely alien to the Democrat/Progressive Liberal tribe. That still puts me in the Republican/Conservative tribe. Has to. That's how we shake out now. It's one or the other, this or that, my way or the highway. So I'm stuck with a bunch I'm fed up with and nearly ashamed to admit I'm a part of most of the time. I could continue with this piece and expound on my frustrations with Republicans or my opposition to Democrats endlessly, but I don't think it's necessary. But all this little piece is intended to do is to point and laugh at our collective stupidity. Yes, I said stupidity, OUR STUPIDITY. Yours and mine, whether left or right, it's on us. Three simple issues to show the divide. I probably can't be brief, so I've decided to just list them, short as I can.

1. Voting rights. One tribe wants nearly no rules, a free for all that makes everyone, citizens, non-citizens, registered, unregistered, resident or passing through, "all-ee all-ee in come free" to vote. The other (my tribe) wants controls and security in place one person one vote citizens only verified identity and voter ID. Neither sides positions are acceptable to the other in any way shape or form.

2. The virus. Each side has it's own doctors and scientists. Each side focuses more on the issues with which the other side disagrees and the flaws they believe exist in the other side's logic, independent of independent thought, opinion, or expertise. There is no independent thought. One tribe believes only what they are told in their echo chamber and blames to near the point of deliriousness the other for every negative aspect of the virus. Independent thought is unacceptable. Anyone who disagrees with the mainstream positions of the tribal leadership is a heretic and should be cast aside and shunned. BOTH tribes are guilty of this. Fauci is either the messiah or a demon of Satan.

3. President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. One side is totally blind to how inept and incompetent Joe Biden is, the other to how unacceptable Donald Trump is to too many people who won't claim membership in either tribe. How many is too many? Probably enough to ensure he will lose again if her runs in 2024, in my opinion.

It's a mess. We don't think for ourselves anymore, at least not nearly enough. We think we do, but we're fed all our information from our own tribal echo chamber. Many of us, myself included, are more appalled at what's happening in the other echo chamber than we are enthused about what's happening in our own. Yes, it's a mess. But I'm short on time, I need to sharpen my spear and knife, gather my shield. I must rally to my tribe! We must not be defeated!

January 6 is coming - 1-4-2022

 

I never thought this was a good idea.

 

There was never a time when I thought protesting the election of 2020 last January 6th in Washington D.C. was a good idea. Did the pre- and post-election shenanigans deserve a protest? YES THEY DID. But January 6th being the day that the Electoral College was to vote, I felt was the wrong choice. It fell into the "Nothing good can come from it" category to me from the minute I heard it. The protests ought to have been prior to January 6th, on the 4th or even the 5th, but having them on the 6th was a mistake.

I rankle when I hear the protests characterized as "a violent insurrection." Not so much lately, but at one point I also heard it called a coup d'état. Violent insurrections and coups would entail weaponry and the only weapons I know of were used by the Capitol Police and the only victim of that violence was a veteran who trespassed in the Capitol building. No, it was a protest that got out of hand, something that was unfortunately too predictable when they decided to do it on January 6th.

 

This morning's Wall Street Journal, in two different places, and by two different authors, referred to the January 6th, 2021 protests as a violent attempt to "overturn the election." Never once, nowhere that I saw, was "stop the steal" mentioned, nor were the reasons so many believe the election was stolen even referenced. Shame on the WSJ (and the rest of the mainstream news media) for sweeping those concerns under the rug.

 

The protest got out of hand and became more riot than protest. It was a mistake and sadly undermined legitimate efforts to address what I feel are/were legitimate grievances about the 2020 election.  The protests did more harm than good.

I do not know that the election was stolen, but I do know that I saw events unfold before AND after the election that I felt were absolutely and totally wrong, if not criminal.

 

I do not trust the people who changed election rules, ostensibly to enable participation with reduced risk due to Covid. It seems to me this was opportunism and my big beef is that is was enacted/transacted by bureaucrats and elected officials in the various state executive branch, and NOT by state legislators, as provided for in the US Constitution.

I do not trust big tech - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc. I do not trust the software makers who make voting machines to be impartial and above board. I simply don't. Silicone Valley leans way left and that's from where they come.

I do not trust vote counters in big Democrat run cities. When the counting was stopped in so many states on Election Day evening, in those wee hours of the night, then we saw numbers flipped to Biden dramatically when they supposedly restarted the counting, at a minimum I felt it was suspect... probably worse.

I do not trust Election officials in those same cities and districts to audit and check the results.

I do not trust the mainstream media to report honestly and accurately anything that might reflect badly on Democrats and their actions pre and post election. Birds of a feather stick together they say. Well, the media and those Democrat officials to whom I refer ARE birds of a feather.

I do not trust establishment elite Democrats nor Republicans.

I don't support far right whack jobs, but I won't support left wing progressive radicals who hate our country as it was founded as the alternative.

I don't trust the way the election of 2020 was accomplished. If nothing changes, I won't trust 2022 or 2024, either.

What do I need to see to restore my trust? Voter eligibility and identity verification. That means scrubbed voter rolls and verifying IDs at the polls and somehow when there is remote voting. Vote counting transparency. Less unnecessary mail in and absentee voting.

If our election didn't appear so corrupt, nobody would have been crying "stop the steal" in the first place. It's time for real reform with a huge improvement in integrity the prime objective.