Isms, Ideologies and Idiocy

Las ideologias se inventaron para que puede opinar el que no piensa.

Ideologies were invented so that men who do not think can give an opinion.

-Aphorism #1219, Don Colacho

We're only five days into January of 2016 and already I'm tired of politics and of the nonsense going on in this country all around.  Don't misunderstand me, I love the United States and what we stand for: liberty and justice for all and such, but we have our problems.  Right now our problem is that we're not thinking things through very clearly or consistently, we are buying into ideologies rather than truly addressing ideas.  For instance, how is it that right now there is a group of armed ranchers are occupying a federal facility and spouting all sorts of hatred towards the President and our very own elected government, and the conservative voice is saying: "they're just protesting what they see as an infringement of their rights to bear arms and make a living, they're protesting the fact that a couple of ranchers got in some trouble because a fire they set to clear some grazing land got out of control."  But those same voices were awfully quick to condemn the lawlessness that broke out in Ferguson and Baltimore over the DEATH of young black men at the hands of police.

Why are white people allowed to be armed and treasonous in their protest over land rights and black people are not allowed to be angry in the streets of their own neighborhoods over the death of their children?

This position has not been thoroughly thought through, you're just approving what your gang does and disproving what is done by the "others."

I'm not just going to pile on the right wing though, because this stuff happens among Democrats as well, albeit in somewhat less dramatic terms.  Let's look at the economic debate about income inequality and economic justice. If you look at the positions of the candidates Bernie Sanders is trotting out some good old democratic socialism.  Not at all unlike the sort of thing that Republican Teddy Roosevelt did as a trust buster and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt did with the New Deal.  In actuality Sanders positions are not so much new and radical as they are old and well, frankly conservative, as in hearkening back to things that have worked to ameliorate similar categories of trouble in the past.

Sanders looks super liberal on economic policies because he is contrasted ideologically against a Republican party that is trying to "conserve" the ideology of the Reagan administration, rather than the policies of Eisenhower that helped the middle class grow and restrained oligarchical economic structures.

I have been thinking a lot about how and why Sanders appeals to me so much more than Clinton.  Even if I choose not to indulge in the darker fantasies of the right concerning the Clinton machine and their trail of bodies and abused people, I can't help but notice that Hillary probably really isn't going to change very much that needs changing.  She is going to run into the same stonewall that Obama has been beating his head against, and maybe even worse.  Obama has been the victim of some really despicable and blatantly racist slander, but I get the feeling from some of the anti-Hillary venom that I hear from right-leaning folks that we ain't seen nothing yet.

She makes a certain vocal segment of our population want to spit hot fire, and it is not because of her policies, because her policies are more or less Democratic Party boiler plate.  I have not heard one innovative idea from her, or anything that would differentiate her from a moderate Reaganite Republican (if such a creature even exists any more).

This is where I am, as I try to think my way through this election cycle: I don't really like all of what anyone says, even Bernie.  I like Bernie lots and lots on his domestic economic policy stuff, why? Simple self interest, because I am, and forever more will be, stuck in the middle class.  I have no illusion or expectation of ever rising into the ranks of having real money.  It's my choice, and I really am okay with it, but it frustrates me that so many of my fellow middle class folk are willing to support candidates who intend to continue to favor the top 10% and corporations with their policy decisions, who will do nothing to truly address the crushing burdens of healthcare and absurd levels of educational debt, and the general rigging of the allegedly democratic system in favor of those who already have the wealth and power.

Give me a candidate who speaks strongly against the things that destroy our ability to live good and productive lives as part of a free society and I will vote for him or her, regardless of whether they are Republican, Democrat or Independent.  Give me a candidate who has a vision to actually make the country of ours a more just society, I will practically cheer for them, most of all just give me someone who appears to have actually thought through the things they're offering and what they might actually be able to do... I might just be able to get through this next year.