The disease of the American political class is the inability to see, describe, or respond what is happening, when doing so would conflict with the speech norms of the American political class
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It’s no longer a political class problem. At this point, I don’t think anyone is capable of really understanding the level of catastrophe trump seems to be unleashing DELIBERATELY.
But that inability to understand is itself the 5 alarm fire. This shitshow is off the charts. Terrifying.
You wouldn’t, by any chance, be referring to the “Dear Colleague”letter, penned by @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social would you? The one where he wrote that “…it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.” I say fierce opposition is not usually “dignified.”
I've come to learn that American exceptionalism isn't simply thinking that the US is better than everyone else, but that we are magically immune to the political processes that affect everyone else. Our hubris will cause extraordinary consequences for ourselves and the world.
This is silly commentary. Do better. Yeah, it’s frustrating that voters chose a wanna-be dictator. Blame them & GOP sycophants & work to demolish the GOP. Focus! Stop the silly navel-gazing. 🤦♀️
Yes, we have a crisis. It’s not time to bicker over tactics. We need to support our reps and pressure them. But we also need to assign blame where it belongs and then move away from blaming our allies. United we win. 😘
No one can correctly describe or respond to Trump because doing so would necessitate breaking out of the well-worn norms of speech towards and about American political leaders and parties
“Return to normalcy” has been the goal of many on the center-left for a decade now, and this builds the urge to embody normalcy, to avoid extreme language and action.
Media broke the norms to absolutely smear Biden about his age during his entire administration. They broke the norms to SCREAM at Biden during public events. Why not do the same to trump?
Politico’s article on the prospects for a govt shutdown today is written from the perspective that the Dems are responsible for keeping the government funded (despite not controlling a single branch of govt). The article is peppered with language like “A Democrat induced shutdown would…”
I think it goes deeper than just a malignant obsession with norms and comity. To describe what is happening accurately is to admit that the US is too weak to withstand an idiot fascist like Trump. It’s to admit that so much of what the elites have thought about the US has been totally wrong.
And for Democrats specifically it’s to admit that they didn’t do enough to stop it. And so they’re left buffering and doing nothing effective to respond to it.
One of my crank theories is that 95% of human behavior is imitation, often of others but mostly of our own past behavior. Imitation fails in truly novel situations like the present
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But that inability to understand is itself the 5 alarm fire. This shitshow is off the charts. Terrifying.
Thats a superpower, in a way.