trump | stuartsandersblog

On November 5, 2024, over seventy million Americans proved themselves to be morons. In spite of all they saw from 2016-2020, including an insurrection, they voted for an insane, malignant grifter to be the world’s most powerful person. They chose to reinstall and impose upon our daily consciousness not only Orange Caligula-in-chief, but also his horrible, thieving family of gargoyles.

My personal definition of the term “moron” isn’t meant in the early twentieth century sense which described a person whose intelligence fell in the IQ scale somewhere between imbecile and idiot. Certainly, there is idiocy and imbecility aplenty but I consider it moronic to care so little about the values upon which our country is based. No doubt there is much to criticize and be disappointed about on the progressive side of the political spectrum but, at least, that side is still trying to achieve American ideals.

After the 2016 election I tried hard to “understand” how it happened. I tried (though generally failed) to excuse the result by telling myself some combination of the following: 1. A few million votes were “protest” votes by people who didn’t actually think Caligula would win; 2. Some of his voters truly had been long ignored by the powers-that-be, so their vote was somehow not or, at least, not exclusively, based upon a toxic mix of ignorance and bigotry; and, 3. Hillary was not a dynamic campaigner and she neglected to visit such crucial states as Wisconsin and Michigan, so she and her campaign shared responsibility.

But these excuses no longer apply. Despite limited time, Kamala campaigned energetically, if imperfectly, and left no stone unturned. Her running mate, Tim Walz, also worked feverishly and dynamically, in contrast to the charisma-challenged non-entity known as Tim Kaine, who ran with Clinton. (How many people could have produced his name quickly enough to win at Jeopardy)?

The aforementioned seventy-plus million have no excuses. Most are low-information haters, happy to dump on people they somehow perceive as below them on the social ladder. Some, however, are not ignorant and may not even be bigots, but vote purely based upon their perceived financial interests. These are the millionaires and billionaires who crave their tax cuts above any and all other considerations. Relatively speaking, they don’t care about equality based on race or gender, or the environment, or sane gun laws, or qualified and impartial judges, or America’s role in the world, or America’s tradition of, at least, TRYING to attain, in reality, the ideal: “All men are created equal.” These are well-educated, sometimes super-well-educated graduates of Ivy-level schools who simply feel the addition of, or preservation of, several thousand additional dollars each year is worth whatever muck the nation and the world will be dragged through.

For years, I wondered how republicans could live with themselves. I wondered, “Don’t these people have grandchildren? Don’t they care about the future?” Recently, however, I’ve read studies showing people really do NOT think much about the future, only the present and immediate decade or two ahead. Not only republicans, but progressives, too, don’t care as much about future generations as I thought.

But crises are coming at us now, in real time, not in some distant future. Climate-change deniers as well as thinking people are being flooded now, not 30 years from now. Insurance rates are skyrocketing now in places like Florida and North Carolina where the republican-dominated legislatures disallow consideration of future flooding or sea level rise in building codes. Mass murders are occurring now. Reproductive rights, even for blonde people in Texas, are in crisis now.

My screed could continue for pages and pages but, it’s exhausting and fruitless to contemplate so much hate, so much ignorance, so much short-sightedness. I refuse to beat around the bush anymore lest some feelings be hurt. I despise the cult members and the creature they’ve let loose upon us once again. When the world is unlivable in fifteen or twenty years, due to the climate, political and social chaos about to envelop us, if I’m still around to see it, “I told you so” may well be my final words.

USEFUL IDIOTS

A century ago, the leader of the Russian revolution, Vladimir Lenin, is said to have assessed the members of the American Communist Party and found them inadequate. Though these well-intentioned and righteous believers in the cause of “comradeship” often alienated many of their own families, neighbors and employers to express their idealistic support for the Soviets, Lenin believed they lacked the hard edge, the mental toughness, and the willingness to lose their lives, if necessary, to advance his authoritarian goals. Still, Lenin appreciated the fact that the American communists aggravated the U.S. government and sowed discord. Thus, though the historical record is unclear as to the exact origin of the term “useful idiots,” Lenin is said to have deemed them as such, whether or not he actually used the phrase.

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At least initially, American communists only saw the righteousness of the Bolshevik cause. Equality! Brotherhood! The common good! It took several decades for many of his western supporters to realize Lenin and his successor, Stalin, were actually creating a repressive police state. Some supporters never recognized their complicity in supporting such a tragic result.

The inadvertent advance of results progressives would surely abhor, if they foresaw them, has emerged several additional times in more recent American politics. In 1968 the left wing of the Democratic Party supported the Yippees, hippies and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in their anti-Vietnam war fervor to disrupt the Chicago convention. Is there any progressive, including me, who did not revere the Chicago Seven, the groups’ leaders who were prosecuted in a travesty of a trial? Who didn’t enjoy the incredible anger they aroused in Mayor Daley, a cartoon villain personified? Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and the rest were heroes, right?

In the end, however, what did the convention disruptors accomplish? Probably, their actions in Chicago contributed directly to Nixon’s victory over the anti-war Hubert Humphrey, and the subsequent extension of the war for five more years, including secret bombing campaigns and massacres that stained America’s reputation. Would their efforts, perhaps, have been better spent getting out the vote for Humphrey? If Nixon, a consummate cynic, considered his well-intentioned opposition, he surely would have agreed to their designation as “useful idiots.”

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The 2000 election presented a clear choice between a dim-witted tool of the oil industry, George W. Bush, and Vice-President Al Gore, a sober-minded progressive with a special concern for the environment. The popular vote went for Gore, but in our ridiculous and obsolete electoral college system, which renders “one man, one vote” a joke, the election ended in a virtual tie, finally thrown by the so-called “Supreme Court” to Bush.

What made the election so close? Ralph Nader, the dictionary definition of a self-righteous do-gooder, took 2.74 percent of the vote. Nader, his left-leaning anti-corporate purity intact, has never apologized for the result, nor even acknowledged that he and his voters served as useful idiots to bring about the Bush presidency. Does anyone sincerely believe, if Nader had dropped out of the race and endorsed Gore, any of his voters would have supported Bush?

Imagine where the world might be, climate-wise and Iraq War-wise, if Gore had been inaugurated. Like a good non-cynic, of course, Gore’s basic dignity led him to end his legal fight “for the good of the country.” How quaint does that seem now?

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2016 brought a new iteration of naifs, the Bernie Bros. These well-intentioned liberals harkened back in some ways to the original members of the Communist Party. Worker solidarity became a “thing” again. And “Tax the rich!” Full disclosure: early in the election season, I hosted a debate watch party in support of Bernie. My guests and I chuckled all evening as he made mincemeat of Hilary Clinton.

I soon perceived the futility of Bernie’s efforts, however, AND the long-term damage he was doing to Clinton. I quit wearing his “Political Revolution” tee-shirt to the gym and tried to talk up Clinton. Despite my sympathy for the cause(s) Bernie espoused, I belatedly anticipated the catastrophe that ultimately occurred, the victory of Orange Caligula, via the dastardly electoral college. I don’t know how useful, but, yes, I was an idiot.

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This brings us to the present, the Gaza demonstrators. A legion of idealistic young students, doubtless egged on by professional agitators and support from folks like the latest totalitarian Vladimir, Putin, are convulsing college campuses. They attack Joe Biden for his support of Israel as though he is a right-wing member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet. Never mind that only a tiny percentage of these students could have found Gaza on a map before October 7. Never mind that hostage-taking is sub-human. Never mind Hamas’s positions on women’s rights (bad) or, Allah-forbid, LGBTQ rights. (“Which building is better for throwing them off?)”

Let’s pose a couple of rational questions: 1. Would a permanent cease-fire that leaves Hamas in control achieve anything beyond setting the stage for the next war in six weeks, or six months? 2. Does any Muslim person think Orange Caligula will be more favorably disposed towards their issues? Towards immigrants? Towards even obtaining a visa to visit?

PLEASE, well-meaning students and activists and Muslim voters in Michigan and elsewhere: recognize that Biden and Blinken are trying to achieve the only arrangement that could possibly solve this situation long-term. They are pursuing the one-in-a-thousand-chance-of-success framework of non-Iranian Gulf States and Egypt administering the Gaza Strip, while creating a Muslim-led peacekeeping force, and promoting a rational, fair and reasonably non-corrupt rebuilding process.

While contending with the extreme difficulty of the above scenario, Biden is also beset by the infuriating intransigence of the vile Netanyahu and his rightwing nut-jobs. Biden deserves support, and get-out-the-vote efforts, not withering attacks. His election opponent’s plan likely involves Jared Kushner-designed waterfront hotels after the remaining population of Gaza is liquidated.

PLEASE, idealistic and sincere activists, don’t be USEFUL IDIOTS and end up electing a democracy and earth-threatening totalitarian instead of an uninspiring but decent human being. It’s not a great bumper sticker, but the activists roiling college campuses should use their energy to promote the following idea: “Physical feebleness is not great. Insanity is far worse.”

SOUR GRAPES

USEFUL IDIOTS