And Another Thing Democrats... / Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss

And Another Thing Democrats...  

     With the Democratic debates raging on, with no sign of civility ahead; I can't help but bubble and roil like Vesuvius.  These ridiculous personal attacks each Democratic candidate is hurling at each fellow candidate reeks of myopia.  We would be better served to just pick the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate as quickly as possible, without all this frivolous infighting that's going to come back and haunt the Democrats later, in the form of a large, bombastic orange tornado of arrogant power and sheer luck that will leverage each and every one of these barbs in the general election.   

     Each petty swipe is just another round of ammunition for the opposing side.  Doesn't anyone on that dais of twenty candidates fucking get that?  Gnawing each other apart is only going to help Trump in the long run.  This ridiculous game of who can throw the most "zingers" out is so tedious and cringe-inducing.  You're not comics, assholes; this isn't a roast.  Jeff Ross isn't back stage in an Alexander Hamilton costume.  You're politicians, fucking act like it.  For fuck's sake, just focus on the actual issues at hand in this country, instead of getting sucked into the circus vortex Trump's victory has created.  Be the anti-Trump.  But with balls.  Cast Trump as the villain he is, not all the other Democratic candidates.  Save some of that venom for the real opponent.  You're going to need all the momentum you can muster to beat a candidate with absolutely zero scruples, willing to say anything to win, no matter how outlandish, impossible, or God-awful.

     I don't even care who the Democrats pick at this point, but let's just make it a winner.  A real contender.  We need someone that can really go head to head with Trump in the debates, and in the media.  And someone fucking likeable; someone with a lot of mass appeal.  Now is not the time to fuck around with candidates who sound good on paper, but have no real chance of getting swing votes, no matter their qualifications.  (I'm looking at you Julian Castro...I'm sure the conspiracy mill already has a big hard-on just thinking about that.) We need a win, by any means necessary.  Playing nice, and playing by the rules, cost us the election last time.  That's what got us into this mess; acting like a bunch of self-righteous know-it-alls.  And how did that work out?

     So just fucking pick someone already, and let's all rally behind them like everything depends on it, because it does.  Let's rally behind our candidate the way the Republicans rally behind Trump.  They bend over backwards and contort themselves into all kinds of inhuman shapes kissing Trump's ass and defending his outrageous, inflammatory speech. But God damn it, they stand by their man.  Which is what we need to do in the Democratic party.  We need to extol only the virtues of our candidate, while decrying every awful thing Trump does, to drum up people who just want to vote against Trump, not necessarily for our candidate.  We can pick apart their policies, and character, and whatever else we hate about the Democratic candidate, once they move squarely into the Oval Office, and not a second before.

      And, I don't want to hear this whiny "I'm not voting" bullshit because your primary candidate didn't win the nomination. Pull on your adult panties, and fucking vote for whoever the Democratic candidate is, and shut the fuck up about it.  There is no perfect candidate, because there are no perfect people.  Sorry to disappoint you all, but these are just three-dimensional human beings like the rest of us, full of faults, foibles, and pedestrian errors.  But guess what, they are still all better than Trump.  That's really the only thing we have to bear in mind at the moment; 'Still better than Trump.' In fact, that's a pretty truthful campaign slogan.  Let's put it on blue hats, and blue t-shirts, and overlay our profile pictures on social media with it.  Still Better Than Trump: SBTT.  MAGA vs. SBTT.  Let's start chanting that at Democratic rallies.  We could do with a little populist fanfare to get voters emotionally invested.

Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss

     Which ties into the other movement that is sticking in my craw; the far left and their authoritative rhetoric.  I know I've harped on this before, but it seems to be getting more pronounced as the elections looms. Much like the fever pitch it reached right before and immediately following the 2016 election.  I'm just as tired of hearing about the white, male patriarchy as I am about Trump's latest racist-filled, garbage tweet.  I'm not even sure which I find more distasteful; the directly bigoted pig, or the snake who hides their judgement behind the guise of sanctimony.

      If I wanted to be told what to do by a bunch of people I'm supposed to respect by default, I would just attend church.  I have been rebelling against whatever authority existed, on a micro level, and on a macro scale, since I was a kid.  It's just the way I'm wired; to question everything that comes across my proverbial desk.  To rebel, or full-on revolt, if what I see isn't what I think is right.  Now that doesn't mean everyone has to agree with me, or think like me, or whatever, I'm just doing what is right for me.  I don't need nor want to push my personal, philosophical beliefs on anyone else.  If so, then they would cease to be my personal, philosophical beliefs, and more of a tyranny of sorts, or maybe even worse, some kind of guru-ism.  Blech. "What might be right for you, may not be right for some," claimed a wise theme song, once.  One of the core tenets of my philosophy is that I mind my own fucking business.  I can advocate for change or certain principles, I can express my opinions and beliefs passionately, but I cannot force-feed or browbeat those principles into anyone.  For if I do, then they are no longer real or true, but just a symptom of brainwashing or fatigue in whoever I am instilling (or rather, installing) them in.  It's like a forced confession, after hours of grueling interrogation; the suspect will say anything to just make it stop.

      One of the patent hypocrisies I can't stand about some of the voices gaining traction on the left, is this idea that instead of simply expressing an opinion, or suggesting different solutions, its laid out as THE opinion, THE solution. Instead of "I feel this way about A, B, and C," its "You should feel this way about A, B, and C." It's that subtle and insidious difference that is simultaneously galling and so effective. Perfected over thousands of years by none other than, the very Patriarchy in question.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  Does one really care what type of person is inside the jackboot that is stepping on their neck?  So we trade a white, male patriarchy for a more physically diverse and inclusive, but ideologically similar on the other end of the spectrum oligarchy? Oh, great.  This is really soooo much better, thank you wise, Far Left Overlords! Pfft.  
   
     Everyone on this earth has some sort of cross to bear, because we all have mixed-up garbage brains ourselves, on top of trying to interact with other garbage-brained people.  We are more similar than we are different when we really boil it down, but we seem to be cordoning everyone off into even smaller groups than expanding ourselves into wider teams.  It's mind-boggling to me, some of the completely foreseeable, but unstoppable effects of this intersectionality theory.  No one wins when we play the game "Who's got it worse?"  Most people have it bad, because existing is exhausting.  Let's have compassion for all people, across all different kinds of situations.  The old saying, charity starts at home, keeps leaping to mind.  Let's take care of the people immediately around us, instead of worrying about what some D-list celebrity or random citizen said on Twitter.  Or what some teen wore to prom, or who's allowed to make tacos.  Who gives a fuck? Why does it matter?  We're giving platforms to bozos who don't deserve platforms.  And babbling about shit on social media and tweeting feigned outrage is no where near the same as enacting policy and law, which is the only real way to change any of these rigged systems.  Telling white, cis-gendered males that their feelings no longer matter, because they have historically mattered long enough, is not a great way to get votes. And I'm just spit-balling here, but maybe that is a huge reason why Trump drummed up all the votes he did.  Because even if he was lying through his capped teeth, people still want to hear "Don't worry, I got you."  While the Dems squabble over meaningless tripe, the Republicans are out winning elections, where it counts.

     But what we can do, is let everyone voice their opinion.  Let everyone squawk about whatever they want, and let the chips fall where they may.  Hear everyone out, and try to enact policies that do the most good for the most number of people.  Which I still believe the Democrats are capable of, by a mile.  While staying above the petty fray.  Attempting to silence any one group of people is going to have a backlash, just like it did in the 2016 election. The Republicans, namely the Donald Trump campaign and its affiliated cohorts wielded the Far Left's disdain (no matter how deserved) of white, cis-gendered males to court and woo a lot of former Democratic voters over to their side, flipping formerly Democratic stronghold states red.  Conversely, Barack Obama wooed plenty of voters over to the Blue Team, using emotional speech of a positive nature back in 2008.  The power can be used for good or for evil, and remains subjective as to which is which.

       If the people rebelling against the patriarchy aren't any more morally sound or capable than the current patriarchy, what have we done but waste more fucking time? If they are engaging in the same power corruption, in-fighting, and oppression of certain groups, then all we've made is a lateral move.  Everyone should have a voice, not just who the people in power deem acceptable as to having a voice.  We have to at least strive toward the ideal that "All (hu)men are created equal." And that cuts both ways, yes that means traditionally marginalized people get a say, but so do the traditionally privileged. It's not a one or the other scenario.  It should be all.  And yes, I understand that's overly idealistic, but so are most of the notions on the far left anyway.  Like "love trumps hate" and all that bullshit.  Yeah, in a perfect world, maybe.  Hate often wins.  Might often winds.  Power often wins.  Greed, selfishness, anger, often triumph over love, kindness, and altruism.  A brilliant friend once told me, "It'd be nice to live in a world where poems cure cancer, but we don't live in that world."  It's unrealistic, and naive; immature, really. 

      We can't engage in the same oppressive tactics and dismissive behaviors and policies that the Patriarchy in question did, and call ourselves different or better.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.  It's simply another set of people who think they should have authority over others telling us all what to do, and what to think, and what to feel.  Instead of urging us to go find the answers for ourselves.  But with the Far Left; it seems an even narrower road to walk on their path of goodness or acceptance.  At least in the Catholic Church, you could repent any and all of your sins and be absolved.  (No wonder the Catholic Church has been around 2000 years, they know how to play to the human psyche.)  With this new faction, differences of opinion on the dogma are not allowed, let alone mistakes, with severe social media flagellation to follow, with no thought to absolution.  Social Justice Heretics are simply exiled forever, no longer allowed to exist, even after the humiliation rituals.

     And each side, throughout history, has always thought that they had supreme righteousness on their side. There is nothing new under the sun, after all, so I rebel against it all.  Don't tell me what to think or how to feel, I can manage just fine on my own, asshole.  If anyone thinks that they are somehow vested with some authority that was bestowed upon them from on high to rule others, I say to them, you can fuck right off.  I don't care which group they are affiliated with.

     I think of all humans as measly grains of sand on a vast beach; no one grain of sand any better than any other grain of sand.  We are all equally as arbitrary and pointless as the next.  The only thing we can do is try to be decent little grains of sand.  Where we don't act like our sand is somehow less gritty than our neighbors' sand, and we don't encroach on any other grain's right to be on that vast beach.  It's deceptively simple.

     I'm tired of everyone acting like they know all the answers, and so definitively too.  I don't fucking know any of the answers, and I turn this shit over in my mind a thousand times a day.  The best I can come up with is people should be free to pursue whatever happiness they can scrounge up in this dumpster, as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of another in that same pursuit.  It isn't much, I know, but it's all I got.