8 II 2023: Government or entertainment?

Reactions of Republicans in Congress to President Biden’s State of the Union address revealed, I think, something about the way many of them view government. There were shouts, boos, and other interruptions. I guess the standard was set by Marjorie Taylor Greene with her outcries and other attempts to draw attention to herself, but many other Republicans also joined in the fun.

Let’s not consider the impropriety of this kind of behavior at a formal government event. Rather, let’s ask at what kind of event such behavior would be expected. We see fans at sporting events let it all hang out in cheering their favored team and reviling their opponents. In another setting, the old Golden Rod showboat in St. Louis advertised its old melodramas by inviting playgoers to “Cheer the hero, hiss the villain!”

I think many Republicans, especially the MAGA and semi-MAGA types, view political life and government as a highly competitive game in which mindless support of their “side” and unrelenting denunciation of the other are all that matters. We could also say that very many Republicans in Congress view government as a melodrama in which they are the heroes and their opponents the villains. In both cases, government is not about real life, but is a game or drama that is a faint copy of real life.

2 II 2023: Bowdlerized history

De Santis has blocked African-American studies from the Florida schools. His mindless slogan is “We want education, not indoctrination,” as if the bowdlerized version of American History he wants to inflict on the children is not a mendacious indoctrination. If De Santis were a German demagogue, he would want to exclude the Nazi period from German history courses.

24 I 2023: “released to their parents”

Gangs of thieves are swarming over the parking lots around the Armory and City Foundry in midtown St. Louis, both part of St. Louis’ aspiration to become a real city again. These thieves steal cars, of course, but they particularly like to steal firearms from poorly secured vehicles.

Lately the St. Louis Police caught some teenagers there armed with automatic weapons. A 16-year-old had a Glock 19 and a 15-year-old a Glock 29 that was equipped for automatic fire.

The upshot? The report reads: “Police initially ‘took the boys into custody,’ but a juvenile judge later ordered them to be ‘released to their parents’.” 

If teenagers are running around the city better armed than most policemen, it seems to me that functionally they have no parents.

The culture of much of St. Louis is utterly different from the American mainstream. Thus, “released to their parents” is laughably meaningless. I think I know what the judge meant by “parents,” but I doubt there are any people in the lives of these teenagers who are at all like what the judge has in mind.

18 I 2023: Texas and Florida: Permanently ignorant and diseased

The governors of Texas and Florida are working to maintain the GOP’s strong appeal as the party of frightened, stupid, and resentful voters.

CNN reports: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbot previewed a push for school vouchers and more parental influence over curriculum as part of an effort to ‘empower parents’ in his inaugural address Tuesday in Austin.”

and “DeSantis proposes policy permanently banning Covid-19 vaccine and mask requirements and other pandemic mitigation measures in Florida.”

Abbot wants to guarantee parents the right to clone their own ignorance and bigotry. DeSantis wants to codify the preference for foolish resentment over medical science and common sense.

17 I 2023: Do unregulated guns prop up white supremacy?

Among today’s headlines:

from St. Louis Today: “Guns in St. Louis are increasingly semi-automatic – with higher caliber bullets, too”

from huffpost: “Police: 8 People Shot, 1 Critical At Florida MLK Day Event”

I have read that black Americans make up 12.5 percent of the population, but have been the victims in 61 percent of gun homicides. And I wonder if the laxity or absence of gun regulation is intended to maintain white supremacy in the U.S.

Implementing a policy does not always mean making things happen, but can also involve letting things happen. I have long believed that America’s failure to prevent the importation, manufacture, and distribution of narcotics is not the result of chronic incompetence, but is an intentional neglect meant to disable America’s black communities.

So too I wonder if the laxity of firearm regulations and the utter failure to control the traffic in illegal firearms are similarly part of a plan to inhibit the development of a cohesive, economically strong, and politically powerful black community, and to instill contempt and fear of blacks in the wider population.

Is this paranoia?

10 I 2022: Superficial likeness

Trumpists are making much of the ten five-years-old classified documents found in a private office of Biden. The likeness to Trump’s theft of documents is only superficial, rather like comparing someone who forgets to leave a tip to someone who sneaks out without paying the check.

7 I 2023: Get rid of Gaetz

CNN concluded its account of the election in the House of Representatives as follows:

“Gaetz, however, suggested the historic fight would have a different impact on McCarthy’s speakership. Due to the concessions, Gaetz argued, McCarthy will be governing in a ‘straitjacket’.”

I hope Speaker McCarthy will have the courage (?) and prudence (?) to make void any concessions he is claimed to have made, especially to Gaetz, the class clown cum badboy. Maybe the Republicans are now sufficiently angry and embarrassed to muzzle Gaetz and his fellow defectors. I don’t know. Republicans have seemed, like their Leader, to be immune to embarrassment. Yet the last days have shown that the Republicans, majority or not, are not now capable of governing themselves, let alone the Country. Maybe they will do a bit of housecleaning.

6 I 2023: Second anniversary of the rebellion

A small group of Republicans who call themselves “Freedom Caucus,” but are, in effect, an Anti-democracy Movement, is trying to repeat its rebellion of Jan 6th by obstructing the work of government. 

And what is the unifying principle, the “policy goal,” of this group. This coterie is united not by principle or policy but by a shared passion for self-aggrandizement. These childish obstructionists are often referred to as “far-right Republicans,” but to do so is an insult to conservatives. These people have no authentic political views, but are wholly committed to saying and doing whatever will get them publicity and maintain their attraction to a group of foolish and frightened voters.

Democracy, like the human body, contains within it the causes of its own decay.