Reach Out and Inappropriately Touch Someone

I've been conveniently absent from the US during the three weeks leading up to the 2014 midterm elections, but of course in the Internet age there's no real escape unless you unplug, and I wasn't ready to do that.  Facebook was the worst, though even the Democratic loyalists were curiously subdued this time around.  There were hardly any memes telling me not to complain if I don't vote (though, as I always do, I did vote), and not many more trumpeting the joyous new life that President Obama has given us, with chocolate rations raised from thirty grams a week to twenty.

I still have a week before I return to the States, but the lamenting has broken out on Facebook over the perfidious Republicans' taking of the Senate from its true possessors, the Democrats.  Readers in the US will know what I'm talking about.  (After all, shouldn't Democrats have a state in their historic homeland, like every other religious group?)  Most of what I'm seeing blames the voters and the non-voters, of course, though I suspect the reality is more complex than that.  Take into consideration the usual low turnout of off-year elections, add that most Americans have benefited very little from Obama's economic recovery, and that the wealthy who have benefited are ungrateful swine who figure that they can do even better under Republican rule.  Even if the top .1 percent all voted Democratic, though, there aren't enough of them to swing the election.

So an old friend posted on Facebook: "God, Americans are stupid. Get me out of this country."  Of course this remark is a textbook example of American stupidity, reminiscent of the Republicans who said they'd move to Canada to escape Socialist Obamacare, or the Democrats who said they'd move to Canada if Dubya was elected, or re-elected.  But then, it's not a serious statement of intent, just an empty venting of bad temper.  One of his friends yowled,

Voting a Republican majority into the Senate because goll durn it, it must be Obama's fault that we had this recession? For gods sake idiots, W got us into this mess to begin with, and the Republicans tried to shut down the gov't last year in a grand stand attempt to "govern" without govenment? THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I snarled,

True, the Republicans caused the 2008 depression, though with Democratic collaboration and connivance. The deregulation was as much a Clinton project as it was the Republicans', but then Clinton like Obama is a Reagan Republican. That the recovery was so sluggish (to put it kindly) was as much due to Obama's incompetence and collaboration with the Republicans -- remember his giving them huge tax breaks for the rich in his stimulus package even before the GOP had demanded them? The recovery (like the fabled 'prosperity' under Clinton) mainly benefited the rich; there was no trickle-down to the bulk of the population, but who cares? Certainly not the Democrats' apologists. Remember the Democrats' letting the Republicans deploy threats of filibuster to block important legislation, so that a non-constitutional supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate was needed to pass anything. And then remember Obama's attempts to get rid of Social Security, his deficit commission packed by him with deficit hawks -- even so, they couldn't reach the desired destructive consensus, so Obama simply accepted the chairmen's report as if it were the Commission's conclusions. Guess why.

And that's leaving aside the relentless assaults on civil liberties, the surveillance, the stomping on dissent, the war on whistleblowers, new wars and escalation of the old ones. This doesn't mean Obama hasn't done one or two things right, I suppose, but it's not at all unreasonable that many Americans, including Democrats, should be unenthusiastic about him and the party. We're always being told that if we don't like the way things are going, we should 'vote the rascals out'; that's the whirlwind the Dems are reaping now.

Few things have pissed me off more this past decade than liberal Democrats' fatuous and complacent conviction -- totally without foundation -- that they are "reality-based," "evidence-based," and more rational than the average stupid American. They are irrational and quite stupid. They have nothing to offer America; only the Republicans have less.

He replied:

I love pissing off Republican fantasy artists! You made my day! As Biden said, "Facts Matter"!

That was it: he merely assumed that I am a Republican.  (This is like a certain troll who accused me in comments at a couple other blogs of "wanting more and better Democrats.")  No rebuttal, no argument, no facts, and -- despite his exhortation to THINK!!!!!!!! -- no thought.  thus confirming my assessment.  As if I needed confirmation.

My own wish to emigrate is apolitical.  South Koreans also routinely pass up progressive politicians in favor of corrupt right-wing hacks.  I don't imagine I'll find a good, rational society here or anywhere else.

The Autumn of My Discontent

The image above comes from a famous, not to say notorious, company that sells an odd variety of products and sponsors sweepstakes with large prizes.  I'm sure you can guess who I'm talking about.  My impression is that their target market is mostly older people, often religiously devout and jingoistic.  So I was baffled by this offering: an American flag doormat.  "Show Your Patriotism All Year Round!" was the tagline.  By making / letting people wipe their feet on Old Glory?  I wonder how this one is selling ...

I apologize for my inactivity; I just haven't felt like writing lately.  The closest I can come to a reason for that is we're in election season.  I have seen less than usual Democratic fussing over the upcoming election, and I wonder why.  Could it be that even Obamabots can't work up much enthusiasm for the Democrats, partly because numerous Democratic candidates are evidently distancing themselves from their President?  Elizabeth Warren actually accused Obama of protecting Wall Street, and that's a remarkable move within the party at a time like this.

I've had some nasty exchanges in comments on various Democratic pages, only a few of them with people I actually know, but that's normal.  I'm past being surprised when party people, as Nietzsche said, necessarily become liars.  A writer I'm Facebook-friends with complained that she'd been dunned with e-mails from Democrats begging for campaign donations; I realized that I haven't been getting them this time around.  So I'm not sure what's up.  I'm not happy with the prospect of the Republicans taking the Senate, but then I'm not happy with the prospect of the Democrats keeping the Senate either.

I've been preparing for a one-month trip overseas -- leaving tomorrow, in fact -- and I realized that I wouldn't be in the US on Election Day, for the first time in my life.  Because of the novelty of the situation it took me a while to decide what to do.  Luckily, there was early voting in my city, so I was able to vote yesterday.  I'll be giving a hard time to any Democrat who accuses me of not voting, not wanting to vote, or of trying to discourage other people from voting; I'm just out of patience with that kind of crap.  I'll have internet access while I'm abroad, and who knows?  Maybe a change of scene will get me writing more again.