Smother the Hornet [View all]

[forgotmylogin]

[Reposting this in the clear as my original was a buried reply in another thread and it sums up my feelings about current politics]
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218749173

The MAGAs want to actually "Make America Racist Again"

So many people want to blame any problem in America and their own personal issues on a scapegoat rather than take responsibility to make a change. It's immigrants "takin our jerbs!" and minorities "sucking up government assistance" that makes things hard for blue-collars, not that they won't support union reform or fixing the problems so there's something for everyone.

Many Americans of past generations and new ones through learned behavior, sadly, have always been closet racists and/or xenophobes. Trump gave them permission to say the quiet part out loud again and they don't want to go back. These are the people who will overlook any wrongdoing by a candidate just because that message aligns with their sad fears. And these chosen scapegoats are groups that bigots already hold disdain for: minorities, immigrants, LGBTQIA2S+, etc. They would be more than happy to just eliminate these groups, though doing so would not improve life, and likely would degrade it. That 33% support for Trump that seems unshakable are those people and nothing is going to change their minds.

I've always held the position that conservativism is the politics of exclusion and liberalism is the politics of inclusion. Democrats want to create change and make sure everyone can subsist and have a decent life. Republicans want to blame someone or something else that is keeping them from making the changes and take resources and rights away from the people they feel unworthy to allegedly reserve them for (white/straight/cis) 'Muricans when the truth is everyone has to give something to get something else in return.

It's easier (both politically and personally) to blame all problems on something that's allegedly preventing beneficial change than to actually buckle down and take responsibility to make the changes that benefit everyone - which is what Joe Biden (who has evolved his philosophies over the years as things change) believes in - compromise for everyone. This was exactly proven when Trump managed to scuttle a border deal that was more than the Democrats wanted and much that the Republicans did want because it would eliminate a scapegoat the rightwing could campaign and complain about.

This is exactly spelled out in Wicked, both the musical, upcoming movie, and the source novel - which is actually a reactionary political parable of the Bush era but still holds true today: "Elphaba – when I first got here, there was discord and discontent. And where I come from, everyone knows: the best way to bring folks together, is to give them a really good enemy." That's the quickest and easiest way, but not the right way - by "othering" a group and saying "all your problems will go away if we eliminate these people." These groups were never a problem before Trump stirred up a hornet's nest of racism and bigotry.

This is the one thing Donald Trump believes in: Keep people mad, and keep telling people he's the only person who can fix it when the truth is we all need to fix it. He's got his devoted 33% and we need to ensure enough people vote that the 33% doesn't statistically become 51%+ at the voting booth via ignorance nor apathy. The electoral college can easily steal the popular vote from a Democrat unless rational people swarm the polls like honeybees to overwhelm an invading hornet, which happened in 2020 and we need to do it again harder this year so even if they twiddle the numbers and scream about election fraud, like 2020 it will never be enough to actually overturn a valid election in their favor.