It’s been a bit since I wrote anything about politics or the state of the world in general. That’s definitely not because I don’t have strong feelings about all of it. It’s more due to the fact that I just don’t know where to begin. I don’t like writing things if I don’t see the use in writing them. When it comes to the state of the nation, it feels like writing anything else about it is just an exercise in futility.
These days, my blog posts don’t get much traction anywhere. At least, not in a way I can really dig into. Don’t get me wrong: I have no real desire to be inundated by some of the nastiness so prevalent in political discourse these days. It’s more . . . social media isn’t very social anymore. At least it’s not on Facebook. I have the same scattering of people who react to my posts, but it feels like the majority of the reactions on FB come more from random articles people see and interact with, rather than personally generated content.
People by and large seem to have made up their mind about everything, and they are not inclined to change it, regardless of any bits of evidence or actions that occur. That’s disappointing, and I really try to understand how people can continue to stand by the Trump administration so staunchly. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the big hot button topics.
Destruction of the East Wing: Honestly, this is pretty low on my “I’m very upset about this” scale. Not because I think demolishing a piece of history is bad, but rather because there are so many more vital things happening to be upset about. And that says something about how bad everything else is, but rather than dig into it, why not move right along to the bigger issues?
Reimbusing Trump for $200+ million: I’d like to think everyone can agree that the optics of this aren’t great. A sitting President says the Department of Justice owes him for how it treated him prior to becoming President, and requests $200+ million in compensation for that treatment. And then pinky promises to donate all of it to charity if and when he gets the money. Again, I’m not in favor of any of this, but that amount of money is, sadly, a drop in the bucket at the moment. And I assume his supporters believe he was treated unfairly, and that all the actions he was accused of doing didn’t happen or were misportrayed.
Drone Killings: The administration keeps trotting out the videos of the military blowing up random ships, boasting about how they’re killing “bad people.” We’re told they’re ships that are full of drug dealers, but we are given no evidence of it. I assume supporters of the administration are fine with this because they take him at his word. I also realize that drone killings have been going on for quite some time. Drone strikes started in 2002, and they’ve continued since. It’s estimated the US has killed between one and two thousand civilians this way. Republican and Democrat Presidents have both done this, and I assume that’s why more people aren’t upset about it(?) Personally, I’m abhorred by the practice and am deeply uncomfortable with all of it, regardless of who’s “in charge” at the moment. At first it was to combat terrorism, supposedly. Now dealing drugs is apparently on the same level as terrorism, and so the practice has been expanded.
ICE Arrests: There are so (so) many videos, all of them depicting the same things: ICE agents (sometimes in plain clothes with no identification, sometimes in full combat regalia with face masks up to let them be completely anonymous) apprehending people off the street, often violently. Even setting aside the debate about whether all of the detainees are here illegally or not, none of this looks like the country I love. Again, I assume Trump supporters somehow think it’s justified, but I have to wonder if they’re seeing the same videos I’m seeing. (Then again, if they watch boats blowing up and celebrate it, I suppose this is much less violent than that?)
Brutality against Protesters: There are many protests happening across the country. The No Kings rally brought out around 5-6 million people. Some of the protests are met with spiteful brutality. I’ve seen videos of people getting shot in the face almost point blank with teargas canisters or rubber bullets. Again, I assume Trump supporters believe the administration when it claims these protesters are somehow evil. “Communist,” “Socialist,” or “Anti-American.” We’re at the point where to disagree with the current administration is to be labeled evil.
And really, it feels like I haven’t scratched the surface with this list. I just ran out of time and energy. No discussion of tariffs, money for Argentina, cutting international aid, cutting funding that had already been allocated by Congress, environmental impacts, a stream of questionable pardons, petty social media posts, profanity in news conferences, hokey-pokey with Ukraine, the Epstein files, or the government shutdown. Any one of these issues would be fodder for big debates and a blog post or four from me under normal circumstances.
They’ve all come up in about 9 months.
So . . . yeah. There you have it. Do I feel any better, having written all of this down? Not really, other than to recognize once again that what our country is going through is not normal, and it is not right. The only way I can see to justify it is to believe the lies and to accuse anyone who doesn’t believe them of being “duped by the media.” And I’d try to have a discussion about being a trained information professional who’s got years of dealing with evaluating sources and telling truth from error, but what’s the point, really? If people don’t want to see or hear, they won’t see or hear.
One of my favorite series is The Chronicles of Narnia. In the last book, The Last Battle, Narnia is being ripped apart by war and dissent. When I read it as a child, I struggled to understand why in the world the dwarfs were so willfully wrongheaded. They felt they’d been fooled once, and they were dead set on never being fooled again, to the point where they refused to help anyone, to take sides, or do anything useful, really. “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs,” they said. and it frustrated me to no end. Such a stance seemed to be impossible to me. At the end of the book, after the battle is over, and Aslan is there ready to essentially redeem and save anyone who wants it, the dwarfs still refuse.
“Aslan,” said Lucy through her tears, “could you – will you – do something for these poor Dwarfs?”
“Dearest,” said Aslan, “I will show you both what I can, and what I cannot, do.” He came close to the Dwarfs and gave a low growl: low, but it set all the air shaking. But the Dwarfs said to one another, “Hear that? That’s the gang at the other end of the stable. Trying to frighten us. They do it with a machine of some kind. Don’t take any notice. They won’t take us in again!”
Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and ices, and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it wasn’t much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly. They thought they were eating and drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip and a third said he’d found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at! Never thought we’d come to this.” But very soon every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something nicer than he had, and they started grabbing and snatching, and went on to quarreling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all said:
“Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”
“You see,” said Aslan. “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
That last bit really resonates with me now, and I no longer wonder how the dwarfs could be so stubborn. “Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”