Over the last three decades at least, the treatment of Democrat politicians by the press has been mostly as cheerleader. Blue never had to own up to the collateral damage that their terrible policies caused. It never made the news. Also during this time our educational system abandoned the development of critical thinking as an educational goal. Tell the students what is right, they accept, and lacking the skills of critical thinking they defend the chosen blue position using adjectives, adverbs, name-calling and passionate bursts of emotion along with newly-constructed words aimed at making them look smart. But not Reason. “This policy is bad because Republicans are Hitler.”. They learn this in school and it is reinforced in the public square. The H1-B policy discussion revealed real problems in the system that definitely would have remained, had the discussion been “We like H1-B and you are Hitler if you don’t.”. It is so much easier to not have to think about issues and play the color/oppression cards rather than acknowledging the EQUAL value of each person and how issues affect them on the personal level. Democrats act as one without having to think it through. Republicans better think it through, because their constituency will be thinking it through and will call stupid ideas stupid with the volume to 11. Really, I think the Left is intellectually lazy as a group, and they get away with it, so it continues.
Spot on take. The conformity that the democrats display by using virtually the same words, examples and expressions are obviously coordinated from a central leadership structure. And it’s not just politicians. The media, academia, most of gov’t, Hollywood, etc., are all part of the ‘organization’ that singularity supports one approved narrative. Then they layer on the censorship and/or cancelation of all non conforming opinions. Kinda reminds me of another societal and economic structure that has failed in every single country it’s been tried in. Believe what I tell you or else.
Debating of ideas, constructive criticism, open and transparent governing…I thought democrats believed in those things. Guess not.
Two shifts have taken place in the past couple decades. The Democrats embraced the collectivists in their ranks, and so became the top-down party, with deference to "experts," technocrats, and the people I constantly mock as the Best-and-Brightest.
In doing so, they abandoned their "working man" core, and that core, feeling abandoned, moved to the GOP. This took the Republicans away from traditional conservatism and more toward populist policies. So, we see a lot of "America First" clashing with the free traders and small-government segment of the GOP, aka the "old guard" that was always paid lip service but rarely rewarded.
Neither party is what it was half a century ago.
Which is natural. Societies evolve. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but evolve they do.
There's seemingly something more afoot over on the Dem side. The hive mindset is too perfect, too contrived, too monolithic for it to be an accident. In response to Joshua Stylman's series on Engineering Reality - https://stylman.substack.com/p/engineering-reality-part-iii - I posited (elsewhere) that the "somebody, somewhere" resides within the Deep State nexus of government agencies, academia, social media and news/entertainment industries. Read the Stylman series and I think you'll agree there's a good deal more afoot here than organic party realignment. I don't buy the whole ball of wax conspiracy of course, but I don't think he's being too hyperbolic in his observations.
First time reader. Liked what I read. IMHO, the independence is great, but some temperance is required. I would like to see (but not SEE) more negotiating in private among Republicans. When it comes to standing up to Democrats, unity is a necessity. The Murkowskis of the party can't be allow to control policy by being the deciding vote.
I agree with you that we don't need a "Maverick" like McCain or Romney dictating to the conservative majority. Can't stand Murkowski either. I give Susan Collins from Maine a pass - she's in a deep blue state and has to keep her seat. We lose her, we won't have an R in Maine at all. We just have to bake that into the cake. The House is a different matter. We have a libertarian caucus, the Freedom Caucus, that can be tough to manage. I don't envy Johnson.
Hey James, I was searching on google for https://substack.com/home/post/p-146831593 and this article came up first. I was wondering how come the linked author and you have seeming opposite takes and where if anywhere you might agree.
Over the last three decades at least, the treatment of Democrat politicians by the press has been mostly as cheerleader. Blue never had to own up to the collateral damage that their terrible policies caused. It never made the news. Also during this time our educational system abandoned the development of critical thinking as an educational goal. Tell the students what is right, they accept, and lacking the skills of critical thinking they defend the chosen blue position using adjectives, adverbs, name-calling and passionate bursts of emotion along with newly-constructed words aimed at making them look smart. But not Reason. “This policy is bad because Republicans are Hitler.”. They learn this in school and it is reinforced in the public square. The H1-B policy discussion revealed real problems in the system that definitely would have remained, had the discussion been “We like H1-B and you are Hitler if you don’t.”. It is so much easier to not have to think about issues and play the color/oppression cards rather than acknowledging the EQUAL value of each person and how issues affect them on the personal level. Democrats act as one without having to think it through. Republicans better think it through, because their constituency will be thinking it through and will call stupid ideas stupid with the volume to 11. Really, I think the Left is intellectually lazy as a group, and they get away with it, so it continues.
Spot on take. The conformity that the democrats display by using virtually the same words, examples and expressions are obviously coordinated from a central leadership structure. And it’s not just politicians. The media, academia, most of gov’t, Hollywood, etc., are all part of the ‘organization’ that singularity supports one approved narrative. Then they layer on the censorship and/or cancelation of all non conforming opinions. Kinda reminds me of another societal and economic structure that has failed in every single country it’s been tried in. Believe what I tell you or else.
Debating of ideas, constructive criticism, open and transparent governing…I thought democrats believed in those things. Guess not.
Two shifts have taken place in the past couple decades. The Democrats embraced the collectivists in their ranks, and so became the top-down party, with deference to "experts," technocrats, and the people I constantly mock as the Best-and-Brightest.
In doing so, they abandoned their "working man" core, and that core, feeling abandoned, moved to the GOP. This took the Republicans away from traditional conservatism and more toward populist policies. So, we see a lot of "America First" clashing with the free traders and small-government segment of the GOP, aka the "old guard" that was always paid lip service but rarely rewarded.
Neither party is what it was half a century ago.
Which is natural. Societies evolve. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but evolve they do.
There's seemingly something more afoot over on the Dem side. The hive mindset is too perfect, too contrived, too monolithic for it to be an accident. In response to Joshua Stylman's series on Engineering Reality - https://stylman.substack.com/p/engineering-reality-part-iii - I posited (elsewhere) that the "somebody, somewhere" resides within the Deep State nexus of government agencies, academia, social media and news/entertainment industries. Read the Stylman series and I think you'll agree there's a good deal more afoot here than organic party realignment. I don't buy the whole ball of wax conspiracy of course, but I don't think he's being too hyperbolic in his observations.
First time reader. Liked what I read. IMHO, the independence is great, but some temperance is required. I would like to see (but not SEE) more negotiating in private among Republicans. When it comes to standing up to Democrats, unity is a necessity. The Murkowskis of the party can't be allow to control policy by being the deciding vote.
I agree with you that we don't need a "Maverick" like McCain or Romney dictating to the conservative majority. Can't stand Murkowski either. I give Susan Collins from Maine a pass - she's in a deep blue state and has to keep her seat. We lose her, we won't have an R in Maine at all. We just have to bake that into the cake. The House is a different matter. We have a libertarian caucus, the Freedom Caucus, that can be tough to manage. I don't envy Johnson.
I had exactly the same thoughts about Susan Collins.
Hey James, I was searching on google for https://substack.com/home/post/p-146831593 and this article came up first. I was wondering how come the linked author and you have seeming opposite takes and where if anywhere you might agree.