Politics Plus

So Kevin McCarthy is leaving Congress at the end of December.  Well, with McCarthy gone, and Santos gone, we may just be able to find enough sane Republicands to pass an actual budget – but I wouldn’t count on it.  For Santos’s seat, we do have a good chance of picking up a Democrat.  McCarthy’s seat, not so much.

I have been thiki a bit about two-party systems as opposed to multiple-party systems, in which no party ever gets a majority but has to form a coalition in order to have a government.  But I think that is true in two-party systems as well.  It’s less obvious, perhaps, in out Republican Party today, which has morphed into a single-minded raving maniac.  But it’s pretty clear the Democratic Party is a coalition extending from people who just want things to work through Democrats who have a clear ideology of how things work, all the way to actual Progressives who are often clearly unconfortable, but still taking the bus which brings them the closest to their destination, because what else can they do?

It’s also pretty clear that neither a two-party system nor a multi-party system can immunize a nation against turning fascist.  But it’s not at all clear what can.  My best guess at this point would be reforming journalism – But I say that looking back at the 30’s and early 40’s, knowing we had just as many people then susceptible to becoming fascist, and having at least some idea of how many of us did, and yet somehow we didn’t.  But we did have real journaalists with real journalistic standards – who were not perfect – they missed a lot, but they got a lot right too.

Thanks to everyone who is helping to lift me up through your comments.  Just now I am trying to push myself, not too hard, but just to do one or two small things each day which make a visible change in the house.  Just something i can look at and tell myself I made that happen.  So far it seems tp be hrelping.  Rome wasn’t built in a day either.

One of the Substack columns I read is that written by Robert Hubbell, a Democratic lawyer in (I believe) the Los Angeles area who was recommended by my cousin. Yesterday, his newsletter was all over “life isn’t fair” – which of course is true,, and which is why Democrats had to be invented –  and why being a Democrat can be a thankless job indeed.

Hubbell writes:

“Still, it is unfair that Democrats must win in a disinformation environment where the media has lost its collective mind—despite the flashing red lights. Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark addresses this phenomenon in a tongue-in-cheek article (that will leave you feeling good), Dear Democrats: Here Are the Facts of Life. Last writes,

I regret to inform you that America is relying on you to win a presidential election less than 12 months from now. In order for you to accomplish this objective, you will have to do many things. Some of these things may seem unfair. Many of them will be hard. A few of them are probably impossible.

Hubbell quotes quite a bit from the Bulwark, but I have linked tp it anyway.  I hope it leaves you feeling a bit better.

-Here’s an old cartoon (even more up to date now than when originally published by TC) just to help keep us on track.

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My cousin – my second cousin, Nancy, who recommended Hubbell to me – is four or five years older than I, which makes her two or three years older than Joe.  She wrote recently that she is considering, when Joe’s age comes up, saying, “I’m older than he is, and I still pack a punch” – and then proving it. With a demonstration.  (I think she was joking.)