by Quintus
I’ll give this to the GOP in the foothills of this ridiculous election, they are the easier sell. Not because their madness makes any more sense than the Democrats, but at least we know what we’re getting. Everyone knows that the Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute (it’s got a staff of 172) are drawing up so that, should Trump win, they can start gutting the governmental bureaucracy and stuffing it with Trump loyalists. This isn’t some conspiracy theory - both organizations are proudly telling anyone the plan to who will listen. It’s perversely straight forward.
In theory, wresting control of a vast bureaucratic squid and handing power to an elected and accountable Congress is a good thing. In practice, however, the job of the legislative branch is to pass laws written by lobbyists and wet-behind-the-years aides, repeal others, and get itself re-elected. Congress doesn’t run anything. If you’ve spent much time on C-Span, you wouldn’t ask them too. That’s what that nameless, faceless bureaucracy is for and gutting for a tribe loyal to any one cult of personality is a terrible idea.
Whatever you might think of it, that’s their pitch, and they are sticking to it.
The Biden platform, on the other hand, have a trickier sell for the American voter. Here we are better than two years into the term, gearing up for re-election, and we still don’t know what the administration pushing. Biden claims to be anti-Trump, but that seems to be more of a vibe than a policy stance. We’re still building that wall across Mexico, picking needless trade wars with our allies and giving the bird to China. He claims to be the consensus candidate with an approval rating hovering around 37% it isn’t clear that he knows what the word means. He claims the centrist candidate but his original policies have a leftward list. Passing out the dough to everyone to man, woman and ______ (who can tell anymore) with a pulse. Snuffing fossil fuels in ten years for some green technology that can’t (yet) hope to carry the required load for 50. In the end, though, the problem isn’t even the impossible stuff. It’s the vague stuff: Re-engineering American society and empirical reality for some undergrad utopia to be determined at a later date. They’ll let us know.
What kind of pitch is that?
Worked-up Republicans will say things were easier easier before schools started teaching race-baiting and hosting Drag Queens to advise your ten-year-old to explore the boundaries of sex and gender. The GOP is probably blowing things out of proportion, but progressives seem hell bent on proving that they may be onto something. That’ll get you to the polls.
Worked-up Democrats will respond with something about “justice.” Which is great, no one is really for injustice. But it’s a slippery concept: it might mean a higher minimum wage, or police reform. Or as our Republican will helpfully point out, it might mean teaching your middle schooler "How to get a Sexy Freak On" in Social Studies. They’d be be better off just coming out and filling in the blanks themselves.
Both parties would be better off getting control of their own nomination process and picking two other people. But who?
Almost anyone.
For reasons that ought be to self-evident, some contributors to the Circus Maximus Project wish to remain anonymous. And why not? it worked for the Federalist Papers.