In listening to the Supreme’s decisions this morning, I was struck by the nastiness of the Texas law. The childish hypocrisy of saying “We are only doing this to protect woman” while putting onerous and completely unnecessary restrictions on women’s health centers. I’m coming around to the theory that they are just angry assholes.
Michele has been counting bumper stickers just because there are so few of them. My contribution is that, when I see one, I’ll tell her so these are really aggregate numbers. So far, she has counted 17 Bernie stickers, 1 Trump, 1 Ben Carson – on a Subaru Brat driven by a woman who looked like Miss Wormwood, Calvin’s teacher, 1 for Jesus, and 1 VOTE THEM OUT. It reminds me of Peggy Noonan – Reagan’s former speech writer and now a Republican strategist and pundit – in the worst possible way. She was shocked when Obama beat Romney, she said she had been counting yard signs and there were way more Romney signs than Obama signs. That somebody, with that much experience, could be so deep into the bubble that she didn’t believe the data, isn’t all that shocking, we want our beliefs to be true.
I feel the same way about Bernie, there are lots of bumper stickers, but Hillary, I fear, is going to win this primary thing. As Ed Cooney, my personal political sage, said, “I’ll keep voting for Bernie as long as I can” and I’ll keep sending him a couple of bucks each month. I am consoled by the fact that he pushed the Party back to the left and, with a yuge war chest, he can continue to get his, our, message out. And, please, anyone who thinks I am wrong, please talk me out of it.
Candorville by Darrin Bell says it well.
I refer to myself as a Liberal Libertarian even though I know that it often gives people the wrong impression (or, maybe although I hope not, because it gives people the wrong impression). The operative word is Liberal, mostly because Libertarian has been roont by the Conservatives. Yes, I think we have way too many laws, some that are put there by well-meaning people and many more that are put there, not for the general good, but to protect special interests, still, government does lots of great things and almost all of these great things wouldn’t be without government.
Because I am Bernie guy, I write about stuff that doesn’t work vs. stuff that does work in a different relationship than I actually feel. Most stuff does work so, instead of only writing about problems, I want to write about stuff that does work.
Over the last couple of years, California has replaced or rebuilt all of the roadside rest areas and they are terrific. I think that there are a couple on I5 that are the same but most rest area are one of a kind and site specific. The one above is on Highway 46, about half way between 101 and I5. It is knockout. 
Running down the San Andreas Fault, driving past Tres Pinos, through the Bitterwater Valley, on Highway 25, passing small ranches, most of them very poor, I remembered a facebook conversation in which I was peripherally involved. This is Red California, politically closer to rural Oregon or Texas than nearby Silicon Valley or San Francisco, and many of the locals are probably voting for Trump and one of the facebook writers said that anybody who voted for Trump was stupid. The problem is that dismissing Trump voters as stupid is counterproductive, it doesn’t build understanding, it makes them the other, not even worth understanding. The writer is really saying, “I don’t understand so they must be stupid”. When Curious Cindie says, “I wonder why people would want to vote for Trump.”, and Liberal Larry answers “Because they are stupid.”, nobody learns anything. I expect that from Conservatives, but when Liberals do it, I am bothered because I want to maintain the fiction that all Liberals are curious creatures and open to new input, new ideas, I want to believe that being willing to explore other points of view is the essence of Liberalism.
But, and this really should be the lead, even if they are stupid, that is not why they are voting for Trump. These voters are voting for Trump because their American dream has vaporized. They have been betrayed by the Republicans – and by the Democrats which is why many of the Trump voters are ex-Democrats, but that is another story – who have told them that the various Trade Agreements would bring prosperity, who have told them that rich people getting richer will make them more prosperous when the money trickles down, who have told them they will stop the immigration of cheap competitive labor, who have told them “Vote for us and we will solve your problems”. They have been told that everybody has the same chance to to become successful – if only the Democrats would get out of the way – but as I pass the small Bitterwater-Tully Elementary School, it is obvious that is not true. If anything, these Trump voters would be stupid if they still believed the Establishment line.
Rubbing salt in the wound, the Liberal Elite, and I am part of that elite, dismiss them as White Trash. Of course they are stupid, White Trash are stupid almost by definition, and that their poverty, unlike Black voters, is obviously their own fault. They are dismissed and marginalized, clinging to their guns and religion to quote Obama who I think said it in an understanding way. These are the people who the system has most failed. Blue collar labor and small businesses used to be a way into the middle class, now it is increasingly a dead-end. When Romney, with his air of superiority, says they should vote for Jeb! or Rubio, he is assuming that the Trump voters have goals that are in alliance with the Establishment goals and that those voters will change their vote once they realize that Trump is not promoting those goals. When even more voters are driven to Trump, the Establishment is shocked. “What is wrong with those people?” they ask, when the real question is “What is wrong with us, that we lost their vote that used to be so reliable.” 
Driving by a small, abandoned, oil drilling operation, I thought how emblematic it was of one of the reasons people are pissed at the government and their party Establishments. In 1916, the government passed a bill that allowed oil companies to write off dry holes and other costs, in an effort to protect small drillers that were taking big risks. That has now morphed into tax breaks for yuge oil companies, $700 million per year for Chevron, for example, while small companies have been virtually wiped out. This has happened because big oil companies make big political contributions: Chevron contributed $2,122,682 to Congressional campaigns in 2014 to continue with the Chevron example and spent $8,280,000 on lobbying. Trump says that he is self funding – which is not entirely accurate but still very powerful – and will not be influenced by political contributions and lobbying. That is very appealing to his supporters (it is very apealling to me as a Bernie supporter).
Driving along, I realized I was in the same mental loop I have been in so many times before. It is inconceivable that Trump will get the nomination, he is crass, impulsive, and every party elite is against him and it is inconceivable that he won’t get it, every attack only makes him stronger, and he is a master at campaigning in this new, chaotic, internet-centric world. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Watching the evening news about the horrible events in Belgium today. Aside from sadness -which I definitely feel – I’m at a loss as to how to stop it. They are talking about paying more attention to people carrying Belgium passports. The vast majority of Belgians – and Syrians – and young men here at home – are not terrorists. That’s one of the problems here – there really no way to guess who might be radicalized….Poor Brussels. A beautiful city. Karen Amy on facebook
Thinking out loud, it seems to me that our first priority should be make no more terrorists. Then we should protect our borders, and track down the terrorists that are here. I realize that those are both overlapping and conflicting goals and I have almost no idea how to reconcile and accomplish any of it.
I do know that when ISIS tells Belgium, “We bombed you in retaliation for you bombing us”, it is probably worth thinking about. I do know that Trump is making things worse, and, additionally, that his scapegoating is scary not just to Muslims and Mexicans, but to everybody.
I do know that He who defends everything, defends nothing. which has been attributed to Frederick The Great of Prussia, is still true. If we have a million people on a watch list, we are not really watching anybody. That is why people on the watch list can still kill people at a Christmas Party in San Bernardino.
I also know that saying we are at war is wrong. These are criminals, thugs, and have to be treated as criminals. If some young man goes to Syria and comes back, saying he is sorry, he should be charged as aiding the enemy and put in jail. Armies are not going to solve this as fast as good policing.
Poor Brussels…and poor Raqqa. Any man’s death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, John Dunn
