I have some pretty good friends who can boast a very "progressive" pedigree, politically speaking, but who have soured on the United States and its government. Of course, there is some real basis for doing that.
My friends think Russia has been badly mistreated by the world in general, and by the United States in particular. These friends believe that the war in Ukraine is "defensive" on the part of Russia, which they believe is facing a "Nazi" state (which is how they characterize Ukraine). They believe that Ukraine has been tricked into acting as a kind of "cat's paw" for the U.S. It's really the United States that is at war with Russia, not Ukraine, and we've just been clever enough to get other people to go out and be killed on our behalf, so no United States soldiers will have to die on the battlefield.
My friends have also said, and I think believe:
- President Biden is and has been "a joke," and is totally incompetent, mentally and in every other way. Further, that Vice President Harris is also a "joke," and is unworthy to lead our nation.
- The attempt to assassinate former President Trump was completely orchestrated by and carried out by agents of the United States government. It was totally an "inside job." (If that were true - and this is my comment - it was certainly botched).
- The decision by President Biden not to run for reelection was not, actually, his own decision at all; it was a "coup," engineered by the "Deep State," which, my friends appear to believe, is in total control of everything of consequence that involves the United States Government.
- If former president Trump is not elected to the presidency in our November election there will be a "Civil War" in the United States. Click right here for a video that explores that possibility (the video was prepared prior to President Biden's decision not to run for reelection).
These are views that I do not share - not in the slightest. Our election is now upon us, and the stakes are pretty high. I am worried that a victory by the Trump/Vance ticket will lead to some pretty horrible consequences, along the lines spelled out in that 800+ page book on Project 2025. If we don't want the Republican Party and Trump/Vance, and if we don't want Project 2025, then we will need to vote for the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate.
Many have already voted, as I have, but how should I deal with the friends I have just described? That is a kind of conundrum, given what now seems to be our extreme political differences. It strikes me that the political differences that have come to exist between me and my friends are exactly the kind of differences that are now found in our politics in general. Lots of us believe that our political system, despite its many flaws and failures, is still, overall, a rather decent way for us to figure out what the best thing to do is, and then to attempt to do it, recalculating, as necessary, as things proceed. Others don't believe that. They have come to believe that our political system is corrupt, sold out, decrepit, or whatever, and essentially needs to be completely replaced. That is what that Project 2025 effort is all about.
So, what do we do?
Click this link for a past blog posting of mine says what I think we ought to do. Click the following link for one of my more recent blog postings that is also relevant.
I have decided cordially to disagree with my friends, when they advance arguments in favor of the positions I have listed above. I really do believe that we are "all in this together," that we are all very much, and inevitably, "entangled," and I am not going to be someone who excludes anyone from the conversation, or who refuses to engage, no matter how much I may disagree.
What if we all did that? Whoever wins, whatever happens, there is going to be a "day after" the election, and we really are still going to be "all in this together," no matter who wins. I don't want to validate the premise that if my party loses, and if my candidates lose, then a "Civil War" is the obvious next step.
I don't think that is true, and I don't want ANYONE to think that, either - no matter what his, her, or their views may be, and no matter who wins.
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