by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
It’s comical — in a tragic, macro kind of way. The United States is one presidential election away from tyranny and we’re all supposed to just sleep until it happens.
Remember, the issue is, the Republican Party no longer believes in politics as we conceive of it in a liberal democracy and see democracy as a means to either obtain or maintain power. That’s it. They have no policies other than screaming about “cancel culture” while they wait to take power again (then never let it go.)
Reading Ezra Klein’s “Why We’re Polarized” changed my (political) life for how it opened my eyes as to the crux of problems before us. It all boils down to white people are nervous about losing the majority and, as such, some basic concepts about the American experience that I assumed were just, well, the American way are actually all lie. (In a sense.)
The lie is — America is an idea and a melting pot so we race, while our original sin, is something we’ve gotten past on an institutional level. Psyche! Turns out the idea of “America is an idea” is, actually a phantasm. America is only an idea when white people feel comfortable with their place on top. Now that that’s changed, well, we have (waves hand) all this. It’s an idea when white people allow it to be an idea. Otherwise, fuck you, it’s blood and soil. Remember, in the 1850s, it was Germans that everyone was worried about! But, as I’ve written before — it’s also white blue collar men who now can’t get laid that are a problem in our politics.
Anyway, I loved Klein’s book but for one thing — the ending. The ending s u c k e d. The reason — all the solutions he proposed at the end of the book were useless. Me, a deranged anonymous crank on the Internet, have been able to come up with at least one solution better than all his pie-in-the-sky “solutions.” I propose that we institute National Service over the next four years if we want to save our Republic.
In fact, National Service is the ONLY way to solve our current long-term macro problems. If every 18 year old was absolutely fucking forced to live with someone from outside their state regardless of their education or life goals then our common sense of what it means to be “American” would be significantly re-inforced.
Klein’s solutions were the political equivalent of hoping Jesus Christ comes back.
So, if you can simply stop reading when you get the last chapter, I think you’ll really enjoy Klein’s book. It really, really helped me understand why were so totally, completely fucked.
