The Rank-and-File Republican and his Leaders
We rank-and-file Republicans need to consider defying our leaders and proposing a division of the country, so that we Republicans will only govern other Republicans, and not the usual rag-bag of left-wingers who agree with them on next to nothing—that Republicans want to accomplish with their country.
We will never persuade the Democrats that we have better ideas. Never! Maintaining the status quo such loud disunity and enmity puts Americans of all stripes in the ridiculous position of hating each other more than they hate their bloodthirsty common enemies.
The opposition from the Left means that we Republicans can only rarely enact the policy-initiatives that our nation needs. Republicans and Democrats choose instead to complain exhaustingly about each others' scandals and high-handedness—but admit it! We enjoy scolding and browbeating each other.
It reminds me of George Orwell's novel 1984, the "Hate Minutes". The drudging bureaucrats in the "Outer Party" get to vent their anger at "Emmanuel Goldstein", a figure on a television screen who may not even exist! The bureaucrats never actually see him in the novel, only his image on the TV. They really get into telling Goldstein off.
Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World also has a cast of petty bureaucrats who spend their free time watching state-owned TV station for its "Violence-Passion Surrogate" program. They get to experience "all the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without the inconveniences."
Can modern Americans not sense how much this resembles their cable-news talking-heads giving them negative vibes about the enemy's talking-heads, and how we feel teased to step over the line and really give them the business? Maybe the networks need to get inventive and select a distinctly Jewish talking-head to assume the "Emmanuel-Goldstein" role, to get the point across.
Maybe, just maybe, we need the "inconveniences", as Huxley's main character "the Savage" points out, as a reality-check. At least, we need to quit playing the same old games that social media offers us, that distract us from a sense of personal intentionality, or hatching a realistic view of the future, as part of altering the status quo.
During my present visit to Germany, various publications have used the word "existentiell", because so many Germans fear a "Niedergang", a collapse of the nation, thanks to the political parties' lack of a common purpose. Maybe they are waiting for the dis-United States to lead the way. That won't likely happen until Americans can get their shit together and opt for a formal division of the nation, to express its acceptance of it as a fait-accompli—something that has already happened.
Maybe Americans also need to recognize their existentiell crisis and to confess to feeling alone and vulnerable with their backs against the wall. Maybe then they will work on a plan to get themselves out of this mess—this stasis of hate and helplessness. It is so bad, I am not certain if our leaders will go along with us.
For one thing, they actually like the "Hate Minutes" for their ability to coax us to contribute to their political ambitions, more than to what is good for our future. I am not really criticizing. The leaders have to live in the "Now". They have to fine-tune each moment of their day, letting their handlers push them forward as much as they can stand. They lose a sense of the "Big Picture" along the way, which makes them more dependent on their handlers and less predictable as Party operators. How long do Republicans want to wait before the tirades of TV sound-bytes on the television turn into something more personal, with irrevocable consequences?