Tag: Fuck You MAGA

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We’re living through the montage before Something Bad happens in late 2024 – early 2025. What that Bad Thing will be, I still don’t know. And the reason why I don’t know is I simply can’t game out what the reaction to the theft of the 2024 election will be.

It could be that we’ll have a “national divorce” and, a such, a civil war. It could be that we’ll just slip peacefully into autocracy and that will be that. It could be that the crux of what decides the reaction of Blues to the 2024 clusterfuck will be if Trump is the Republican nominee or not.

Trump is so stupid and so lazy that he could, single handedly, spark a civil war by simply making Blues so angry that they feel no choice but to do so. But, again, I just can’t game things out.

There is every reason to believe that Blues just don’t have it in them to leave the Union. There could literally be a very brazen theft of the 2024 presidential election and…lulz. But anyway.

Every day that the 2024 election grows closer, the more we’ll get some sense of which direction things will go. For the moment, I think we’re going to turn into an autocracy without a peep of violence. The entire system is designed to keep people copacetic.

The key thing to look an eye on is wealthy liberals. If they begin to flee the country in anticipation then we’ll know which direction things will go. And, yet ,of course, wealthy liberals are probably going to flee the country either direction that things go. If there is obviously going to be a civil war, they’re leaving, if there’s obviously going to be an autocracy, they’re going to leave en masse.

I guess, then the issue is if Trump decides to run. If he runs, then the possibility of a civil war increases significantly. And then there’s the whole issue of how many times Biden and Harris will be impeached by by Republicans when they control the House.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The reason why Texas’ Republican Party seems to have gone full-fascist is Republicans know that if Texas finally shifts purple that Democrats will have a long-term lock on the White House. The same process that turned California into a safe Blue State is happening with Texas and Texas Republicans see this as an existential threat.

So, they’re turning into radical fascists.

But the key thing we have to remember is for all their hysterics, it’s pretty self-evident that fascist Republicans are ascendant. They’re on the cusp of getting everything they want through politics. All they have to do is be patient.

As such, it’s very curious how Republicans continue to want to shoot themselves in the foot by doing something as radical as leaving the Union. On a political basis, it makes a whole lot more sense for Blue States to leave the Union around 2024 – 2025 as part of a broader Certification Crisis than it does for Texas to just randomly leave the Union in 2023 because they feel their feelings are getting hurt.

I really don’t know what to make of this clusterfuck. But it does definitely lend credence to my fears of 2024 – 2025 existential choice of autocracy or civil war. The Republican Party grows more radical and fascist every day and by the time we’re talking about certifying the 2024 presidential election, well, we’re either going to see Blue States leave the Union en masse or we simply peacefully turn into an autocracy.

Right now, it could still go either way.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

At the heart of what’s wrong with America is that Traditionalists have grown totally detached from everyone else because of an intense, deep seated sense of disenfranchisement. From my conversations with my Traditionalist relatives, they literally believe that the woke cancel culture mob is turning everyone gay. I’m not joking or exaggerating.

That’s literally what they believe.

The reason why this is a problem is Traditionalists are the bedrock of any stable democracy. It’s the constant struggle between Leftists and Traditionalists that is what causes a democracy’s politics to be functioning. Traditionalists are important because they temper the passions of Leftists while at the same time gradually, begrudgingly come to accept progress. This can be a messy, confusing and uncomfortable process, but for much of the last 250 years we’ve managed to make it work.

But now, now things are totally out of whack. Traditionalists have grown radicalized. Because of a combination of negative polarization and an extensive permission structure, American Traditionalists are now Good Germans who just need an autocrat. We’re an autocracy without an autocrat — an anocracy.

One thing that is disturbing and interesting is how Traditionalists really have homophobia on the brain these days. It’s replaced being “canceled” as their number on concern — the “woke gay homosexual agenda” is the first thing they go to whenever you broach the idea of, say, a unity ticket for 2024.

I don’t know how much of this is just because it’s the current Fox News scare tactic and how much of it is a legitimate freak out on the part of Traditionalist about what they see as “everyone turning gay.” It’s all very strange. It’s a prime example of some dark forces that were unleashed because of the Leftist culture war victory at some point in Obama’s second term.

Traditionalists are enraged with the social changes taking place in the United States and they will even come out and say, “I like Trump’s policies, I just don’t like Trump.” That’s like saying, “I don’t like Hitler, but I like his policies.” If our democracy has lost Traditionalists, then we’re on step closer to the existential choice of autocracy or civil war at some point around late 2024 – early 2025.

It’s because I honestly don’t know how to fix this problem that I think we’re either going to have a civil war or turn into an autocracy at some point around 2024 – 2025. We’re in a crisis and there’s no obvious solution or endgame. I have no idea what is going to happen. But I do know that Trump probably is going to run again — and win — and all those Traditionalists who love, love, love Ron DeSantis are going to end up voting for Trump again even though they tell me so adamantly that they don’t l like him.

Things are dark and getting darker.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, I’m the red headed step child of my family when it comes to politics. Everyone else in my family is a bedrock conservative. And, as such, I decided to use that to see if my idea (stolen from How Democracies Die) that the USA should try a Unity Ticket in 2024 might work.

The results — nope.

The reason is, we are so divided that the idea of doing such a thing — even with an extensive power sharing agreement in place is so alien that the conservatives in my family simply can’t process it. They can’t seem to see that just because someone identifies as a Democrat solely for the purposes of heading a Unity Ticket in 2024 (without changing any of their conservative policies) doesn’t mean they’ve succumb to the woke cancel culture mob that is the Democratic Party.

So, we’re back to square one.

Or, put another way, something really, really dramatic would have to happen for something as abstract as “have a Unity Ticket in 2024 that will make everyone unhappy but will save American democracy for at least one more presidential cycle” will make sense to Traditionalists like my family members. They hate, hate, hate, hate, hate anything to do with Democrats to the point that they would rather support an autocrat that save democracy. So, in a sense, they’re Good Germans waiting for the opportunity to be Good Americans.

The cancer that is MAGA has simply grown too big and powerful for the quick fix solution of a Unity Ticket to take place. Though if some sort of tragedy happened, something big, that kind of preempted our slip into autocracy, THEN, I think you might be able to sell a Unity Ticket to Traditionalists.

But, for the time being, we’re fucked.

In late 2024 – early 2025, we’re either going to have a civil war because of a “national divorce” or white minority rule will be established once and for all. And if it’s the latter my family — whom I love dearly — will be cheering that transition on.

It won’t be until things get personal — when ICE rounds me up for getting drunk and saying President DeSantis is a cocksucker — that they will grow alarmed at the loss of freedom they’ve taken for granted all their lives. When the red line of it getting personal is crossed, THEN they might think back and realize a Unity Ticket might have been a good idea.

But, alas, it’s not looking so great for the idea now, when it would matter.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Steve K. Bannon and I could not be more different. He is on one end of the political spectrum and all the way on the other side is me. And, obviously, even though he’s not nearly as powerful as he use to be, he’s still got a lot more political power than than I have.

And, yet, I think he and I have similar personalities, even if how expression mine in a dramatically different way.

One element that he and I share is we tend to run with a microscopic amount of information, speculating about this or that theory of the moment that we may have concocted.

And I think he probably does a lot of scenario running in his mind like I do.

Some of what I may be noticing is both of us are, relative to normal people, cranks. We’re both full of shit. I think I’m a little bit more self-aware of how full of shit than he is, but, lulz.

The reason why this is important is, what separates the two of us is opportunity. He’s a member of the elite and I’m a nobody. And yet, the United States is entering an unprecedented era of instability. And there’s a greater-than-zero-sum chance that nothing short of a revolution is going to happen. And, as such, even a nobody like me, who thrives in chaos, might find myself with the finger of God pointing at me in a rather dramatic fashion.

Or not. Who knows.

It’s something to think about.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Democracy is America’s birthright. I say this knowing that 38% of the electorate — the Republican part — will say at this point “actually…. we’re a constitutional republic.”

The issue with the argument that the United States has never been a democracy is how brazenly partisan it is. This argument on the part of well meaning Republicans — some of whom I’m related to — is such bullshit because even though, yes, technically we’re a constitutional republic, being a democracy is part of our collective self-perception.

Additionally, there is a specific point to Republicans denying that the United States is a democracy — it’s the way they get out of having to explain their coming minority rule. They hate the browning of America and the economic liberation of women so much that they would rather establish white autocratic minority rule than risk losing power.

Of course, this opens up the very real possibility that instead of simply becoming an autocracy that we’ll have a “national divorce” between Blues who think we’re a democracy and Reds who think we aren’t and never have been.

But, as I keep writing, I find the notion that we’re going to have a civil war dubious. I think, in the end, because “democracy” is such an abstract concept and the getting the country to focus on anything is too difficult…we’re just going to drift into autocracy and it won’t be until it’s way too late that a lot of people — many of them supporters of fascism — will realize how bad things are going to be from here on out.

In other words, it won’t be until things get personal that a lot of people who otherwise want autocracy will sit up and take notice. But, by then, things will be way too late, especially for people like me.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me some things out of the way. I’m drunk as I write this and so I’m venturing into something potentially extremely controversial because I feel like being a bit more frisky than normal. And, in this specific case I’m using a very narrow definition of “woke.”

So, I’m not attacking the #MeToo movement or anything like that. And I’m a CIS white man and shouldn’t even be talking about this. I know. I get it. But, as will become clear, there’s a specific reason for all of this to begin with.

Ok, what prompts this post is something I saw on Tik-Tok. A gorgeous young woman was complaining about the cancelation of The Victoria’s Secret Show and how she still had dreams of walking it one day. This got me thinking about how wokeness is, in a way, limiting women’s choices by not giving them the option to, say, to walk the Victoria Secret runway if such a thing is potentially an option for them.

And, let me be clear — I know about how problematic the ownership of Victoria Secret is and I know about how Fenty is, in a way, replacing Victoria Secret and working within the context of the “woke agenda.”

Ok, Ok. I get it.

I guess what I’m really bemoaning is how it seems that to be woke, by definition means to no longer believe there is any cultural center where traditional things like, say, a beauty pageant or the Victoria Secret runway show simply have no place in the world.

This is relevant because if you actively allow identity politics to deconstruct the “center” you are fueling the rage of the very people the “woke cancel culture mob” hates the most — the MAGA New Right. If there was any way for us to square the circle and say, “Yes, you can have a Victoria Secret runway show in the post woke era, if that’s something you’re interested in” then a lot of Traditionalists who are now all-in with MAGA might at least think about moderating their stance a little bit.

It just seems to this middle age CIS white male — who should be rarely be seen and never heard — that the reason why there is something of a crisis going on in the Western world at the moment is you’re limiting what women can do in the name of being woke. If you’re a hot, young woman, then walking the Victoria Secret runway is something you dream about, something you really want to do.

You shouldn’t take that away from her in the name of “wokeness.”

But, of course, that’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve entered a new era where there is no “center” in pop culture anymore and the United States is careening towards a very, very, very dark fate where there are only two options: autocracy or civil war.

Good luck.

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, let me be clear — barring something totally unexpected, what I propose isn’t going to happen. My continued fears about America either turning into an autocracy or having a civil war around 2024 – 2025 remain in place. But the book How Democracies Die, suggests if we were really serious about saving American democracy, we would seriously contemplate a 2024 Unity Ticket.

At the moment, that Unity Ticket would be Cheney / AOC 2024. If Mike Pence wasn’t such a fucking coward, I would put him at the top of such a hypothetical ticket.

And there would be a lot of problems with such a Unity Ticket, no matter what. Just because Twitter liberals would spooge their pants at such an idea, doesn’t mean the woke Democratic base would be all that thrilled. But the whole point of a United Ticket would be everyone would be unhappy for the common good of at least punting the possibility of autocracy or civil war down the road one more presidential political cycle.

But even if you could find the gumption of doing a Unity Ticket, you would have to get past Bannon’s planned “administrative coup” he wants to pull off in 2024.

So why even entertain such an idea to begin with?

Because it’s right there in front of us. If we really, really want to protect our birthright as Americans — that of at least wanting to live in a democracy, even if we live in a “constitutional republic” — a Unity Ticket is a quick and easy way to do so. You would have to have some sort of power sharing agreement in place that would make the Federal government act extremely schizophrenia, but, again, you would be saving the American democracy. Maybe allowing it to survive long enough for us to figure out how to fix the rot at its core we’re currently living through at the moment.

But for any of this to happen, something big would have to change. Biden would have to decide not to run. Enough Democrats would have to stop worrying about their pronouns long enough to sit up and take notice about how dire our situation is at the moment.

So, lulz, I don’t really expect this to happen. It’s just a daydream. It’s something that makes sense on paper, but is unlikely to ever, ever happen.