Blue View vs Red View

What Now? — Blue View

by DJB

A lot of people are asking the question: “Is this the beginning of the end, or a new beginning?” Or, is it a modified return to a previous political comfort zone, perhaps feeling the way America did with George H.W. Bush, comfortably Center-Right, with no real vision except safety and good business.

If it is the third one, that people are hoping that Grampa Biden will be just a calming, neutral influence, then we will have learned nothing from the Trump experience, and America is headed for mediocrity at best.

Politically, most people, and by that I mean all of the active Democrats, about half of the current Republicans, and most Independents, are hoping for a new beginning. It is time to bring America into the 21st Century. The country is a mess. There are some basic problems that have not been addressed for decades that Trump has magnified, and they need to be confronted. These include the terrible state of American education, the increasing wealth gap, the deteriorating climate we live in, unregulated Artificial Intelligence, systemic racism, and who will be working at what jobs in ten years when there are robotic warehouses, driverless cars and trucks, and drones delivering the mail?

Most people, and certainly almost all of our current crop of elected leaders, don’t even understand the complexity of these problems, and they have no idea how to plan for them, regulate them, and what to do with all of the unintended consequences.

We need to start by establishing a new foundation upon which to “build back better.” To do that will require two changes that are obvious, but will be very difficult to achieve.

What we saw on January 6th in Washington was the result of millions of people living in a tight bubble and believing in things that were not true. Mr. Trump’s great strength, the thing that allowed him to remain in power, was his constant attack on the truth. From the time he went after Obama’s birth certificate he was successful at convincing people that things he made up out of thin air were more true than anyone’s attempt to refute them. If that person was standing in the open, bleeding, coughing, and dying, and Trump said she was healthy, then millions of people believed she was healthy.

Right now, many right-wing media outlets are trying to deny that the raid on the Capitol had anything to do with Trump. Thankfully, finally, Trump has pushed things too far this time and many of his supporters and hangers-on have decided they have had enough.

The Republican Party has been lying for three decades. It began with their trickle-down economics, they lied about the Iraq War, and this opened the door for Trump (with the help of Russian social media) to take over the country. Trump’s lies became the only issue that America attempted to deal with for the last five years. Trying to resolve any of those difficulties I mention above was cast aside because every day there was a new, outrageous lie from Trump that overshadowed everything.

The Republicans loved it because they were busy cutting regulations, making lots of money, not paying taxes just like their leader, stealing money, denying the virus, and making people choose between risking their lives or starving. They could do this behind the smoke of Trump tweeting, whining, and spreading even more outrageous lies. So they let him carry on, encouraging racists, blowing things up, taking bribes, taking money, and attacking people. Most Republicans supported his lies, or they just turned away and mumbled. And now, with two weeks left, many have finally admitted what Michael Cohen warned them about, that Trump has the personality of a tarantula. No matter who you are, or how much you kiss his ass, he will eventually turn on you and poison your life. Isn’t that true, Mr. Pence?

What we need to do for this country to have a bright future, is to find a way to agree on what is real, and also to rebuild the trust in our institutions. Trump has managed to corrupt all of that. Fewer people trust the election, Congress, their state and local government, their police, the Justice Department, the EPA, the CDC, their schools, their churches, the post office, big corporations, the fossil fuel industry, new technologies, and Big Tech. Almost half the country is very hesitant to take the new vaccines that can help us regain our lives.

America has to find a way for everyone to determine what is real and what is a lie. We have to clearly separate fact from opinion. People have to “show their work” as we did in third-grade math — where did we get the information? What I am really trying to say? Who paid for me to say it? What algorithm is reading my thoughts and sending me messages, for what purpose?

We will not be able to solve any of our problems and we will disappear as a nation unless we find a way to trust the people who are hoping to lead us. We have to have open and honest debates based on facts, and we have to clarify our differences instead of just demonizing each other. We have to learn to negotiate in good faith instead of just reaching for more power.

This is not impossible, but it will be very difficult in this time of heightened mistrust, fake news, deep fakes, unfettered social media, lies, conspiracy theories, and discrimination, all hiding behind the curtain of free speech.

We need to care about each other, and our country. It is time to realize that what is better for all of us is better for each of us. No one can make it better by themselves.

Let’s see and hear the truth. It might set us all free.

What Now? — Red View

by Jim West

I was hoping for a little more blue sky from the Blue View. I was hoping for some reasons to be hopeful. But if the Blue View is just gonna be more Trump bashing (without specifics) and false assumptions about what we believe and what we love, then our future seems rather bleak, like the photo I picked out. If the Blue Team continues to amplify all that’s wrong with America with no solutions, or solutions that make the problems worse (like most government solutions do), then our future will be more of the same, because that’s what we have now.

But I do agree with DJB that perhaps we should look at our foundations. I also give a nod to finding “a way to agree what is real.” For the Red Team, this is pretty simple. We don’t pretend to know the latest micro-aggression or what pronoun somebody wants to be called. We just look at what’s going on and say, “See, that right there. That’s real.” And we compare that to our foundations and make judgments about whether it’s good or bad.

So let’s look at 2 basic foundations, then look around us, and that will help us determine what our future holds. That will be the answer to, “What Now?”

Liberty

We don’t have time to get in the weeds about self-determination and what freedom means and all that, so let’s just ask a basic question, “Would you rather be left alone to make your own decisions, to choose your own life, or would you rather have the government do that for you?” Most people choose the former, is everyone with me? Good.

So now we look around us and we see a group of people who won’t leave us alone, they’re trying to control us. They’re telling us which light bulbs to use, how big our soda drinks can be, what kind of car we should drive, restricting our choices in education, limiting our speech, and canceling anyone they don’t agree with.

Right now, in the name of safety from a virus that has a 99.X% survival rate, they’re picking which businesses are essential and which ones aren’t, thus destroying millions of lives. In some states (CA, NY) these people are telling us to cover us our faces all the time, even outdoors, and they’re telling us how many people we can have in our own house. Now which side is doing that?

That’s real and the Red Team doesn’t like that. We’re plenty smart enough, just as the Blue Team is, to take precautions when necessary without the government butting in. Leave us alone!

Free Market Capitalism

Capitalism gets a bad rap from the Blue Team because big business and government often get in bed together, but that’s crony capitalism, and not at all the same thing. And while it’s true that genuine capitalism produces winners and losers, it’s still the best system ever created for lifting people out of poverty. Every attempt in herstory/history (see how stupid that is) to try and make personal economics fair and equal has resulted in the fair distribution of misery. The Red Team sees those examples in history as says, “That’s real. We don’t want that.”

But on a personal level, the basic question of capitalism is this, “Is that your stuff, or does it belong to someone else?” Did you earn that? Is it your property? Is it your money? Or does someone else have a claim on that? Most people don’t mind giving a small sum for the things government provides, roads, safe food, national defense, and studies say that sum is 12% to 15%. But then is starts to be intrusive. If it’s too high, we call theft.

Again, looking around us, we see one side in particular who wants more of your stuff. They want to raise taxes to give more of your earnings to those who didn’t earn it. The Green New Deal wants to spend 3 times more money than our current national debt and the Blue Team seems to forget that there’s no such thing as “government funded.” The government is funded by you, and me, and us.

This same side is also choking entrepreneurialism with licensing and regulations. Now of course, we all want clean air and water, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the $1,000 license required in some states to cut hair in your home. I’m talking about the $9,000 my plumber has to pay annually for the government blessing of letting him be a plumber. I’m talking about the intrusive and unnecessary studies required to build a house on my land. These government regulations and mandates dramatically slow down economies. They think they’re entitled to more of your stuff to make their utopian dreams come true. And that side is now in power with no check or balance for at least two years.

So What Now?

The official Democratic Platform wants universal healthcare, national $15 minimum wage, $70 trillion dollars for the Green New Deal, free college for everyone, and they want to shut down all the coal and natural gas power plants in America. But in real life, in the practical, economic level that will effect every one of us, this is not going to turn out well. Can you afford $20, $25 thousand dollar solar panels when the government mandates it? Can you buy a new electric car when gas engines are banned? Are you ok with your electric bill going up 300% when they close your power plant? Can you afford the taxes to pay those benefits for other people? How does that reality measure up against your fundamental values on capitalism and keeping your stuff?

But wait, to hit this point as it relates to liberty, let me also share that the official Democratic Platform, in their response to Covid-19, wants to create a new federal agency with 100,000 employees (which you’re going to pay for) whose sole purpose is to track and trace every American, you know, like China. But don’t worry, it’s for your own good. The government said so, so it must be true.

And that’s not all, the document also says they want to create a new “public credit reporting agency” to support (more like replace) Equifax and the like, and all federal lending banks will be required to use it. How do think that’s going to turn out when the federal government has control over your credit score? Do you think they might pick and choose who can get a student loan or a home? How is that reality measuring up against your values of liberty? Are you still ok? Because I have more.

In the last two days, the presumed Democratic leadership is approving of Twitter and Facebook accelerating a purge to shut down conservative voices, and that’s what they’re doing, even the president and his team. If you’re ok with violating free speech and limiting communication because it’s just those evil conservatives, then you, my friend, do not understand the concept of free speech. Perhaps next time it will be your voice that gets silenced. There’s always that “do unto others,” golden rule thing that comes back around.

So how is all that stacking up against your fundamental values of liberty, of being left alone, of having freedom to go where you want, to say what you want? How much of your money really belongs to you? Because one side, the Blue side has something to say about that. And I’m sad, really, I’m heart broken, because that is the reality and the “What Now?” that the Red Team sees.

If these details from the Democratic Platform surprise you, and it’s offensive to you and your fundamental beliefs, perhaps you will understand that the media has gotten you so worked up and distracted over hating Trump, that it was easy to not inform you about their agenda. Oh yes, it was intentional. And we were all too lazy to look closely at what we were voting FOR. And while you ponder that, remember there was another guy who never trampled on your liberties or freedoms, nor did any of his policies crush capitalism. Nor is this agenda on the Republican Platform, they’re on the Democratic Platform.

Are you having any regrets?