You Can Just Stay Things

I have this theory about the political classes in liberal democracies: I believe they have been corrupted by careerism. Yes, many are there just for power, but I think so many of them treat politics as not only a job but their career. Maybe many of them entered politics to improve our lives, but most of them, once they get there, want to be there to stay.

And that’s anathema to good liberal democratic politics. The whole point of the system is that we put people in power to enact policies we, the electorate, want, and then, when they screw up, we boot them out.

To stay in power, politicians work with consultants (PR and otherwise) who try to help them get re-elected. These consultants sometimes use polling which - is bad enough for those of us who just want good policy regardless of what the public thinks - and sometimes they use their guts or their experience, which can be much worse, though occasionally better.

At least in the English-speaking world, The Orange Man has shattered most if not all of our political norms that these consultants tell our politicians to live by. Trump can say whatever he wants and experiences no consequences. Now, when other politicians, especially non-right-wing politicians, say something boundary-pushing or “beyond the pale,” they still get criticized, but the norms of old political decorum have really been shattered. (I remain mystified why other politicians don’t outright ask the press “But if Donald Trump said what I said, there’d be no scandal. What’s the problem?”)

And we’re now in, like, year 11 of this. Maybe year 12 given the length of US presidential campaigns.

All of this is to say I really don’t know why The Left (and The Centre!) doesn’t just say obvious things out loud in its attempts to push back on whatever it is that is going down in the US. So many times it feels to me like old norms of decorum are getting in the way of people just telling the truth, or at least talking back. I blame the people whispering in the politicians ears for this, as well as their habits, picked up from their careers as politicians, of saying what they think is politically palatable (what was palatable pre-Trump) rather than what they actually think. (Or what their constituents think.)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot with regards to the whole trans moral panic thing, and culture war topics more broadly. But I can’t help but think about it with Greenland. I don’t really understand why the Danes and the EU don’t just publicly the say the obvious:

“This is a childish whim based on the Mercator projection that is being indulged. Republicans, why are you indulging this? Was this part of MAGA? Taking Greenland?”

Or, alternatively: “We all know about Trump’s domestic troubles. We all know about the Epstein files. This is a distraction. So stop it." Etc.

Here’s an example that could just be said by someone in power in the EU:

“For decades, if not centuries, Americans have held their system of government up to the rest of the world and said ‘This is the best system of government in the history of the world.’ We Europeans have heard this so many times. And we know how your system works. Throughout the last 250 years, when a President has done something or sought to do something unconstitutional or something which violated Presidential norms, Congress has acted to stop him. Where is Congress now?

“American citizens are being shot in the streets and babies - babies! - are being tear-gassed. Your tax dollars are being spent on invading cities and now they are going to be spent on buying or invading Greenland, a place that is 80% ice.

“At any time, as we all know, Congress can stop this. So why aren’t they? Call your representative.”

I mean, what’s the harm? There’s supposedly a norm against meddling in other liberal democracies’ politics but, uh, that norm is over. Trump is going to invade or not, based on what side of the bed he gets up or and how is whispering in his ear and whether or not he forgets Greenland exists. He’s going to start World War III or not. These things cannot be controlled. Trump cannot be controlled.

But he can be intimidated. I know TACO is cringe now, but it’s true. Appeasement does not work with this guy. We have so much evidence of how that’s true. He’s a bully and when you give him a little, he takes and takes and takes. He asks for an inch, and then another, and then another, and then suddenly he’s taken everything and you’re wondering what happened.

What works is standing up to him.

So stand up to him. And one way to do that is speaking truth to power. Everyone knows he’s unpopular. Everyone knows the Executive is consistently violating the US constitution and pushing it to its limits in other areas. Everyone knows Congress has no backbone. “Everyone” doesn’t just include those left of the Democrats who constantly criticize them for not doing enough to protect average Americans. This can also include people in the EU, who are just as aware of what is happening in the US, or can be very easily.

Just say stuff. Tell the public what is happening Then the ball is in Trump’s court. If he invades Greenland, he was going to do it anyway. But he very probably won’t. Instead, he will say insane things and probably find somebody else to pick on. He will become increasingly unpopular.

It’s important to say truthful things publicly. For example, the mayor of Minneapolis said that federal guns are bigger than municipal guns and that’s one reason the city hasn’t pushed back on ICE. That is the truth.

Or look at AOC pointing out how taxpayer money is being used to pay for ICE terrorizing blue cities instead of, you know, helping Americans pay for the most expensive health care in the world.

You can just say truthful things publicly! You don’t have to follow some fucking norm that doesn’t exist any more. You shouldn’t.

Why Don’t Left Wing Politicians Dismiss Culture War Crap?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this with the nonsense culture war stuff too. Left-leaning and centrist politicians are constantly being dragged into saying things about right wing social media grievances, often about “issues” that barely or do not exist. (Or have been disingenuously turned into “issues” by people like Chris Rufo whose whole gameplan is manipulating institutions and anyone left of the Republican Party into making issues out of nothing.)

What I don’t understand is why everyone keeps falling for this over and over and over again.

If you are a federal politician, or someone running for federal office, and someone asks you if a trans woman should be allowed on a girl’s sports team, I don’t know why you don’t respond with the following:

“I am running for federal office. [Or: I am the MP/representative/Senator for X] I don’t believe the state should be involved in deciding who should or shouldn’t play [elementary/high] school sports.”

You can say the same thing about bathrooms. “I am running for federal office. [Or: I am the MP/representative/Senator for X.] Why are you asking me to take a position on bathroom usage?”

And then, crucially:

“But besides that point, this is just an attempt to make a culture war out of individual people’s lives. The only reason my opponent is talking about this is because they don’t have good enough policies. They don’t care about making your lives better. They care about making their base angry.”

Why don’t people just say this stuff? You can just say it!

Invitations

Going back to The Orange Man and Minneapolis, for a moment.

Given that the mayors and governors of the cities and states that ICE is besieging right now are not interested in escalating things, I don’t understand why they don’t invite Trump to visit.

(I’m not 100% sure why they’re not interested in standing up to him. I don’t really get this whole “standing up to him is what he wants” line of argument but anyway…”

Mayors could just say, “Dear Mr. President. You haven’t been here since [the last time Trump campaigned in the city]. Wouldn’t you like to visit to see what’s really going on? You keep saying things about our city but you haven’t been here in X years. Why not come? We’ll give you a tour. We promise to keep you safe.”

And if he somehow calls their bluff and comes, they can actually perhaps negotiate with the man directly, instead of trying to deal with his goons. Sure, he’ll probably reneg on whatever he says, but it’s something. It’s a concession.

But if he doesn’t want to come, he will say something insane. (He might say something insane even if he decides to come.) That worked when he was campaigning - his fans like when he says insane stuff (for some reason). But it works less well now that he’s President again. He is extremely unpopular. The more insane things he says, the more unpopular he will get.

(Why does not nobody in political power in the US seem to understand how unpopular Trump is right now? He is extremely unpopular! Look at a fucking poll!)

So if he refuses the invitation, call him a coward. He’s a bully. Everyone knows that. You know what else everyone knows? Bullies are actually cowards, that’s why they’re bullies. They pick on those they believe are weaker than them.

Moreover, he’s the kind of bully who has his dirty work done for him by others. He’s a coward. He’s a draft dodger. Say it in public! Tell the people that he is scared of living among normal Americans. Tell the public his followers are scared of other Americans. (We know they are, they admit it on Twitter all the time. You can literally pull screengrabs of right wing whackos saying their terrified of downtowns.)

He will then say insane things in response. Maybe he’ll do something more drastic than that but I wouldn’t bet on it. This is a guy who backs down all the time. He’s just portrayed as someone (by both his supporters and his detractors) who wins all the time and doesn’t back down. But he does! TACO! Who cares if it’s cringe, it’s right. He backs down constantly but people have to stand up to him first, FFS. Who else should be doing that if not the opposition party in his country?

You can just say things! You can say things and get him to respond. Make him have to say and do more than he already does. In turn, he will say and do totally unpredictable things that will further hurt his popularity. There’s another 10 months of this at minimum so people need to get used to saying truthful things about Trump constantly: he hasn’t delivered on a single election promise, he is threatening invasions and kidnapping foreign leaders to distract from his presence the Epstein files and the price of groceries keep going up.

I’m sorry to keep writing about the US. I’m having a hard time ignoring what’s going on down there and I’m having an extra hard time with the mainstream media’s and the Democrat’s apparent capitulation. I hope to write about something more general, or more relevant to Canada, in the future.