Fiction and Theater

At this point in America, national politics is complete fiction and theater. Just yesterday, we had two perfect examples of this. The first was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) breathlessly claiming on social media that she had a near-death experience during the Capitol Hill riot on January 6th. She then brings up, for the first time ever, that she was sexually assaulted earlier in life and that this event on Jan. 6th compounded trauma on trauma. It is sad that this even needs to be said, but of course I am not doubting her story of prior sexual assault or in any way normalizing that experience. My point in bringing it up is that she is clearly using it, in this particular moment, as a means of silencing anyone who might question her narrative on those Jan. 6th events. She knows the culture and the cultural hot-buttons of the moment. She could have brought this up and literally any other moment over the past several years - in fact, it's surprising that she didn't given the fervor of the recent 'Me Too' movement. Why she wouldn't have wanted to add her voice to that movement is actually somewhat baffling, given the profile of her position. I digress. The reality is, she wasn't in the Capitol building that day. She was in another building that was uninvolved with the protestors and rioters. A police officer came to her door and her building was briefly evacuated, but that's it. There were never any rioters in her building. In her telling of the events, they were in the building and she was hiding in her office...none of that actually happened. The only person who entered her office was a capitol police officer, there to escort her to another building. In her telling of the events, all she does is trash the cop.

The other example was the funeral for Capitol Police Offer Brian Sicknick yesterday where he laid in honor at the Capitol. He was killed in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6th. Undoubtedly and without question, he deserves this honor. For the past 8 months we've had to sit hear and listen as people shout "defund the police" and as some of the far-left leaning politicians have joined right in. Now, suddenly, one of those officers who is charged with protecting them gets killed and they're all sentimental? If the Left in this country wants to paint the Right with a broad brush, then they shouldn't be surprised when the same brush is used on them. To be fair, it doesn't appear that Pelosi or Schumer ever supported the Defund the Police movement, but where are their voices speaking against it? What of the police officers killed and injured in race riots all across this country over the past 8 months? Shay Mikalonis and David Dorn are the names of just two police officers who have been killed or critically injured during the riots - where was the national honor for them? It seems to me like we only honor police officers when it fits a particular narrative.

Enough of all this though...

Here's the question I have - what if the Left and Right as categories themselves, are worthless and meaningless? The Left accuses the Right of not caring about people. The Right accuses the Left of only pretending to care about people in order to build up power for themselves. What if both are true? What if there is simply a ruling class, and they view all of us citizens as cash registers? Look at the current National Debt...$27,000,000,000,000. That's twenty-seven TRILLION. Guess what, there's another $2 TRILLION stimulus package currently before Congress, which is likely to be approved. The National Debt will soon be nearly $30 TRILLION - nearly 140% of US GDP. Did that debt go down under Trump? No. Obama? No. Bush 41? No. Will it go down under Biden? Almost assuredly no. So two Democrat presidents and two Republican presidents and the national debt only balloons. That is money the citizenry owes. Every man woman and child in America owes approximately $84,000. When someone owes a debt that they can't pay - what does that make them? An indentured servant at best, a slave at worst.

What's the best way to keep people from realizing what is really going on? Distraction. Theater. Fiction. Keep up the endless theater - get people to buy in with their emotions. Gin up the hate, the division, etc. That will keep people focused on whatever the actors and producers want them to be focused on. Its that simple and all of us are being duped.

I'm fed up completely, as if that weren't obvious. I'm so disheartened by the entire thing. How did we get to the point in our nation where major decisions are made via Executive Order? Even at the state level! This is the inevitable consequence of not holding our national leaders accountable. This shouldn't be the way it is. If you like what Biden is doing, you didn't like what Trump did, using this mechanism. And vice-versa. Neither one should have been able to govern this way including Obama before that, and Bush before that. Executive Order should be the exception, not the norm. Illinois is another perfect example of abuse in this area. During the pandemic, all of the shots have been called by the Governor. The Illinois Legislature has been completely uninvolved. This is probably the case in most States. Why?