Random Musings on this All Elections' Eve
Hot on the heels of Halloween comes an even spookier holiday!
Some of you may have noticed that it is election time again the United States. I know that story hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage. You may have missed it. But those of you paying close attention may have picked up on some subtle hints like, oh, I don’t know… THE CONSTANT BOMBARDMENT OF ELECTION JIBBER-JABBER ACROSS ALL MEDIA FOR THE PAST DECADE.1
As such, I decided to take a page from an earlier article I’d written (linked below) and send out a new post to commemorate this most holy of holidays celebrating Our Sacred Democracy©.
I should add that some of you may also have noticed that this is my first article in a little while. Things have been a bit hectic as of late, but I do hope that before long I can release a few more posts that have been simmering on the back burner, getting all burnt and crusty on the bottom of their pots. I also wanted to thank all of you who have continued to subscribe to my humble Substack, even if it is only because—like me—you have completely lost track of your subscriptions and can’t be arsed to go pruning the list at this point. Regardless, thank you for your continued patience and support.
So, what do I have in store for today, you ask?
Well, I have two sections prepared for you. First, I would like to share three disparate musings I’ve had surrounding Trump, politics, and the 2024 U.S. election. Second, I would like to share my three favorite comedic takes on democracy to add a little levity to the otherwise rather dour “VOTE OR DIE!” dread that hangs over many Americans like a pall.
I know, I know: “Gee Whiz, thanks, Apollo! I definitely have not gotten enough of those topics to last me ten lifetimes just from the YouTube ads interrupting my favorite cat videos over the past week! You even opened this post lamenting the Biblical-level deluge of election agitprop we’ve been drowning in for years. But, sure, I’d love to read another article about all that!”
To quote friend of the show ol’ Lobster Pete, ol’ Benzo Shapiro himself: “Yeah, well, fair enough.”2
However, the following thoughts are handpicked from sundry notes and replies I made over the years that were quickly washed down stream by the Great Info Flood, never making their way into proper posts, and I dare say they present relatively novel thoughts on these topics that you may yet find worthwhile. As they were plucked from different comment threads, they may start rather in media res, as it were, but I have edited them bit where possible to make them read more smoothly.
So, without further ado, here are three, humble election day musings to kick off the dramatic portion of the programme…
Musing #1: Trump’s Yuniquely Yuge Narcissism
A lot of people decry Trump's ego and narcissism as reasons to reject him, or at the very least as qualifiers for why they cannot fully embrace him as a candidate, only reluctantly voting for him as the lesser of two evils. I don't begrudge people this view—it's their prerogative, and frankly an understandable stance—but I have come to respectfully disagree with it for two reasons:
1) I contend Trump's ego is connected to his success and the adoration (and yes, power) it can generate. Previously, this was in the realm of business, real estate, and media. Now, he has shifted to the realm of politics... and still media. Always media. As such, his ego demands the success of the American experiment and the adoration of the American people, which is a good thing as far as America and its citizenry is concerned. Is this the healthiest thing psychologically? Perhaps not. Are there potential perils as well, especially if Trump is left unchecked—which he certainly will not be? Perhaps so. However (and I know people will go to their grave disagreeing with me here), I believe that the people who point out Trump's ego as demonstrative of how he cares only about himself and simply wants to be a self-serving dictator are missing an important component of his personality: It is *not* that Trump is not narcissistic (He puts his name in gold on everything he builds, sure he is haha!); it is that Trump's narcissism now inextricably relies on America's success. He associates himself with that endeavor, just as he did his businesses. He associates his prosperity and lifestyle with the unique economic and social systems of America. (Again, others may hate America—at least that version of it—and those systems, and thus hate Trump, that's their prerogative.) He feels a personal stake in its success. If someone (or some nation) is trying to "get one over" on his company (or his country) he takes it personally and wants to win. If someone isn't doing their job and is wasting (taxpayer) money, he wants them fired. If someone is trying to subvert American ideals, he wants them stopped. This is a good thing for the U.S. I wish more politicians had this view, instead of gladly selling America down the river time and time again because they have absolutely zero personal stake in its principles or success.
The enormous—and otherwise wholly unnecessary—reputational, financial (Yes, he is profiting too in some ways, but in the long run he was waaaay better off with golf courses.), legal, and (one can only assume) physical/emotional damage he and his family have suffered as a result of this enterprise supports this thesis in my opinion. The guy was the toast of the town among liberal elites, palling around with Oprah, dropping in on Home Alone 2 and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air... all until he went rogue and everyone woke up the next day to suddenly realize that, obviously, the same sleazy salesman they'd been having martinis with the night before was actually Hitler Satan! Strange. (Even stranger how it just keeps happening whenever anybody breaks with the Orthodoxy.)
And not only did Donnie save us from a Hillarian hellscape, but also—after witnessing the nation's Building 7 freefall-speed implosion under Biden/Obama 2.0—Donnie is clearly our best bet to help America at least claw its way back up to "normal" levels of bad haha, instead of the subterranean levels of atrocity where we have found ourselves, with no border, more crime, more drugs, dumpster fire economy, looming energy crisis, foreign wars, transanity pushed on kids, and constant attacks on Constitutional rights. Even Dante and Virgil never made it this far down! For now, we need to just Make America Bad Again! #MABA, baby! We'll keep climbing up to "Good," then "Great," from there, hopefully, but first things first lol
2) Virtually everyone in politics is a narcissist with a massive ego. Not saying that's great. Heck, I agree with Socrates and Plato when they advocated the superiority of a Philosopher King because only those who do not wish for political power can be trusted with it. However, I'm truly sorry to say, that King (or Queen) ain't walking through that door anytime soon. So, as I mentioned above, I'll take the guy whose ego is at least partially invested in the success of the nation, instead of warmongers like Neocon Nikki and Lindsey Graham Cracker, fascist hypocrites like Newsomlini, glib sociopaths like Obama and Clinton, or compromised plants (literally, a venal house plant, to quote Andrew Klavan) overseeing the intentional disintegration of the nation like Sleepy Joe. Or Cocaine Mitch. Or Witch Queen Pelosi. Or Supreme Hot Dog Leader Chris Christie, heck, globally Blair, Macron, Trudeau... how it is that people can blithely support *these* politicians (I know some are parliamentary systems), but somehow shriek and clutch their pearls at this hereto unheard of singular egoism of Donald Trump is quite amusing to me.
Speaking of which, a lot more to say, but I've ranted enough here and will save the rest for my eventual "Why I'm Voting for The Don Again"3 article. And, hey, could I be wrong? Sure. Did Donnie make mistakes, like keeping Fauxi around and "Warp Speeding" the clotshots? Sure did! Could all of this be some of 5D chess and Trump is just another actor on the stage playing a part, and playing people like me in the process? Sure. It's possible, and I have serious concerns there. But, I make the best assessments I can at the time with information I have available, and this is how things look from over here, so I figured I'd pass it along ;)
Musing #2: The Esoteric Cult of MAGA
Another fascinating component I wanted to discuss was the idea of the MAGA Cult itself. Of course, there are people with an unhealthy adoration of Donald Trump. Those who unironically stockpile all the Trump-branded chotzkees, those who subscribe to the Q-ish narratives of Trump as some divine champion, prophecised to single-handedly deliver us from evil. And yes, there are those that support Trump for reasons that may confound us, that hold beliefs many of us would find deplorable.
But that is, despite what the MiniTrue MSM have conditioned the proles to believe, a small minority. Even the MSM concedes this in their doublethink way. They say MAGA is just a small, radical extremist terrorist cell within the larger bumbling loser group of Republicans who still respectfully lose by Marquise of Queensbury rules. Then they also say the MAGA Cult is some enormous existential threat, part and parcel with the Hegemonic White Supremacist Patriarchy Theocracy ruling America since 1619.
They’d do well to pick one.
The Party and its MiniTrue cronies meticulously maintain this doublethink deception that all Trump supporters are nefarious MAGA cultists because once that illuison is shattered it can lead to an increase in “juxtaposition nodes,” individuals or organizations whose break from the Party narrative and realignment with base reality can quickly spread throughout a population, potentially triggering complete systemic collapse. An event from my own life back when I was living in Orange County in southern California illustrates this phenomenon.
The O.C. (as no one calls it) is a bit of a beleaguered Red Republican bastion amidst the crashing waves of the Deep Blue Democrat Sea. ("Deepest, bluest, my hat is like a shark's fin♪") I remember when I was losing my Liberal Religion (to borrow a page from Stipe, after all, according to Wokesters, it's the end of the world as we know it, yet I feel fine!) back in the Year of Our Lord 2020 before the election. I'd been spending most of time around bitter, angry Wokesters who were passing the time rioting, shrieking, masking, crying, and generally piling upon Trump's orange visage "the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down," as Melville might've put it. Family fun for everyone.
One day, I was walking down the street to one of the 10,000 beige, Starbuck's-clad strip malls in town, and a pro-Trump car rally was slowly cruising down the road. It was just a bunch of cars and trucks with flags and tacky, Made-in-China, patriotic merch stuck to them. Some were playing music or honking occasionally. They were packed with men and women, people of all ethnicities, and they all looked so friendly and happy.
I smiled and waved at them, and one woman, and Asian lady, leaned out the passenger side of one star-spangled sedan, smiled back at me, and said "God bless you!" as they paraded off. I thought... hmmm, you know, I'm not so sure these are these are the deplorable, evil, hateful, racist, misogynistic, fascist, omniphobes that CNN says they are.
I know this sounds like one of those Adam Kinzinger "My toddler looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked 'Daddy, why don't Republicans support taxing unrealized capital gains so the billionaires can just pay their fair share?'" stories, but it's actually true.
I also know that this is just one, small experience, and that there are plenty of good people and bad people across the political spectrum. I have no doubt people have had similarly positive experiences with other parties' members, and oppositely negative experiences with Trump supporters. And that is my point: the official narrative is designedly and decidedly divisive, desperate to portray Trump and everyone who supports him to any degree as some dastardly degenerate. But this portrayal is false, and one would do well to consider why the mainstream media is so determined to convince you otherwise.
Musing #3: The Lesser of Two Unequal Evils
… A lot of intriguing observations there, e.g., the ubiquity of micro-cults—and much I agree with, e.g., the conditional, motivated perpetuation of varying degrees of ultimately illusory free will by the archons of this ages. So just a few added thoughts:
Of course there is a panoply of evil in this world, but, make no mistake, I am indeed asserting that there is no single, greater, clear and present danger to human civilization than what is being manifest in the death-dealing warmongers of the Democrat Party and the poison-pushing sociopaths perched atop Big Pharma. If calling out the Democrats specifically irks people, they are more than welcome to use the word "Globalist" or "Uniparty" or similar such terms in their corner of the world as they see fit, as the Cult certainly exists across the political aisle.
However, only the Democrat Party is completely and wholly subsumed by this madness. The same madness responsible for Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mao's China, Stalin's Russia, the same madness warned of by Orwell. At least some islands of life, liberty, and reason exist in Independent and Republican seas, but the Democrat Party is a Borg Cube of conformist thinking and voting in support of censorship, infanticide, transanity, child mutilation, war, technocracy, Big Pharma medical tyranny, bigoted identity politics, totalitarianism... and even any possible appeal their supporters could have made to pro-labor, civil rights, or social programs in the past have clearly all been either abandoned or outright opposed by the current Democrat Party. That does not mean that everyone need be some red-meat TradCon by any measure, there are myriad other options, but I am sorry to say that anyone still actively supporting the mainstream Dems at this point is either woefully or willfully ignorant, or evil.
This is abundantly evident by the mass exodus of those individuals who once aligned with the promises of past "liberal Democrat" policies. I've discussed this at length in my Substack, but the departures or disavowals of people like West, Gabbard, Yang, RFK Jr., Musk, Greenwald, Taibbi, among countless others—and their immediate rebranding as enemies of the state by MiniTrue—all make abundantly clear that there is no place for sanity or humanity left in the Democrat Party. It is ironic that one of Biden and his ilk's attack vectors against the GOP is to bleat "This ain't your grandpappy's GOP" because:
1) They are right in that the GOP is now at least some small bastion for sanity for things like anti-war sentiment (Trump, Paul, Ramaswamy, etc...), certainly a welcome departure from the Bush-Cheney Hegemony.4
2) The converse is true (per usual Globalist inversion) in that this is also not the Democrat Party many people (at least ideally) thought they were supporting only a decade or two ago.
For years I have resisted such proclamations about the complete corruption of the Democrat Party. I have tried very hard to stake out some enlightened centrist position or deal in nebulous, placating prevarication, especially because I know so many people who are strident Democrats, both in my work life and my personal life.
But, that was a mistake.
Despite any obsequiousness or prevarication, I was invariably, inevitably deemed persona non grata for any deviation from the Orthodoxy.5 And I was doing a disservice to myself and others by not more directly conveying what I saw, because I was right. And this is a genuinely dangerous time when we have already tumbled into the realm of police-state dystopia, and just because our archons allow for the illusion of free will occasionally does not make the control any less real. And as we saw during the scamdemic lockdowns, if they need to drop said illusions to enact authoritarian measures or facilitate unprecedented wealth transfers, they will do so with stunning celerity, temerity, and impunity.
It is that latter point that is particularly tragic, and is why I write about—and lament—these topics so often and fervently. People need to wake up. This is serious. And too-cool-for-school shoulder shrugs or nihilistic resignation are neither cool nor helpful. People today in the modern West largely lack both the historical knowledge and the imagination to fathom the Hell that is unfolding around them and how far, far worse things will get unless we intervene.
Personally, I don't care if I am the sole voice of righteousness that all should listen to.6 If I am, fine. If I am, instead, a tiny pinprick of light amidst an ocean of similar flickers, fine. I just know that I must do my best to illuminate what I can, and that part of that is encouraging others to ignite their own flame in love of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Let’s lighten the mood now and move on to the comedy section of the programme, shall we? Please allow me to present…
Interlude #1: “Democracy Manifest,” Jack Karlson
I can never hear the word “democracy” without thinking of the late, great Jack Karlson, who famously exposed democracy for the judo-tossing, penis-grabbing, enemy-of-succulent-meals that it is. Legend.
Besides giving us the “answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything,” Douglas Adams satirical, sci-fi masterpiece also provides the most devastating description of modern democracy that I’ve found. It comes in the form of a conversation between Ford Prefect, an alien researching for the titular “guide,” and the last human, Arthur Dent, whom Ford had rescued from Earth’s destruction. In this scene, a robot has just disembarked from its ship and asked Ford and Arthur to “Take me to your Lizard.” Ford offers the following explanation to a confused Arthur:
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..." [said Ford]
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?" [said Arthur]
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
“What?”“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
Adams nails it: heaven forbid the wrong lizard might get in.
Interlude #3: 3rd Rock from the Sun, “Dick the Vote”
The late-90s alien sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun is a criminally underrated comedy series with a stellar cast and the single best Easter Egg in television history.
It also produced one of the best satires of democracy when John Lithgow’s character, Dick (an alien in human form), is introduced to the horror of democracy, leading to a series of ingeniously incisive scenarios and lines, none better than the the following classic, which I still quote regularly:
“What’s the point of having a democracy if people go around voting wrong!?”
It kills me every time. Check out the video linked below for that and other amazing lines.
There you have it! A tragicomedy in two parts.
But wait, true believers! There’s more! As an added bonus for those of you who have stuck with me for this wild ride, I’ve decided to toss in a poem I wrote many moons ago about America-brand democracy. That’s right: just when you thought things couldn’t get any more pretentious—KA CHOW!—poetry! How applicable it is today (or perhaps ever was), I shall leave up to you to decide should you choose to give it a read and click the link below:
Speaking of which, I shall leave you with the laconic lyrics Geddy Lee famously squealed way back in 1980: “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!”
It does make one wonder: if voting really had any impact, would the Party push this hard for participation? Perhaps, especially as many pop-culture “Rock the Vote… or Die!”-style of marketing blitzes tend to favor the Blue Team to maximize votes and minimize the amount of actual chicanery necessary to install a candidate. But then again, perhaps not. In many cases, the value may be in the Hunger Games pageantry of it all with whichever Unipartyist who “wins” maintaining the status quo. Or maybe the the political system does still function to some degree. I’m truly not sure. Just spitballing here. It’s late, and what do want from a footnote!?
We kid because we love around here. I know J.P. has done a lot of good too and that many people have benefitted from ol’ Canadian Kermit’s trademark haranguing, for which he deserves much credit, as do the people who have often dramatically improved their own lives. Sincerely, kudos to you. Now stand up straight and go make your bed, bucko!
I would just like to take a quick victory lap here because even though this section is from a reply I wrote in another author’s comment section months ago (if not longer), I actually did save it and eventually publish it in this article! That’s dedication, homes!
I would just like to take another victory lap here because I wrote this long before Darth Cheney eventually descended from his Death Star throne to endorse Kamala Harris (a name that, honestly, also would not be out of place in Star Wars.) In saner times, there could scarcely have been a more a damning “endorsement,” especially for a self-identifying Democrat. But these are not sane times—though they may be more transparent ones—as we now see the Uniparty façade dropping with “Left-leaning” late-night propagandists and mainstream “Liberal” politicians alike celebrating “Republican” war criminals Darth Cheney and Monkey King G-Dubs.
An anti-victory lap here: I usually avoid dealing in absolutes for exactly this reason. I should make clear that despite the so-called friends who disavowed me for wrongthink, I do indeed have acquaintances and friends who remain generally aligned with the Democrat Party who have not summarily dismissed me as a “garbage deplorable” despite my many heresies (at least, no more so than they would rightly have done before haha). I am grateful for their friendship and free-thinking, and I hope I have done a good job of reciprocating that. I have found Republicans and Independents to be far more welcoming and openminded though overall. I confess that the (likely intentional) polarization of society can make it a struggle, in life and in writing, when trying to remain considerate, openminded, and humble while honestly expressing well-intentioned but unwelcome opinions and observations as I watch in deepening horror while the world and many in it blithely descend into increasingly Lovecraftian insanity. Civility was simpler back when it merely meant refraining from arguing about variable tax rates over dinner, as opposed to today when it demands smiling and nodding along while someone recites a state-sponsored litany of lunacy, like a man is a woman, our borders are secure, and America funds foreign wars to defend democracy. Yes, some things are subjective; most things are complicated; and I could always be wrong. However, some things are objective; complicated need not mean inscrutable; and I could (Zeus help us all!) be correct, regardless of how unpopular, indecorous, or even painful my assertions may be. At some point, we need to call a spade a spade so we can recognize problems and achieve progress, as reality has a terrible way of asserting itself over time. It is an interesting game we are all playing, and I am ever-mindful of the wise words of friend-of-humanity Philip K. Dick when he cautioned that: “To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement.” This is all a much larger topic though, one that that would be difficult to do justice in a full article, let alone in a madcap footnote, so for now, I’ll defer to another friend-of-humanity, Chris Hall:
Ron Howard narrator voice: “He, in fact, was not the sole voice of righteousness.”
Quorum and legitimacy are the reasons we are pushed so hard to vote.
Without those two things, the "Democracy" does not exist.
How we were ever sold the idea that mob rules is the best political system is beyond me.
I look forward to the day we realize we don't need rulers ruling us.
"Law and Order," is the panacea of the weak and fearful, and the tool of the elite.
Servitude based on Karen principals.
Great post! Couldn’t agree more with your musings regarding Trump and the Democrats overall view of him. You’re right… always better to vote for the guy who…not only has a stake in, but actually cares about what goes on in his country!