The Dark And Rolling Sea

We will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people, we are one nation. And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, yes we can. ~Barack Obama

Yesterday, A couple hours before I started writing this, I watched Joe Biden give the Eulogy for the Arizona memorial service for John McCain at the North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

We know now that on Saturday, both Barack Obama and George W. Bush will speak at the National Cathedral in the D.C. memorial service.

Over the course of this week I've seen extensive tributes to John McCain from Democrats and some Republicans, from Americans and Vietnamese alike, from the Vietnamese Army jailer who was party to McCain's torture and from the Presidential candidate who defeated him.

That's pretty damned amazing. I've seen people come together to speak of duty, honor and sacrifice in the course of honoring the late Senator from people who never agree on much of anything.

I've thus far seen a pretty politically, racially and even yes, sexually diverse group of people speak up or be tapped to speak up in memory of McCain. There's black Arizona Cardinals football players, gay Republicans, a registered Democrat Latino businessman and non-profit supporter. Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, Joe Biden, NATO officials, Vietnamese prison officers, There's class, decency and respect all around.

I often feel like conservatism is a series of missed opportunities, an obsession with the next fiscal quarter or polling cycle instead of thinking five or 20 or 30 years ahead. I feel like had this McCain program been followed (sometimes, even by McCain himself when he was alive) then McCain would've been President and Donald Trump would still be just Donald Trump, Private Asshole instead of threatening to take half of our entire political system down with him when he goes down...if such could even be said to be a singular event in a Presidency that's seemed to be in a perpetual state of collapse almost since its beginning.

Oh you set your course for the furthest shores
And you never once looked back
And the flag you flew was a pirate cross
On a field of velvet black
And those landsmen who you but lately knew
Were left stranded on the lea
Don't call on them when the storm clouds rise
On the dark and the rolling sea

You know what I haven't seen? Basic respect toward Senator McCain from the President of the United States, nor from many Republicans. In point of fact this small, mean, petty man and his small, mean, petty followers and the Republicans who've gone along with them for the racism and tax cuts seem offended by talk of duty, honor and service before self.

It seems as if because a Black Democrat said the words hope and change then hope and change became Bad Things, to be avoided at best, and hoarded only for the select few at worst. Of course, by that logic is it any wonder that since the same guy said "Yes, We Can" the entire mantra of the Republican Party for the last decade has been "No We Can't" unless it involves racism, tax cuts for the rich or a war that they specifically want.

Then there's this. I've noticed an odd trend developing in the last couple weeks. The Republicans have a new strategy. "Everybody is out to get you and everything is terrible, so vote for us because it's Tuesday, or something, oh and Hail Dear Leader Trump." Seems like a really weird strategy to me. It seems like an even stranger hill for the Party of Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan and The Bushes to die on, but I guess that's just me and I'm really not inspired or even really emotionally moved at all by this mess. 

"We're not as bad as THEY are" is pretty much normally the strategy Democrats have run on in every midterm election since forever, and it doesn't normally work unless the Republicans have really fucked up. Whether the Republicans are trying to use it against the Alt-Right Nazis or Democratic Socialists, it seems like all they should have to do is look across the aisle and ask Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi "Hey, how has this strategy worked for ya'll?"

For fuck's sake, at this point Republicans have fucked shit up so badly that the Democrats are starting to see socialism as a valid option, and young angry white dudes (and Trump personally) are experimenting with Fascism (and in some cases open Nazi shit) while Republicans have basically burned every bridge to the mainland, set all their own values on fire and left them to burn and Republicans now live in fear of getting voted off Trump Island with no recourse by the very guy they decided should be the only vote that matters.

Does any of this seem dysfunctional to you? Hello? Hello? Is this thing even on?

When somebody like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sounds like the sensible one in the room and a freaking Texas politician like Beto O'Rourke can pick up some of her talking points and be ahead of Ted Cruz in the polls last I checked...

Oh I have no need of a chart or creed
You told your waiting crew
For the winds of chance, they will bear us straight
And you spoke as though you knew
So you paid no mind to the warning signs
As you gave your words so free
Don't change your tack when the timbers crack
On the dark and the rolling sea

If the Republicans had held to the values they had 31 years ago when Reagan stood there in Berlin at the Bradenburg Gate and spoke these words, this wouldn't even be possible, much less happening: (And of course, Texas would probably still be a Purple state that bounced back and forth between (D) and (R) every four years or so, but I digress)

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Yes, there was a time when being a Republican meant you were something other than an asshole, or a bigot.

But those days are long past. To be a Republican today is, quite honestly, to have no moral center or values at all other than what feels good right now, what might buy us a few more clicks, or cheers, or minutes in power or squeeze a few more pennies out of the army of dipshits these fucking people have bamboozled into following them. 

A note on terminology: If the use of the word "Dipshit" in this context offends you, too fucking bad and you're probably part of the problem.

Anyway, per Fox Fucking News, we're now down to trying to force non-compliant (Read: non-Trump Supporting) rich people to have to submit to socialism while invoking Bernie Sanders. I guess Trump and his goons...I don't know, sneak out the back door and board a flight to Moscow with the rest of the money?

I'm legit not sure if Tucker (Or Trump) understands how Capitalism actually works and how it functions RE: The Constitution and how our financial and legal systems work, but there's literally no way to put the screws to Amazon without also screwing over Wal-Mart...and you bet that'll make those checks from the Walton family stop coming. You can't have capitalism for only some of us, while making others live under a socialistic system, and Amazon and social media alike SHOULD be (or have been, I guess) considered the Republican wet-dream of a business model.

But no, I guess it all comes down to the fact that at the end of the day, Conservatism in America has been reduced to five words: "What Trump Says It Is."

I'm not sure about you, but that literally doesn't square up with anything that I was taught.

It may not have to, though:

No, seriously, check this out.

I think the snipped Tweets here could safely be referred to as a Demographic Conservapocalypse.

It should be noted that it didn't have to come to this. It never had to come to this. This is what happens when you give your country, or your party, over to insecure, small, mean men whose idea of success is "We're making money."

This is what happens when you trade the quiet leadership of a Dwight Eisenhower or Gerald Ford or even a George H.W. Bush for the bombastic stupidity of a Newt Gingrich. 

This is what happens when you trade the big dreams, leadership qualities, sunny optimism and even woo woo economics of a Ronald Reagan for the small dreams, lack of leadership, fear of damned-well everything and woo woo economics of a Donald Trump.

This is, at the end of the day, where even the hard-nosed shitty Neoconservative pragmatism of a George W. Bush or Richard M. Nixon goes to die. I'm willing to make the argument at this point that the situation is even starting to get away from Trump. We might as well have Fox News for President.

At the end of the day, Republicans are probably going to wish that wasn't the case.

Now the thunder rails in the great mainsails
And the stars desert the skies
And the rigging strains as the hands of rain
Reach down to wash your eyes
And your oarsmen stands with his knife in hand
And his eyes spell mutiny
Don't call my name when your ship goes down
On the dark and the rolling sea. 
~Al Stewart,
On the dark and rolling sea.

But to effect that, you have to show up and you have to vote.

So do it.

Yes, We Can.

Part Four.