Do we have anything left that remotely resembles workable, civil political discourse?
I’ve been listening to the audiobook of one of my favorite books. William Manchester’s “The Glory and the Dream” is a social history of the United States from 1932-72, and even though it covers a tumultuous time in our history, it was still a time when people on both sides had a basic respect for each other’s love of country.
Not anymore.
As much as we might want to blame it all on Donald Trump, he couldn’t have existed as a political force. Without Jerry Falwell and the political evangelists in the early ’80s, without Newt Gingrich and his vicious attack politics in the ’90s, without Rush Limbaugh and talk radio, the Republican party could never have gone that far to the lunatic right.
We’re seeing a good example of this with the refluffle over the Chinese spy balloon.
It’s difficult to imagine why a balloon flying at 66,000 feet could be such a threat to our national security, especially with the large number of satellites circling the earth. And it’s impossible to imagine the military not shooting it down right away if it really did posit a threat,
Of course the Trumpanzees are taking the opportunity to attack President Biden.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whose life goal seems either to be Trump’s second vice president or his fourth wife, Tweeted an attack on Biden.
Of course she’s wrong. There were three different times during Trump’s term in office when Chinese spy balloons invaded American airspace and none were shot down.
Trump denies it. Writing of his Truth Social site:
“The Chinese Balloon situation is a disgrace, just like the Afghanistan horror show, and everything else surrounding the grossly incompetent Biden Administration, They are only good at cheating in elections, and disinformation — and now they are putting out that a Balloon was put up by China during the Trump Administration, in order to take the “heat” off the slow moving Biden fools. China had too much respect for “TRUMP” for this to have happened, and it NEVER did. JUST FAKE DISINFORMATION!”
Of course he doesn’t talk about the balloons we send over China.
Here’s a picture of one of them.
