Every single election we go out to the polls. We do it with grievances. We do it with a sense of hope. We do it because we expect the people we elect to office can be responsible enough to make decisions that impact our lives and the lives of our neighbors. That is NOT an unreasonable expectation to have given the levity of the positions we put these people in. I have been noticing however, an ever growing and disturbing trend among our leaders.
This trend, is really nothing new to the game of politics. I have stated previously that watching election ads is rather akin to watching a pro wrestling promo. The patriotic music in the back ground, the testimonies of other well known politicians vouching for the candidate, the “What I can do for you that the other person can’t”…or in a lot of cases, the smear that dares to ask, if the opponent is really someone you want representing you. It’s SPECTACLE, and it doesn’t, nor has it ever been confined strictly to elections. Part of the problem many voters note is how politicians will talk a big game, but then fail to deliver on the goods.
There are many reasons for this. In a lot of such cases if the action would center around a hot topic of debate that has voters divided, there then becomes a risk to the all important seat of power for a political party. Any solution could put that seat in jeopardy for the number of voters who would be against it, and so they TALK a BIG GAME and put the minds of one section of voters at ease on the idea that their representatives actually are thinking about the issue that concerns them, while keeping the other section at bay by not actually DOING ANYTHING about it. As of late that natural element of SPECTACLE in politics has started reaching, in many cases, new LOWS.
Now that I have set the stage of the topic at hand I want to take you back a few months to, a post I put up here in April. In full transparency of my previous take on the topic, here is the link to that post for you to view.
HB481 Georgia vs Hollywood:The Heartbeat Bill
In the course of that post, I stated that, in the past, I had tended to side with the Pro-Choice side of the argument and I stated why. I will not repeat that part here. What had earned my approval of this bill, were couple points.
First, it addressed many points from both sides of the abortion debate, which I found impressive because, unlike standard political fare, it was willing to tackle one of those HOT DEBATE TOPICS with actual policy. With the current mentality of zero tolerance, or compromise, I found HB481 to be something people could look to, if shown in practice, that could walk back that destructive mind set.
Second, While there was an intent based in moral, the bill itself followed far more of a scientific stance. We saw the bill utilize reasoning based in medical science. We saw the bill offer an additional incentive in the form allowing the expected mother to claim an unborn child for tax purposes, which has the potential to really help financially at a time when it would come in handy, something that could not be done without law recognizing an unborn as an individual.
Like most things in politics, it was prone to the SPECTACLE. Already gaining the ire of Hollywood celebrities, within days of being officially signed into law, many other such bills began springing up in different states across the nation. These bills, in virtually every case, failed to consider the argument from both sides of the debate. The end result was what appeared to be a massive push to eradicate abortion and encourage the overturn of the Roe v Wade decision of the Supreme Court. This decision, I might add, would have the potential to prevent abortion even in cases where the mother’s life is in danger and without gurantee of the child’s survival. In other words, every extreme that has always made me side with the Pro-Choice end of the debate.
Even in that flurry of bills that surfaced, I stood in defense of Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill, often arguing the points where it was greatly different from the others that it was being lumped in with. What I started noticing, was that my own sentiments were not being mirrored, as far as I could find, from the state of Georgia itself. While it is perfectly understandable for a state to not come across as telling other states how to run, doing so would not be a requisite for explaining how your state’s bill is different from those it is being mistaken as being similar to. This, one would think, would also be a wise move, if your intent had in fact been to find the working balance in a hot debate topic in the form of policy. Again I state, if there was such an occurrence, I wasn’t finding it and the SPECTACLE, became that of a great push to eradicate abortion.
HB481 is now law, along with other new abortion bills that have no interest in hiding their intent. My faith in Georgia was shaken, but it actually was not until this very morning, the morning of 7/21/19 that would encounter, what was for me, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Remarkably, though not surprisingly, it was another instance of SPECTACLE in politics, that had nothing to do with abortion, though it did involve a representative of Georgia’s State government.
Enter the seemingly endless fight, between Democrats and Republicans at the Federal level. For weeks we have Democrats squabbling among themselves, before a series of Tweets from the president created yet ANOTHER SPECTACLE. A SPECTACLE, that has seen the people who despise him, once more call out the dreaded war cry of racist. A SPECTACLE that has his supporters giving him praise for the “CLEVERNESS” of drawing attention away from the Raise The Wage deal introduced by House Democrats to raise minimum wage in America, while keeping the focus on the progressive lot in congress, who are keen on creating their own SPECTACLE around their own social media campaigns while that campaign and any investigations they do, ultimately FAILS to bring anything to the House floor in the form of policy, even as the president recently signed into being a change in Asylum policy that would prevent people from passing through other countries that offer asylum to come seeking it in America. Sounds convoluted, I know. What it does not change is the fact that even if you wanted to claim that it was racially motivated, a deterrent for seeking Asylum from those passing through multiple countries, would in theory decrease the number of people to be detained by stripping them of their reason for trying and thus alleviate the inhumane conditions caused by overcrowding.
There it is folks, agree with the change in Asylum policy or not and what it does not CHANGE, is that, as POLICY, it is a more solid move towards decreasing the inhumane conditions of detainees at our border than MONTHS of investigation and propaganda pushing on social media. I might also add that in spite of months of investigation and social media ranting, we saw it take only 2 days for this progressive lot to present a resolution on the floor of the House urging congress into action over the president’s string of tweets. Clever I will admit. There is however another stark and grim reality around it and we saw that in the form of a “Send her back” chant from the crowd at one of the president’s rallies a couple days back. A chant that had THE PEOPLE at each other’s throats. A chant that even many of the president’s own party refused to support, which in turn saw the president denounce it….Even as he stood smiling throughout it’s duration. It’s the X-Factor in political power plays through SPECTACLE and the manipulation of what we see and know and react to as a people. It is the EFFECT that SPECTACLE has on the people themselves.
Following that rather chilling display at the president’s rally, a Georgia State representative, Erica Thomas hits social media with a claim that a white man told her to go back where she came from. A grim look at how SPECTACLE inspires the actions of The PEOPLE. That was yesterday, amid a slew of Tweets trending the hash tag #IStandWithErica on Twitter……..This morning a different story is being told. The man, who, considering he and Erica were standing side by side arguing on camera as the story unfolded, was apparently the ACTUAL MAN from the altercation. A Cuban- American, Democrat and claimed staunch Anit-Trump person. The altercation, as it turns out was a simple dispute over the use of the express checkout line at a store and apparently no racially charged comments were used….. SPECTACLE….Feeding off of SPECTACLE.
So, a blatant lie. A Hate Hoax in a year that has now seen TWO such incidents, this time by a member of the Georgia State government. I have to tell you in all honesty; when I see a member of any government, just basically promote a sense of civil unrest among the people for the sake of it, through SPECTACLE, I lose trust in that governing body and it’s decisions.
In a country where there ARE people screaming “Send Her Back” and people having melt downs at the sight of HATS…. An article of clothing. A country that I fully expect to see more fist fights at polls during the 2020 Election than at any point in our history on account of the emotional instability all this SPECTACLE is causing, It all begs the question. What is this, ANY OF THIS, doing FOR the American people? What does making factually erred Tweets for attention and presidential candidates urging big tech to silence political rivals REALLY DOING FOR US? I will close on this note. If WE don’t start doing more to COUNTER all of this SPECTACLE in politics, it will DROWN OUT EVERYTHING, we were always taught to be proud of and everything we have always been taught people made grave sacrifices for in the CACOPHONY of the NOISE and the QUAGMIRE of the FALL OUT. It will drown these things out, as assuredly as it has whatever the ORIGINAL INTENT may be behind any of these TACTICS.
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