Yesterday I recommended an article by Paul Gottfried, The Emerging One-Party State. Today Emerald Robinson has an article at her Substack (H/T Ray So-Cal) that offers a bit of a contrast:
How The GOP Committed Suicide Trying to Stop Trump
America Has Never Been Closer to Uni-Party Rule
As you can see, each perceives our traditional two party system--traditional, but never actually envisioned by the Founders--as in danger of giving way to One Party Rule under the form of two parties. Robinson focuses on the GOP leaders--McConnell and McCarthy--and understandably so. The picture she paints is dark, and that's also understandable. I accept that. Gottfried sees possibilities for moving past the situation we find ourselves in, and I accept that, too. I see hope, especially, in the House, where the Representatives are in closer contact with the People.
See what you think.
Matt Welch today hits on another topic that we covered yesterday in the same post referenced with regard to Paul Gottfried: Christian Schools Vastly Outperforming Public Schools During COVID-19, According to New Survey of Parents.
I won't repeat the data here, but I do recommend Welch's article, which is written specifically from a New York City perspective:
Families Are Fleeing Government-Run Schools
Brooklyn elementary loses one-third of its student population and eight teachers, as the first 2021–22 enrollment numbers straggle in.
Welch, like me, sees the turn from government schools as a good thing. Well, I see it as a very good thing. In his closing paragraphs Welch addresses some of the implications that go beyond simply getting children out of an indoctrination system:
We made our decision to leave the public elementary school right as de Blasio started speaking in near-absolutist terms about getting buildings open five days a week. As the check-clearing deadline for private school approached, the calculation went mostly like this: Do we actually trust the New York system to devise rules that will keep classrooms reliably open? The answer, even in those pre–delta variant days, was hell no. Yesterday's protocols confirmed that suspicion.
If the New York example plays out nationwide—and keep in mind, the 2020–21 K-12 decline happened absolutely everywhere—then the impact on public education, local and state governance, and politics itself could be profound. About one out of every five state-government dollars is spent on primary and secondary education. Spending formulas tied to enrollment will see major declines; those that aren't will face political pressure from taxpayers rightly wondering why the bill is so high for a service fewer people want. The trend toward tethering education spending to students rather than school buildings will continue shooting upward.
All of which would be another reason to view 2020–21 to be the apex of teachers union power, to be followed by inexorable descent. They got their work-at-home carveouts, their school closures, their preferred party running the federal government, their vaccine fast-tracking, their fingerprints all over the "science," and their hundreds of billions in federal largesse. And as a result of all that influence, they created a product that's literally repellant to millions of parents, even at the cost of free. Their ranks will almost certainly thin.
"[American Federation of Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten] seems blithely unaware that parents' patience is not inexhaustible, and bizarrely determined to alienate her members' most stalwart supporters: parents like those in Park Slope who pride themselves on being good progressives and public school parents," wrote American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Robert Pondiscio this week. "I'm still of the mind that 'new normal' talk is overwrought, but I'm far less confident of that assertion than I was at the outset of the pandemic. The long-standing practice of sending kids to zoned neighborhood schools is still a hard habit to break. What I didn't expect was how many public school supporters—from governors and teachers unions to local administrators and school boards—would be so determined to break it."
Hope for the future.
Lastly, here's a 20 minute podcast that offers hope in the treatment of the Dread Delta, which this doctor states appears less deadly than earlier variants:
Mayo Clinic-Trained Pathologist: Early Treatment Is Key to Fighting Delta Variant
Our son starts kindergarten next week at a private Christian school in the philly suburbs which is adding about a hundred new families this year to their enrollments. There will be 4 kindergarten classes this year compared to two last year. Last year the school was in person all year with only minor COVID issues while the public’s were shut down. Our friends send their kids to another Christian school and they’ve added 80 families this year. Talking with other parents it’s more than COVID it’s the public’s are nothing more than propaganda factories.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed in many places that the A'stan debacle is being described as being simply a case of ineptitude, or incompetence.
ReplyDeleteI think a good argument could be made that the Generals deliberately let it happen this way, for greedy$ reasons. The industry is happy all that equipment is gone. There'll be new contracts to replace it. Lots of new money.
And secondly, they can put down Biden, as their overseers wanted. Everybody's happy.
That seems like a probable scenario to me, but I haven't seen many folks discussing it.
Taibbi has a pretty good synopsis though.
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/to-stop-war-america-needs-a-third-394
Frank
sorry, that should be Old Frank
DeleteI think guys like Taibbi are doing good, but there’s still always something tendentious in what they say. Taibbi: in calls for Biden’s impeachment or resignation Republicans are “aping” Trump’s erstwhile Democratic tormentors. I’m sorry, but if you can’t admit there are LOTS OF GOOD REASONS to demand Biden’s removal and that the Dems brief against Trump was made up of hoaxes, I still don’t trust you.
Delete"if you can’t admit... the Dems brief against Trump was made up of hoaxes...."
DeleteI understand Taibbi to indeed have spent years now, admitting such very things.
My point was that he seems to make GOP calls for resignation to be a mere tit-for-tat, now its our turn, rhetorical move. That the two sides are just playing the same game. That’s superficial BS. I agree that the GOPe is joined at the hip with the Dems in many ways. But the efforts to remove Trump and and efforts to remove Biden are not equivalent.
DeleteTaibbi Has it wrong.
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan was down to a minor cost in casualties and $ for the us military.
The huge cost was in focus.
And our military leadership after the culling by Obama focused on being good drones focusing on the latest political correct theory, and not winning wars. The video by that marine officer about accountability that killed his career is on point. For colonels and below, we have a zero tolerance culture.
There is massive incompetence / disfunction in the military procurement system. Lots of bad decisions that led to this point, from Clinton to Biden.
Quite frankly, if I was a mid-level Colonel or other, ascending through the ranks over time, actually seen combat, and hadn't been to many DC cocktail parties... I would be evaluating my options for immediate exit. Surely you must know you will be on the short list of fall guys for the next debacle.
DeleteTPTB don’t think like us. Winning a war may not be the primary goal.
DeleteDebt expansion, enriching some, impoverishing others, nurturing a lucrative drug trade, shifting the balance of power, using war to curtail civil liberties.
There are many agendas besides winning in one situation in the conventional sense. We have no idea of any of them, until afterwards smart people put 2 and 2 together.
One thing is for sure, it's always about the money. What one person calls incompetence, another might call corruption.
Old Frank
Parents nationwide are rising to the occasion to expose the hideous damage and abuses the bioterrorists in Washington are inflicting upon their children.
ReplyDeleteRecently in San Diego's Fourth District, a large group of parents and concerned citizens exposed the corruption of "Progressive" District Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who, like others of his ilk, refuses to be held accountable for the lies he promulgates to advance the COVID narrative.
Here is the link titled " WE THE PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THE COVID-19 SCAM - SD BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING" that is very encouraging: https://www.bitchute.com/video/d0Uqu5tNRlox/
COVID has become the boulder of Sisyphus. Additionally, we now have the likes of Bergoglio spearheading the "COVID COLLABORATIVE" sponsored by every globalist politician and Big Pharma corporation and academic insitution this side of Mars.
Learn more here:
https://www.covidcollaborative.us/
There's also quite a bit at Brannon Howse's Worldview Weekend Radio website in which Tom Littleton expands upon the Covid Collaborative. His article is titled "Globalists Big Business And Big Pharma Unite: Covid Collaborative."
These people can not be humiliated. They can not be embarrassed. They can not be shamed. Most of all, we can no longer afford to deny that they are Satan's minions.
As the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen warns, Satan flourishes when he is denied.
The GOP did not commit suicide trying to stop Trump. They reasserted their bonafides as part of the Uniparty that controls Washington. Plenty of power, prestige and money to go around for all who participate. I assume the globalists are generous to those who do their bidding. Read the textbook, "1984." Those of us who thought MAGA possible will just have to settle into our future as 'proles.'
ReplyDeleteI agree with A-8:53 above. Root cause question "Is there really a GOP and a Democrat party? Or are they simply a propaganda construct to sell the idea of a two party system to the deplorable masses." Accepting that idea is very challenging. It requires one to admit there is no "United States of America". Just Sewer Central and the organism it feeds off of. As I said yesterday on Gottfried's post, trite but true, there is no voting our way out of this.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view a one party state is a reality that's existed for several decades. What we're seeing today is more about people starting to "notice" it, but still thinking they may have a choice or ability to stop it.
ReplyDeleteThat ship sailed long ago and the denial is what's actually killing us at this point. No society in history has ever walked back from where we are.
One v. two party state is probably a simplistic way of looking at where we are, based on the past. Domestically, the parties still have different factions, so it's not strictly a Uniparty. Yet it's absolutely true that their are commonalities. Do those commonalities out weigh the differences? If you look at it from the perspective of the leadership, that appears to be the case for the long term, but it does still depend on certain issues. Not that that should make conservatives happy.
DeleteOTOH, another way of looking at this is: America as empire v. republic. What we're increasingly experiencing is the empire impinging on the republican forms that remain, making them a sham. So we have the Big Money, Big Business (esp. Tech), and Deep State increasingly pursuing their global imperial interests and seeking to compel the domestic republican remnant to stop resisting. We could look at the Empire as being the driving force behind formation of the One Part State.
Long development here, but with the rise of the digital age that development has accelerated.
Maybe long development, but the acceleration has been very quick. Our founding fathers crafted a Constitution with division of powers. Perhaps more shocking than the Uniparty has been what looks like collaboration so that all branches of government and the media to boot are fostering a Unigovernment with common political aims. The thrust of all this seems to be America Last. They may argue that you risk throwing out the baby with the bathwater if you question the system, but in effect they have killed the baby. I congratulate you, Mark, on being one of the last non-'woke' sites on the internet where comments are accepted, so great is the fear of repercussions.
DeleteSorry--forgot to comment on this:
Delete"No society in history has ever walked back from where we are."
It's an important point that's very much on my mind. There have been some countries that have walked back--or, rather, been forced back--from Empire to Republic, but not without significant upheaval, permanent trauma. While that's not some iron law of history, it does suggest caution in asserting that "this time is different". Is the US so different? There are differences, but prediction is tough.
Yeah, "but not without significant upheaval, permanent trauma.
DeleteIn the era of Diocletian, Rome went, not from Empire to Republic, but from from Principate Empire to Dominate Empire, with, yeah, a lot of trauma, rather dwarfing the trauma of, say, the UK's trip from Empire to const. monarchy.
Are your main examples of "from Empire to Republic" France and Spain?
Generally speaking. England--not "the UK"--is still experiencing the trauma, although it has gotten off relatively lightly. Still, it has transformed into the type of State that Orwell would recognize.
DeletePresident Trump stated there were good people among the Charlottesville protesters. The lib reaction was how could he say such a thing? I would state that the majority of Americans are good people, and that is what will save us. Not our government nor our institutions, but the American way of life. I say this having lived in Europe for a decade after my military service, speaking the languages and mingling with the people. We have a reputation for being open, unsophsticated and naive, but wanton cruelty and cynical acceptance of inhumanity is not in our nature. Even now volunteers are lining up to help in Louisiana. What is likely is as our inept and corrupt government drags us down, as individuals we will find ways to cope. Government of the people, by the people and for the people may have perished from this earth, but the people will find ways to ignore the government as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, good people should not be "ignor[ing] the government as much as possible." They are certainly not leaving us alone. Its like "ignoring" your torturer - except that we are not helpless prisoners yet.
DeleteGood people must CONFRONT this "government." And I fear it will take a very long time before those good people are willing to acknowledged that that's where we are. Far more suffering will be required before we awaken from the stupor of our privileged western decadence, and the slower that pain is applied, the less likely it is they awaken at all.
-Bee
With all due respect, I too fear it will take a very long time before the good people understand and far more suffering will be required before we awaken from the stupor, although it is likely this regime will bring on the pain very quickly. There remains the possibility that, as Mark stated "we have the Big Money, Big Business (esp. Tech), and Deep State increasingly pursuing their global imperial interests and seeking to compel the domestic republican remnant to stop resisting." Should they succeed in 'fortifying' all future elections and as in 2020 there be no mechanism to correct this, we may not have a choice. The coming revolution must be legal and political in nature, not violent. If we cannot swing that, at the very least we must preserve our way of life.
Delete