I like pendula myself. But I digress already.
Many people using this site are genuinely frightened of the GOP, their agenda, of Trump. A considerable amount of that is justified. A bit of fear is even healthy. It proves you’ve been paying attention. But it stops being healthy when fear exceeds “a bit”. A little fear keeps one attentive and motivated. A little more makes one despondent and ineffective.
It is time to move past fear. It is time to stop granting the GOP this notion they are invulnerable to defeat. It is long past time to stop claiming Trump can do anything imaginable under the sun, from declare himself dictator, to firing his VP, or even to assume the GOP can pass so much as a tax cut.
Trump’s time in office has been a string of failures and for once the GOP has no ready scapegoat. They are at a loss. They are good at preventing at tearing down but they have no clue as how to build. They are being exposed for the hollow suits they are.
Now it’s easy to see why so many people here are demoralized. Pendulum USA has been on a rightward swing for 35-40 years. Reaganomics has devastated the middle class. All during this time the Democratic Party has pretty much gone along on the Reaganomics tax model.
That is along time to see one’s standard of living erode without any meaningful political resistance. So of course some people assume the GOP cannot lose. It is all they’ve ever known. But it is not true. Life is not a continued straight line. Life is full of cycles and circles. Every pendulum slows, pauses for that infinitesimal moment, then starts it’s long swing to the other side.
I suggest to you Dear Reader that we can isolate that exact moment. I suggest to you Pendulum USA was motionless at that instant Sen McCain’s thumb went down. The only thing the GOP has stood for — repeal of the ACA — was killed by a Republican’s vote. That is was McCain does not matter to me. What matters is, it was enough.
This is not to laud John McCain personally. This is to look at events in a historical context. John McCain’s vote would not have been enough without other Republicans also uneasy abut the agenda. The GOP is a minority party that compensates by being centralized and monolithic. The monolith is now cracked. The pendulum has reversed.
So please, push back against wild claims of martial law and GOP invulnerability. Dial down that fear a notch or nine. This is not the time to grant the GOP strength it does not actually have. It is time to get ambitious. It is time to stop nibbling at the edges of Reaganomics. It is time to start pushing real progress.
It is time to Hulk Out. They like us when we are afraid. They’ll not like us when we’re mad. They’ll not much like the next 30-50 years. Pendulum USA says so. Segue “resist” into “attack”.
It’s our time now.