A recent story by Scott really touched a lot of people. It had two main responses, the gratitude for writing such a powerful piece. The other an almost equally powerful sense of being trapped in a mess, with no way out.
It is a sense I share. we are in a mess, and there seems to be no way out. One thing in particular has frustrated me. I haven’t even been able to articulate this frustration, even to myself, until a couple of days ago. I even wrote a story about it, which promptly disappeared. I don’t know how to make stories stick on this site. Maybe some day. So maybe three people saw it before it vanished.
This will be a new version of that. Since no one ever saw that first one, anyway, this will not be in any way a reread for you. Never fear!!
I realized that there were some continuums involved: moral, political, intellectual, physical, and so forth. On all of those continuum, Trump was on one extreme, Biden on the other. Trump is an old man, running for the presidency of the United States, completely incompetent and evil. Biden is an old man, running for the presidency of the United States, quite clearly competent.
But on the same continuum.
I no longer think that that framing of the situation at all accurately portrays the situation we are in. And until we reorient, we will continue to be frustrated. These two, and the parties they represent are not on any common continuum. It is a bit like comparing some wild ducks with, oh, say, truth, justice, and the American way?
Not sure anyone would do that. They’d probably get frustrated pretty quickly if they tried.
So what should we do instead? That’s where I got stuck last time, too, by the way. My example was “water striders” and “Cartesian dualism.” I like that one a lot. I didn’t think anyone would ever do that, that is, to try to put those on the same continuum. Whatever you use, make sure there is no way to put your two categories on the same continuum, is all. That’s key.
OK. Now what?
Begin there. We cannot compare these two. They are not comparable. They are profoundly and fundamentally different from each other. Someone asked recently “Did Jared Kushner really say this? ‘Gaza is great waterfront property?’” I don’t know. But I don’t think we should simply react in horror. If he did, it was horrifying, but we have to react what he said. Our response should also be “Of course he did. He has no moral compass. He only sees the material good to him and none of the compassion that a normal person would have. He is a monster. We know that. So that is what we should say. Sure, say the horrifying part, because it is horrifying. But say the “this is not normal” part, too, over and over again. Say it. Reject it. Repudiate it.
Trump is not normal. He’s not simply an evil person way over on the far side of a continuum. He is so not normal as to not even be on the continuum.
I know we’ve been sort of doing this all along, now that I see what I’ve written. But not systematically, and not forcefully (enough), and not forcefully or systematically enough to comfort the folks who say they cannot see a way out. This might be the way. And, in particular, perhaps to also emphasize how the two situations are in no way comparable. None of what anyone says about the current Republicans and the current Democrats belongs on the same continuum. None of it.