Chronicles of polarization

  1. Net Neutrality or else!
  2. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
  3. Jump seats in hell
  4. Insane Data Point
  5. Federalists
  6. Donor class triumphs over families again
  7. Why this eats me up

1

Listen Mr. Katko, if you support net neutrality, I will support you. But if you don’t support net neutrality, I will find you and your family and I will kill … you … all. Do you understand? I will literally find all … of … you and your progeny and t- (sic) just wipe you from the face of the Earth. Net neutrality is more important than the defense of the United States. Net neutrality is more important than free speech. Net neutrality is more important than health care. Net neutrality is literally the basis of the new society. That even if you don’t understand, how important it is, net neutrality is literally the basis of the new … free … society. So if you don’t support it, I am willing to lay down my li-‘ (recording ends).

(Patrick D. Angelo, 28, of Syracuse, NY, to Congressman John Katko, as quoted by the U.S. Attorney who arranged for Angelo’s arrest)

2

Calling Sanders a “liar” is missing the point. What would you prefer her to do? Take the podium one day and say, “Look, the truth is that my boss has a weird relationship with the truth, no real priorities other than expressing contempt for all of you, and no matter what, I’m gonna say that he’s doing a good job, okay? So let’s just move on.”

(Matthew Walther, defending the unflappable Sarah Huckabee Sanders)

3

But while we’re finding jump seats in hell, alongside the facts, my vote goes for assigning one to evangelical folk hero and Focus on the Family founder, Dr. James Dobson, who recently cut a radio ad supporting Moore, saying:

Hello everyone, I’m Dr. James Dobson. You know, last November I believe God gave America another chance with the election of Donald J. Trump. But he now needs the presence and leadership of Judge Roy Moore to make America great again. And that’s why I’m asking my friends in Alabama to elect Judge Roy Moore to the United States Senate. Judge Moore is a man of proven character and integrity, and he has served Alabama and this country very, very well. I’ve known him for over 15 years, but recently I’ve been dismayed and troubled about the way he and his wife Kayla have been personally attacked by the Washington establishment. Judge Moore has stood for our religious liberty and for the sanctity of marriage, when it seemed like the entire world was against him. I hope you’ll vote for Judge Roy Moore for United States Senate.

One, of course, expects creepy politicians to do what politicians do best: to deny and dissemble and generally lie themselves blind in order to protect the only thing most of them truly value, which is political survival. Getting mad over a sleazy politician acting like a sleazy politician is like getting mad at an anteater for eating ants. It’s not merely their tendency, but their biological imperative. But when purported men of God do the same—as everyone from Franklin Graham to a slate of Alabama pastors have done on Moore’s behalf, all evidence notwithstanding—one doesn’t have to physically hear the voice of God to imagine Him saying, “Hey guys, sully yourselves all you want, but do me a solid and leave my good name out of it.”

(Matt Labash) “Attacked by the Washington establishment”!? I though his accusers were ordinary Alabama women.

4

Here’s a stunning and frightening finding: Only 9 percent of Trump voters in Alabama even believe the charges against Moore, according to a recent poll. This despite the fact that the charges have been extensively documented, and that Moore, despite claims he would do so, has done absolutely nothing to refute them. And James O’Keefe’s recent failed attempt to entrap the Washington Post only served to further validate the charges against Moore: In a hilarious own-goal for O’Keefe and his ilk, the failed sting demonstrated that the Post is in fact vetting the claims against Moore with the utmost rigor.

(Ethan Epstein)

5

I’d always kind of wondered about the relationship between the admirable Federalist Society and the uneven federalist.com, but not until the latter published this did I bother checking it out.

Summary of “this” in the preceding paragraph:

The connection between the two is “none.” I also discovered that there are too many admirable people on the contributor list of federalist.com for me to write it off just yet.

This raises a question: In the internet age, does a Tsunami of clicks to an article from external sources signal success if the external sources are ridiculing a preposterous argument you’ve published and people are clicking through in incredulity, only to find the stories accurate? For instance:

 

6

Some thoughtful people are calling “bullshit!” on the GOP as the pro-family, pro-child party:

7

Here’s what sometimes eats me up about all this political stuff.

Since 2005, partway through Dubya’s Second Inaugural address (when he solemnly declared national policy that was delusional and clearly portended endless war: “it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world“), I’ve been an independent who tended to vote Republican. But the GOP has consistently begun serving up smirking, lying mediocrities (my Congressman), pervs (Roy Moore), narcissistic sociopaths (our President) and others for whom I simply cannot vote even on a “lesser of two evils” theory.

I can rarely vote Democrat, though, because of it’s ideological rigidity on abortion—so rigid I cannot trust a Democrat who is less than completely and unequivocally pro-life—and its hostility toward orthodox Christians (I expected worse from Hillary in that arena than anything Obama did).

I don’t want to believe America’s doomed, but I’m not seeing a lot of hopeful signs in politics. It feels rather like Babel.

* * * * *

“Liberal education is concerned with the souls of men, and therefore has little or no use for machines … [it] consists in learning to listen to still and small voices and therefore in becoming deaf to loudspeakers.” (Leo Strauss)

There is no epistemological Switzerland. (Via Mars Hill Audio Journal Volume 134)

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.