The train crash is near … brace yourselves

By Mike Weland

We human beans what are U.S. citizens are funny critters. We know a train wreck is imminent yet we try to convince ourselves the train’s moving fast just to get back on schedule, that everything’s just hunky dory and all will be well when the train reaches the station. We haven’t quite put our heads around the idea that those driving the train aren’t looking for the station and aren’t going fast to make up time.

They’re building momentum to make their intentional crash more spectacular.

It is time we who appreciate our constitution and the freedoms it affords at last understand what the MAGA freedom factions have been telling us for years, though obfuscating their message with lies exacerbated by gaslighting, a psychological bludgeon described in 1925 and ascribed to Jews as the art of lying big and then lying about lying so as to convince people to question their own lying eyes rather than the liar.

The book was “Mein Kampf” and gaslighting served its author, Adolph Hitler, extremely well, helping to ensure loyalty and discourage dissent as he and his faithful “elevated” the Nazis from being a political party to being the political power of a nation. Hitler’s apt pupil and fellow Time “Man of the Year” Donald Trump and MAGA have also made good use of the dark art, duping millions into believing they’ve been victimized and abused by a “Deep State” only Trump can save us from. What they omit is that they are the Deep  State.

The Idaho Freedom Caucus, a collection of radical right MAGA Republicans elected to the Idaho legislature, grown by four members this term and with new leadership roles in both the Idaho House and Senate, say they are energized and ready to hit the ground running in early January.

“They are focused on promoting their vision with pertinent legislation for Idaho in the upcoming session,” a recent press release read. “The Caucus is determined to champion policies that promote economic self-reliance, reduce regulations and repeal unnecessary laws while upholding Idaho’s traditional values rooted in the constitutional.”

It sounds reasonable, until you realize that while they swear to uphold and defend the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions, their loyalty belongs to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a non-elected group who rate “quality” conservative Idaho legislators based on their voting record. The more they vote as the IFF tells them to, the higher their score.

And there are similar Freedom Fun Clubs in every state and territory, all tied into the Heritage Foundation, a secretive political clique that under cover of darkness developed a plan, “Project 2025,” to turn our constitutional republic from a government of, for and by the people into an authoritarian regime of, for and by the few — the supremacists, the evangelical white Christian nationalists, the conspiracy theorists and others who long inhabited the “conservative” right wing of the lunatic fringe until freed and empowered by MAGA.

We are a diverse nation, and in our constitutional republic, it is good and proper for those of various factions to gather together to craft vision statements and make plans for introducing them to the state and federal legislatures for consideration so as to benefit the citizens it was established to serve.

All of them … as defined in the 14th amendment of the constitution. If they want to change the constitution, there’s a process for that

Political parties are not established by the Constitution. They are instead a convenience, a way for citizens of various interests to know the candidates seeking to represent them. Political parties do not select members. Voting citizens choose their party. Membership in a political party does not imply or infer fealty or obligation to the party. In general elections, all voters are free to vote for their candidate of choice.

So let’s take a quick look at the vision of the IFC, a group that prefers closed primaries and loyalty tests.

“No single person, group, or party has all the answers to sustain a healthy, thriving state or country,” they open. That recognition is the beauty and strength of the U.S. Constitution. But beware the next line. “However, members of Idaho Freedom Caucus believe that a clear vision, grounded in truth and guided by example, is essential for human flourishing.”

Classic bait and switch. The two ideas seem plausible, but they are mutually exclusive. Their meaning is made clear if you simplify the latter statement to its essentials; “our clear vision is essential for human flourishing.” The next line proves it.

“Idaho Freedom Caucus is proud to present a vision for Idaho that prioritizes and upholds values rooted in human dignity, Christian principles, family priorities, individual God given rights, and American ideals.”

The Freedom finders have every right to advocate their vision loud and long, but they have no right, none, to assert that theirs is the only one.

It’s not the first time America’s citizens had to listen to such foolishness.

The Southern Democrats tried in the years leading up to 1860 to convince the Yankees that slavery was essential to the U.S. economy and righteous and benevolent in that it allowed we of clear and indisputable racial superiority to better the lives of our swarthy brethren.

So firm were they in the convenience of their conviction that when a damned dark hearted Republican who favored holding slavery in the states where it existed was elected president, 11 of our 33 states opted to leave the union rather than consider that perhaps the reason others outside their clique couldn’t be persuaded to agree with them was because they were so clearly wrong that their righteous insistence appeared completely ludicrous if not borderline insane.

In 1860, our nation blew apart because a small faction of wealthy white Christian planters mistakenly assumed that a difference in complexion and hair texture conferred superior status upon the one — they and the wealthy white Christian gentry, of course — making the brutal subjugation of the other not only a right, but a sacred responsibility imposed upon them by a loving and righteous God that the heathens might one day enter unto the tent of the Lord and learn that serving their superior, me, is ordained by our one true God, mine, and that the old, heathen God you once danced and sang “boogabooga” to whilst shaking chicken feathers was a bald-faced liar who didn’t truly love you, but would send you off to perdition. Boogabooga.

The IFC vision follows with a lesson in modern history; “Historically, Republicans often found themselves on the defensive, primarily focused on safeguarding individualism by resisting the progressive agenda of the far left. In contrast, Democrats typically take the offensive, masking their anti-human, anti-Christian, and anti-American vision with terms like ‘human rights,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ and ‘inclusion.’

“Rooted in Christian principles, we promote the inherent dignity of all individuals while rejecting secular humanism, collectivism, and divisive ideologies.”

The wealthy white privileged lovers of liberty and arbiters of all things good today are saying the very same thing as the planters who predate them … we promote the dignity of all individuals, provided they give up their perversions; a non-religious philosophy that emphasizes reason, logic and ethics over religious dogma and supernaturalism (secular humanism), the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it (collectivism) and ideas that cause significant disagreement and sometimes hostility within a group of people (divisive ideologies).

That is not freedom in any sense of the word.

“The result?” the vision continues. “The progressive left is winning the culture war by dominating the arts, music, and entertainment industries. They’ve infused our government infrastructure with political correctness and wokeness. And sadly, they’ve captured our children through confusion and indoctrination in centers we call public schools and colleges.

“We’re convinced these wins are due to conservatives not recognizing the seriousness of the threat and lacking both a clear vision and a plan to achieve it. In contrast, the left has a well-defined vision of their future goals and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to achieve them.”

Hold on there, Dorothy … I don’t think you and Toto are in Idaho no mo’ … (skims Gaslighting 101) … ooh, “project their own negative actions, faults, or shortcomings onto the victim” … brilliant!

As did the antebellum rich white Christians, the MAGA of today gasp in shock when others at their legislative tables don’t just agree that their lies and theirs alone represent the Truth and the Light and the Way, they are sick up an fed to here with being so disrespected and they’re tired of arguing.

Sarah Palin could not save them and it came to pass that one of different complexion and hair texture ascended to the highest office in the land and proved capable.

And lo, there came great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from amongst the racist ones, who fell to their knees and beseeched unto their one true God, “oh Lord, are we being replaced?’

And a voice came from on high, “Where’s his birth certificate?”

And as eight years of competent service neared an end, their savior rode down from above on a golden escalator and shewed unto them the truth that lies, obfuscation, deceit and gaslighting were the easiest and best ways short of competence, which they did not have, by which to break free of their oppressors, those evil Democrats masking their anti-human, anti-Christian, and anti-American vision with terms like “human rights,” “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” and winning the culture war by dominating the arts, music, and entertainment industries and infused our government infrastructure with political correctness and wokeness, and they made him president and he had not what it took but gladly took what it had.

MAGA proved itself incapable of effective governance, but above average at bluster, intimidation and more gaslighting. Instead of refuting ideas that differ they attack those who express them. Now, they seldom legislate. They assert that being on the defensive against the idea of others is oppression and they are the oppressed.

The modern Republican Party is where it’s at now not by virtue of strength, but of weakness. Their ideas simply don’t hold up when exposed to light.

Legislatures are where ideas and ideals are turned into laws. The word “legislator” is from Latin; legis, meaning law, and latus, to propose, to carry. To argue, to discuss, to convince, to negotiate. To compromise so that all factors are considered.

Instead of legislating, they lie, bluster and gaslight, attack imaginary enemies and rage over deliberately exacerbated issues they have no intention of addressing.

And somehow, truth became overshadowed by lies and opinion took precedence over facts. Two impeachments, insurrection, multiple felony convictions and MAGA patiently pooh-poohs the obvious threat and clears the track each time, letting the Trump train clatter on through, gaining momentum each time.

And on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, just over half the nation’s voters ignore their lying eyes, convinced by a con man that Biden’s far superior tenure was a criminal failure while his criminal failure had been a success, and so return Trump to the White House, expecting this time he’ll clean house and Make America Great Again.

Yes, the people have spoken, knocking down the last derailer that might have taken the runaway train that is our government onto a safe siding for repair. And now we speculate on whether the incoming administration will bring down the price of milk and eggs, own the libs, vanquish imaginary monsters lurking ‘neath our beds and put out fires he himself either lit or poured gas on.

We human beans sure are funny critters. We should be bracing for impact.