[FRIAM] Republicans need to renew themselves (was: self-care)

[David Eric Smith]

There is a thing my father used to do, which bothered me even as a very young boy, but for which I didn’t have an analysis until I was a lot older and doing such things.

For any difficult decision, he liked to make bitter scornful faces and say “They’re all bad!”, a kind of game that a psychologist who visited our elementary school once told us has a name, and is called “Isn’t it awful.”  I could have gone up and hugged her for letting me know I wasn’t along in being stuck in a homelife where that was played and hating it.

My analysis years later was that, since my father wasn’t a very smart man (though he was a very good, giving, and loyal man), and the problems that frustrated him are hard (hence we still live under them all), it was easier to spit on it all, turn his back, and slam the door, than sit with the mess and continue to try to make distinctions. But whether he liked it or not, a bacterium in its tiny world can’t chemotax unless some direction is different from some other. 

So, against the backdrop of a note with which I agree with quite a lot: 

> To a person they are cynical amoralists who care nothing about acquiring power and winning the next election.

How about specific people, like Katie Porter or Stacey Abrams?  Sheldon Whitehouse?  In the system where they work, they seem like people trying to solve concrete problems in good faith.

And yes, I do acknowledge your statement that you know you are being over-the-top, and that is plenty disclaimer for me to live and let live.

Still, coming out of the discussion, I think being able to make distinctions is valuable.  

Eric


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20220703/13aeecd1/attachment.html>