Democracy is alive and well in America. That is not the problem.

 Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R, GA) is asking why nobody is talking about a peace treaty to end the fighting in Ukraine and, her colleagues in the Republican Party, are jumping all over her with various allegations that she and other conservatives, that agree with her, have fallen prey to Russian propaganda.  I am not a fan of Ms Greene because of her apparent effort to unseat the Speaker of the House, but, in this case, I agree with her.  I vehemently disagree that those that want to end the fighting by engaging in negotiations have fallen for Russian propaganda.  I have argued for negotiations since before this iteration of what I consider to be a family fight between Kiev and Moscow, and I continue to believe that it is the least bad way for this repeat of an older disagreement to be brought to a close.  I believe that the territory that we call Ukraine is populated by two groups of people who see their ethnic/religious/political relationship with Moscow differently.  At root, the disagreement is not unlike the one between London and Washington that resulted in the formation of the United States several centuries ago.  Our effort to try to force it into the mold of our disagreement with the Soviets is a fundamental mistake that actually enables Idiots like Putin.

Having said that, we are, inevitably, wrapping the issue into our own political life, with the prospect of Trump championing negotiations, and Biden insisting on continuing to blithely dabble with needless death and massive destruction, interminably.  Partisan domestic news commentators in this country “reporting” their perceptions as to the two men’s objectives inevitably generates grist for the argument between our two parties.  The resultant discord further strengthens the societal divisions that we see in other areas resulting in an intensification of the deterioration in our social cohesiveness.  A similar miasma surrounds the conflict in Gaza and the potential conflict in Taiwan.  There is no question in my mind that both of the politicians at the top of the two tribes are at fault in all of this, but the more fundamental fault lies with you and me for selecting these two polar opposites to represent us.  This stupidity on our part represents a fundamental weakness that dramatically flip flops policy and threatens our existence.  As to the threat posed by Radical Islam, we refuse to even talk about it, let alone actually think about it.  Radical Islam we deal with by periodically assassinating somebody with a missile fired from over the horizon.  Population is also off the table for discussion.  Instead, we dumb down our national conversation to “issues” that our puny minds can handle:  pronouns, the price of gas, the age of the fetus, the number of chips in the bag, and our precious feelings.

Biden and Trump are not the problem.  They are merely the symptoms.  You and I are the problem.  We are not living up to our responsibilities in a democracy.  We actually believe that all we have to do is vote for the nicest politician we can find.  Everything else will take care of itself if we just appropriate enough money.  We fail to understand that democracy generates “leadership” that reflects the popular will.  I argue that ours is doing an excellent job of representing a populace that is mindlessly at each other’s throats.