“Is the Democratic brand toxic?

 Politico has an article out today that asks:  “Is the Democratic brand toxic? A growing number of Dems wonder if going ‘independent’ will help them win.”  I don’t think that the Democratic Brand is toxic as much as it is currently out of touch with a majority of the American people.  In popular parlance, it has moved too far left and championed policies and politicians that did not prove successful.  Individual politicians will have to decide whether to become independents or do battle within the party to move it back toward the center.  

My concern is not with the Democrat Party, but rather with society.  I am conservative as regards economic subjects and that attracts me to the conservative side of the argument, but it does not mean that I do not see value in having a strong liberal voice in our societal discussions.  Quite the contrary, I believe that without a strong, rational, liberal voice in our national discussion, we will inevitably move too far right in our policy decisions.  I oppose the current WOK stupidity, but not the underlying concern for all that once characterized the Democrat Party and I heartily dislike the oversimplifications inherent in the MAGA alternative to WOK, but not the underlying concern for national interest.

I voted for Trump this time around, but it was not because I thought that he was an ideal leader.  It was because, even with his various significant flaws, he was far better than the alternative - either one of them - Biden or Harris.  I voted for both Ronald Regan and John F. Kennedy and I would do so again today were they to be available for the job of leading this country.  In my view, the liberal side of the argument inside America has lost touch with reality and the conservative side has grown too selfish for its own good.  My biggest criticism, however, is not of our political parties or any of the various political luminaries of the moment.  My fundamental criticism is of the American people.  We have, as a society, become fat, greedy, dumb and lazy.  That is what is destroying us - not the election of this or that very partisan politician.

We are a society sitting on a subway train watching a man light a woman on fire and our first thought is to catch a video of it that we can post on social media.  Were we to have gumption enough to intervene, we would suffer the same legal trials that Penny has gone through.  In a world with thousands of nuclear weapons atop satellite guided ballistic missiles controlled by mentally unstable politicians with their finger on a button, you and I choose to argue about the sign on the bathroom door.  The world around us is overpopulated and our response is to focus on stopping the overflow at our imaginary border, while totally ignoring the root cause of the invasion.

Why are we not stupid beyond belief?  All of us.  Conservative and Liberal alike.  Previous generations gave us the greatest country that the world has ever seen and we are bent on destroying it by picking at scabs on history rather than facing up to the very real, mind numbing challenges that face us today.  There are too many people on earth for the current division of resources.  Until we start thinking about that fact of life, we are a push button away from a ballistic missile exchange involving thousands of very accurately targeted nuclear explosions.  Democrat and Republican alike will be less interested in the sign on the bathroom door than with finding enough calories to remain alive.