Feeling political

When I was growing up the Republicans were shady, but they seemed to have some integrity. Nixon, Reagan, Bushs. 

Trump proved that people with a conservative orientation in their psychology and personality don't actually care about ethics, and the country over their ideology and culture war crap. Party over country. They align with Russia sometimes.

The NY Post hates an autocratic young female actress, but not for a leader of the country. So they don't like misbehavior, they just don't like it when it goes against their prejudices. 

Woke turns out to be a one size fit all space to put your shameful ideas: racism, fascism, sexism, selfishness. Woke is the forces that fight injustice, destroying the planet, thinking about others.

The people I actually like who vote republican aren't racist, sexist, undemocratic, but they feel the right to vote against others and their future. Selfish. Maybe humans are psychologically selfish, and the factors that make them less selfish are waning, but it just makes sense for the government, which is thinking about everyone, not to be selfish. 

I'm not against democratic forces trying to keep taxes in check, even lowering them. When I play SimCity, I eventually lower taxes and the economy takes off. When I've built a basic level of infrastructure. And I never go into debt, that kills the government. Republicans preach fiscal responsibility but don't believe in it. They pretend to love life, but their stance on gun control is directly the opposite.

Does the other side see the importance of democracy and the interplay of ideas? Their communication style and choices says no. OK, ignore the culture wars crap. There are rational thought processes underneath many conservatives, and it's true that there are limits to government. How do we discuss this, and recover democratic dialogue?

In The Purge episode of Rick and Morty (S2E9) society has an outlet. Once a year at sundown you can kill anyone you want. There are many movies and versions of this idea. I would say Hunger Games is also a version of this. Sports are a version of this too, simulated war that doesn't harm anyone. Except American football, that permanently maims people. That's more like cock fighting and bull fighting where animals die. Supposedly Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador still have bullfighting (source). Jung would say we pay a price when we disown a part of ourselves that is fighting to get out.

Is culture wars a kind of purge urge, where fighting about personality and ways of seeing the world battle against each other in the town square of social media? I don't really experience it as good bloodsport, and I think it's why a lot of people turn politically apathetic. Turning away allows for the George Santos, MTG and other obviously corrupt politicians to exist, but they serve a function for republicans because they don't believe in government and will vote for people to wreck it up, out of spite.

There is no two meeting of the political poles of activism and passificsm. The dialectical dance, and just doing the obvious right thing, seeing all the factors. If you're really looking closely, you don't need an abstract ideology to guide you. Decriminalizing addiction works huge, but isn't as gratifying to the judgmental and anti-woke types. It's almost like Republicans don't want government to work, they want people murdered with guns, toxic ecological disasters, banking system collapse. It feels like the fight between good and evil for me. It's not wonder Lindy Li has started calling the opposing side satan.  

It's like loving the country over party, which seems to be in short supply these days. You can read about how Connally actively sabotaged the hostages coming back from Iran to sabotage Carter's re-election. Feels unAmerican to me, but seems almost standard these days. Play with people's lives, the ends justify the means bullshit. Barnes has an Atwater type confession. Atwater regretted his ethics on his deathbed. Too late, sorry, learn to have ethics before you die, please.