Originally Posted by
Theodarzna
Nothing in this I'd disagree with.
"Returning to Normalcy" is embedded within it basically a total rejection of the idea that anything at all is bad in the United States; which would require IMHO literal blindness or severe low information brain to believe. MAGA, for all its faults had within it a logic you describe, that of actually doing something about the real material blight of the United States. American's admitting this country isn't currently the greatest single place ever, that actually this is a blighted place right now and we need to become better, we need to build something is profound in that way. Americans, especially boomer Americans, were publicly saying America wasn't awesome. Specifically Fox News watching Boomer Americans were saying this and embedding the logic in their brains. I personally did not expect the former John Steward Daily Show watching crowd to become Establishmentarians whom believed "Our sacred institutions!" and somehow become beltway dweebs, I did sincerely get taken aback by that. Watching people who said "No Blood for Oil!" during GWB presidency now post Henry Kissinger quotes and be very concerned and stan FBI and CIA goons is a trip.
In the end, Trump himself is to me the least interesting or important thing going on right now. Buried in all this swirling noise is the fact that you either think the United States is basically a Gods Blessed Paradise with zero faults of its own, and likely any discontent is merely malcontents who lack sufficient piety in Americas Sacred Mission (TM) or people duped by dangerous foreign agents seeking to undermine the greatest holy empire on Earth, OR, you believe the United States is a gruesomely corrupt oligarchy with failed institutions, no services of any functional use for the masses and widespread poverty, drug dependency, debt and mental illness, where job security doesn't exist and entire generation is consigned to misery and won't have families or homes because we just decided that feeding the young to the proverbial Moloch for some extra GDP and stock valuations is a higher priority.
If the United States is Gods Holy Empire on Earth, here to lead the world into the last, final and perfect way of life and culture, than sure "Return to Normalcy" makes some sense. After all any negativity is just some foreigner plot to undermine peoples absolute devotion and faith in the Great Work of America. If instead you look at America and see a festering Nurgle Rot, that the institutions actually caused this shit, that the country actually has serious long term chronic problems and that a lot of it, if not all of it, is political decision driven done internally and that people are abjectly suffering, than you really can't buy into that "Return to Normalcy" logic. For many Americans "Normalcy" being returned to is a return to hopeless agony with no conceivable end in sight.
Even if you make a case for short term harm reduction, you essentially are consigning oneself to a repeat of the Trump moment. As the "Harm Reduction" case only works if you believe "Yes America is fucked up" but also "If we have some Normalcy maybe at least the people benefiting from the fucking up of America can breath". Back in 2016, the metaphor I used was California wildfires to describe this moment. The longer one delays a burn in the forest, the worse the inevitable fire will be. Things weren't managed well, decisions were made that actually made the forests sick and unhealthy, real policy was enacted that sincerely was believed to be good but actually was killing the forests; finally the rot had built up and BOOM fires, bad fires. We continue to try to just get back to the pre-wildfire normal, but the pre-wildfire normal CAUSED the wildfires, and the more we fight to "go back to normal" the worse the fires become. My stance on Biden is that a Biden presidency would assure a future Trump but significantly more morbid, one that would make Skroe look back longingly at this current Trump and probably say "He was actually a good president".
I even early responded to Skroe, asking Exactly WHAT are you asking people to sacrifice for? Like NED says "I want government that does stuff" but doesn't elucidate that stuff, why M4A isn't that stuff that it should do. Buried in their Anti-Sanders push is basically "Give up all those tangible material benefits for Not-Trump, and um the Sacredness of our Institutions.... and a Government that ummm does something." like the heck does any of that even mean? You are right, Biden on this Not-Platform is screwed. Between having zero reason to be president other than Not-Trump (Sanders ALSO isn't Trump and actually wants to do something with the presidency) and probably having dementia, how on Earth is this a guy that is going to be really worth voting for?