Time to Dismantle the Political Party Plantations
We need to step up or we are doomed to be slaves of our own choosing
John Kerry, currently serving as United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate under President Joe Biden, spoke with reporters at the White House on Wednesday (Jan. 27, 2021). There he…
said that energy workers had been “fed a false narrative” about their jobs under the Biden administration.
“They’ve been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense,” Kerry said. “No, it’s not. What’s happening to them is happening because of other market forces already taking place.”
“Coal plants have been closing over the last 20 years. So what President Biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives, and they can be the people who go to work to make the solar panels.” [1]
This, coming from a politician who in his home state is known by many as “Live Shot,” derived from his unusual talent for jumping in front of live news cameras in his early political days. The same John Kerry who has an unusual knack for marrying rich women [2] and doesn’t seem to mind sailing in his family’s 76 foot yacht or flying in their private jet. The same jet that emits around “40 times as much carbon per passenger as commercial aircraft.” [3] Elitists see no conflict between this and his new job of pushing the “Green New Deal.”
Maybe jobs pop up all around you in John Kerry’s elitist world, but for us ordinary folks we have values, families and other location based commitments, and a certain set of skills that may or may not translate into abundant employment prospects. Not to mention, that we are actively being black balled if we had anything to do with President Trump, his administration, or his campaign.
We should not be surprised by this profound elitist hypocrisy, it is standard operating procedure in both political parties.
Many in our culture spend hours posting flames on social media, but that is no fun unless you have someone to flame at. It’s all John Kerry’s fault, he is an elitist hypocrite!!! And, throw some emojis in for good measure! There, I did something!
So who is our enemy??? We need someone to blame! Then we can go back to ignoring our responsibilities and the higher things of life and get to the real business of flaming on F***book.
When a newspaper posed the question “What’s wrong with the world today?” to its readers, G. K. Chesterton, Catholic apologist and honored writer (1874-1936), is purported to have written in reply, simply, “I am.” And so it is, as it always was.
It is not elitist hypocrites like John Kerry who have put our country in the pickle we are in, it is me, you, all of us. You see, when the Political Party Plantations were being constructed, we were nowhere to be found, choosing instead to complicate our lives with the material gods of wealth, entertainment, leisure, comfort, etc. We created the vacuum for all available power hangry potential tyrants to walk right into. Then we delegated oversight of not only our government, but our entire economic system as we knew it, to them.
We have all witnessed the utterly unlimited supply of petty tyrants firsthand this past year. Governors Baker, Cuomo, Newsom and Whitmer come to mind as ones who seemed to relish the power and limelight, while disavowing any responsibility for nursing home deaths, bankrupt businesses, suicides, overdoses, etc. You all know that you don’t have to go to the political realm to find petty tyrants. Walk into any supermarket without a mask in most of the country, and they will come out of the woodwork.
But, we gave them the power and the means. Covid19 is obviously a real disease, but not the disease we were told it was. Granted, its characteristics and severity were not clear in its first couple of months, there was simply no data. Those seeking political and financial power used this uncertainty to create a panic in the population to their benefit.
But, why didn’t that end when real data began to become available? Because we have long since abandoned reason and critical thinking and the teaching of them in our schools, preferring instead the ease of letting politicians, bureaucrats, a politically motivated press, big tech censors, and paid experts interpret the data and make decisions for us. How is that working out for you?
And where have the political parties been in all of this? Those in power may pretend to care about you, but with rare exceptions they care only about them.
Are you a Conservative? If so you probably vote largely for Republicans, but then they make deals that don’t seem to make any sense, unless you look at them from the perspective of the politician’s comfort, power, and wealth. Behind the scenes, they can’t stand you. When they are running for office, they swallow hard and say things to placate you enough that you won’t leave the plantation, hoping that you will believe that you have no other alternative. They take you for granted, like we saw in the Georgia runoff (upcoming article).
Are you a Person of Faith? Depending on what religion you belong to and your perspective within that religion you might vote for either party. You would think that this would mean that the politicians would care about you as a swing voter. But really the religious community has been divided into the more traditional crowd and the social justice crowd, who are delegated to separate Plantations.
Are you a Person of Color? Those in power pretend to speak to your needs, but in reality their programs and policies are intended to keep you on their Plantation. They use monetary payments and preferences to do this, while the unintended consequences of their actions are destroying your families and making you dependent on them. When it becomes clear that their programs are failing, their experts, house media, and captive press will tell you that you just need more of the same. The Tech Giants will make it hard for you to find the real story, so you won’t know who or what to believe. Anything to keep you on their Plantation and prevent you from going to that evil other one.
Are you sick of the politicians assuming you are stupid and taking your vote for granted in order to maintain their own power? Isn’t it long past time to dismantle these Plantations where we are quickly becoming slaves?
Now, I am not advocating a third party effort, that may be needed in time, but is usually a recipe for failure. What I am advocating is that ordinary regular citizens, starting with me, step up and have our voices heard. There is nothing that scares a power hungry politician more than a citizenry that is actively involved. They have been in heaven during Covid, no dirty constituents near them, no problems!
One of my friends has a child who has not been to school in person since March, has learned absolutely nothing other than politically motivated nonsense, and can’t stand it anymore. My friend is very capable, but when I said three times to them “why don’t you run for school board?”, they couldn’t even hear the question. They have been trained to be a slave, and they will be, if they and millions of others like them don’t step up soon.
Here are some ideas of steps we can all take to change the power dynamics of the Plantations.
1) Use our God given reason and critical thinking abilities. The next time that someone tells you your leg will fall off if you get Covid, ask them if they really believe that. Then do your own research and follow up by handing them what you find. Beware of fact checkers in this process, they almost never are. Raw data from a specific study is always best.
2) Get directly involved in our local governments ASAP. Just by being at local meetings we change the power dynamic from special interest control to more representative decisions.
3) Meet our Sheriffs, Congress people, and anyone else you can get in front of who has a direct impact on our communities.
4) Go to, or start our own, in person event to show that we care and are watching. This could be around a particular topic, concern, or ineffective politician.
5) Run for office, and if we win, serve one or two terms and then help the next great citizen take our spot. Citizen representatives are a big part of the answer to what ails us.
6) Do all of this with love and understanding. Truly peaceful actions are unbelievably effective. Violence, or even the threat of violence, almost always backfires. It is all about the optics. For instance, depending on local law we might have a legal right to open carry a firearm, but the optics of this are almost universally terrible, particularly right now. Carry concealed instead if that is an option.
7) Don’t even imply agreement with the foolish or misinformed. Without anger we can ask them questions that we know the answers to; we might even get them thinking.
Some advice that has always done well by me is never trust/hire/vote for a leader who really wants the position. We don’t, that makes us perfect!
Candid Catholic
This recently begun series of articles can be found at https://candidcatholic.substack.com/. Please like and/or comment on these posts, and if you enjoy them please feel free to share them with others and ask them to subscribe to the email list. Thanks so much!
[1] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/republicans-slam-kerry-building-solar-panels-jobs
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/politics/campaign/wealth-of-others-helped-to-shape-kerrys-life.html
[3] https://nypost.com/2021/01/28/john-kerry-still-has-private-jet-while-fighting-climate-change-report/