Substitutes for reality

Each of the major US political parties suffers from fatal major delusions

I spend a great deal of time being flabbergasted, if that’s not putting it too mildly.

The degree to which, and the pace at which, our society and culture are becoming untethered from objectively observed, agreed upon reality is like no other phenomenon I’ve ever seen.

And this plays out in particular ways within the framework of the basic worldviews of each of the country’s political parties.

The Democrats, as I’ve said before, stand for three things: identity politics militancy, climate alarmism, and wealth redistribution.

This requires them to translate into policy the notion that human beings can design themselves, that they’re free of constraints imposed by chemistry and genetics. This is unprecedented in the history of our species - indeed, of the world.

No sane adult can possibly embrace such a view sincerely for any sustained length of time. It flies in the face of a lifetime of experience.

But peddle it they must.

The same is true for the matter of the global climate. There is no evidence to warrant the draconian measures the government is taking. Still, because the Left cannot pass up an opportunity to virtue-signal, even in the cause of a non-crisis, the state must further encroach on our freedom. And it’s sold to us as a bright, clean future of abundance and equity.

Democrats know that the fact that Social Security and Medicare are awash in unfunded liabilities is overwhelmingly the cause of our national debt and deficit. But they are more than content to play debt-ceiling brinkmanship every so many years in order to completely ignore that reality.

The Republicans have one huge problem, from which its myriad other problems stem: Donald J. Trump.

The fact that the party, and its supporting infrastructure of punditry and fundraising, ever gave him the time of day in 2015 was the biggest mistake any party in US history has made.

Was he the only outlet for the combative feeling arising from the party’s base in the 2016 election cycle? I submit otherwise. Scott Walker had solid cred from the way he handled the teacher’s union sit-in at the state capital when he was Wisconsin governor. Marco Rubio at that point had not gone over to the industrial-planning side. Even Ted Cruz, for whom I later lost all respect, had that great list of departments and agencies he’d do away with.

Consistency based on principle just wasn't a big sell, though.

People were attracted to the fact that Trump totally winged it. They found it emotionally satisfying, even cathartic. They strapped in for the ride, and what a ride it’s been.

It seemed to have reached a crescendo with January 6 and the whole rigged-election delusion. Some cynical grifters are in it for the cheddar, but a whole lot of folks really and truly buy it. It’s even spawned a cottage industry. Kari Lake is making a career out of insisting she’s the governor of Arizona.

But maybe now we’re seeing the crescendo. This indictment is a big deal. The vulnerability to which the crimes in the seven charges subject our national security is bracing to consider. The ostensibly immutable institutions of our government are going to be tested in new ways.

And still, voices with followings to be reckoned with will dismiss it all as the long knives of the deep state.

This is what happens when we are no longer referring to the same things when we point at some particular in our external reality. We still use mostly the same words, but they mean different things to us.

Final thought: serious forces upon the world stage will make the most of our unseriousness.