Dear Y’all,

As you may have noticed, I have added only a few posts since the 2016 election.  There have been several reasons for the absence of new posts on theleftcorner.  In part, however, that absence results from a sense of what I can only call despair at the state of American politics.

The election of Deadbeat Donald, his antics, and the tragic results and horrific implications of his and his administration’s policies and pronouncements have left me with little more than a strong, almost constant, urge to spew forth a long string of obscenities and reach for another shot of tequila.  At times, I find myself no longer able to watch another minute of MSNBC, but I find my relief by escaping into Netflix. However, I now better understand, at a truly visceral level, why Elvis once shot a TV with a .44 caliber pistol and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top once pitched a TV through the window of a high-rise hotel.

This sense of despair has only been heightened by the craven behavior of powerful members of the Republican Party. They seem to have traded their souls for a right-wing Supreme Court or a tax cut to enriches their major donors. McConnell and Ryan will go down in history as the major enablers of this American disaster, as in, “Hey, I smell gas. Light a match, so we can find the leak.”

It also amazes me to no end that over 80% of Republican voters continue, in poll after poll, to approve of how Deadbeat Donald is doing his job.  That may mean that that they have imbibed deeply of the Kool-Aid that Fox Noise sloshes out each day in praise of their “Big Brother.”

It may also be an example of Leon Festinger’s “cognitive dissonance” – as in “We voted for the loser, but much of what he says or does conflicts with some of our basic morals, ethics, or self-interest. So, these people have a cognitive conflict. They resolve that conflict by continuing to believe they were correct to vote for him and blindly follow him off one political or cultural cliff after another, in lemming-like fashion.”

If only they had resolved that conflict by deciding that they made a horrible mistake, in the first place, by voting for what our British friends would call a true “wanker.” The results of the mid-term elections seem to offer some hope for 2020, but, as we all know, far too often the Democrats’ favorite formation for a firing squad is a circle. The narrative some of the Berners are currently pushing about Beto O’Rourke is a nice example.

However, with the coming of a new year that brings us closer to a new presidential election, I suspect that I (and some friends) may have more to say that might be of interest.  As they once said in print media – “Watch this space.”

Best wishes to all for a safe and happy 2019.