I agree with holding those we elect accountable, which is why I’m holding Biden accountable for the fact that his administration hasn’t been trying hard enough to help people. I breezed last it for the sake of the conversation here, but I absolutely believe our legislature can and should do more, and there’s some things even I will admit are going to require congress (e.g. I think we really need higher taxes on the wealthy and I don’t think there’s anything the president alone can do about that), but there are tons of things the administration could be doing that they’re not.
I know you and I are only two people but shouldn’t we encourage dialogue and finding common ground?
I’m not sure exactly what this means in the context of this conversation, but I like answering this question when it comes up,
Yes, I think we should encourage dialogue and finding common ground, and actually I think I am, just in a more long term way. See, I have tried debating with Republicans to change their minds, and I have tried negotiating with Republicans to see if they would be willing to support policies I want in exchange for policies they want, and I have seen elected leaders do those things as well, and, well, look at how that’s turned out for us. So, I have become deeply convinced that they either can’t or don’t want to empathize with us or be fair to us, they just want to dominate us and take all the stuff they can consume and own. With that being the case, I think the only way we get them to behave better is to make them believe that it’s in their own interest to do so. Put another way, I think in the short term we need to make it so unbelievably painful for them to keep being bigoted and selfish that they’ll want to act tolerant and charitable whether they genuinely feel that way or not. Long term, we’ll all find that it’s a lot easier to just skip to the part where we treat each other with respect instead of going through the effort of fighting each other first, and I think that’s the only way this world gets better.