I just watched the debate between Tim Kaine and Corey Stewart. I found Corey to be Hobbesian in the extreme in his answers, i.e. nasty, brutish, and short, as least as far as the facts were concerned. However, and I say this as someone who is devoting my time to HELP Kaine and Flaccavento get elected on NOV 6th in Virginia, Corey Stewart owned the debate. He turned it away from a debate between two people running for office in Virginia and into a referendum on support for Donald Trump. Kaine seemed either unable or unwilling to stop this, and so rather than being able to do a back and forth debate on his positions or policies, was forced into a showdown over his (lack of) support of Trump. When Kaine attempted in vain to show that he had in fact worked with the administration on a variety of policies, for how could he NOT-that’s his JOB as a U.S. Senator and ranking member of several committees, Stewart steamrolled over his answers and kept up his drumbeat of Kaine being “a weak ultra-liberal who takes his marching orders from Chuck Shumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton.” I’m merely surprised that George Soros never got mentioned. Perhaps he’s saving George for later.
The audience (The Virginia Bar Association) ate Corey’s little heap o’ Trump right up. They even booed Tim Kaine, one of the nicest and most decent guys I’ve ever met. And I fear that this WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN. The rules have changed, you see, and a lot of liberal Democrats haven’t caught up. I’m NOT saying we play by Trump’s rules and engage in this sort of gaslighting, what-aboutism, deflection, and flat-out lying. But I AM desperately saying that we NEED TO LEARN WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!! Study George Lakeoff, for example. (The Blue Book is an excellent introduction.) Listen to his webinars and videos on idea-framing. and other concepts. Amanda Carpenter is another person, not nearly as academic but still very good, who has written on Trump’s technique…she is a REPUBLICAN. (The book is Gaslighting America: Why We Love When Trump Lies To Us.)
We keep thinking that if we point out the flaws in their arguments, the contradictions in their statements, or their actual lies, that this is going to change hearts and minds. For the few out there that are primarily cerebral, perhaps this is effective. But this is not what the game is about any longer-to our opponents. They have have given up on the whole reason and logic front altogether and moved to occupy tribalism and emotional satisfaction instead. But damn, they do this SO WELL! (I mean, if a person living here on Disability REALLY contemplated it, he might have to admit that Trump is one of the very elites he claims to despise and has zero in common with ANYONE living in Appalachia.) But it’s not about that. It’s about how rooting for Trump makes them FEEL. Do people REALLY think a border wall is going to happen or will actually work? Well, no, not really. But it definitely FEELS right and good to say (or chant with your buddies), “Build that wall! Build that wall!” And it’s a heck of a lot easier to say (and think about) than “enact sensible immigration policies that will give us a coherent system for dealing with people who are seeking asylum and those who wish to come for other reasons economic and cultural and climate-related and oh, do something too to help conditions in the countries that they are leaving” .
Okay, Back from my tangent. The point I’m trying to make is that I fear a LOT of good Democrats are STILL missing the point. I want these people to WAKE UP. Otherwise, I fear I will awaken on Nov. 6th to find my beloved state of Virginia a blue bastion no longer: Tim Kaine loses to Corey Stewart; Anthony Flaccavento loses to Morgan Griffith; and in my nightmares, 2020 rolls around and America gets Donald J. Trump and ilk for another 4 years or worse. PLEASE STOP THIS!!!
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