August 4, msn news: [A] survey of 1,552 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 2, found that 66 percent of Republicans continue to insist that “the election was rigged and stolen from Trump,” while just 18 percent believe “Joe Biden won fair and square.” Twenty-eight percent of independent voters also said they think Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election, as did a small 3 percent of Democrats.
How many Republicans are there? How many independents? How many Democrats think Joe "stole it fair and square" as the old American saying goes? In round numbers, 33 million Republicans X 0.66, 38 million Independent X 0.28, 37 million Democrats X 0.03 - figure about 33.6 million people, max. But surveys have a small sample base. If you just check one corner of the crate, odds of an accurate survey go down. Also, 27% of registered voters don't care to vote, so one might assume they don't care if an election is stolen, ho hum. Adjusting the Trump true believer numbers down a bit we still get 24 million. And out of that group I posit that 2/3 of the Republicans who answered the poll were either flaunting their anti-establishment "ism" or a friend, relative, spouse was there who would detect any rebellion against the family's public stance.
Only a guess, predicated on some pragmatic logic, but I'm thinking there are about 8 million people who either believe the 2020 election was actually stolen, or they realize their vested interests, which ride with Republican fortunes, would diminish in a more egalitarian America. The primary motivator for the gerrymandering and voter restrictions is to insure minority rule by the not so nouveau rich. It's not for the love of power, although that enters into it and sometimes almost supercedes the love of money. And it's certainly not because of party principles, for the whining Republicans no longer have any.
How is it that these estimated 8 million true believers in "the steal" can bring America to the brink of a coup, a hijacking of the election certification, a storming of the halls of Congress, and our outrage seems contained? Are we so leveraged by the media in our information "silos?" Are we doomed to inertia and inaction because the moneyed few with their hands on the levers have negated truth and we are now pawns? The Universe of Orwellian thought control is here, but we're seeking it rather than suffering it!
And what a shame that the marvelous inventions of the information age are so easily misused, because money, excuse the expression, trumps art, money trumps education, money trumps intelligence. Unfettered, unquestioned capitalism has had it's trial. Like an engine so powerful it needs a governor to keep it from blowing up, capitalism is whirling us to our mutual destruction. But we can't legislate morality. And corporations have no conscience anyway. They aren't human - just a sheaf of papers, legal counsel, a profit motive and money to back it all up.
The whole thing going on in the US right now looks suspiciously like "Let's you and him fight!" The current state of affairs has developed over the course of generations. Generations of subterfuge, mind management, disassembling of liberal gains and a spate of profiteering that benefited from riding the infrastructure, allowing entropy in public education, and maintaining a broke-ass under class without hope where young people see a way out through military service - and still each generation keeps believing in the American Dream!
So our strength is in belief, even when it's not evidently justified. And how strong we get when we believe in a just cause! So let's revisit our values - "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln at Gettysburg - but wait - he was a Republican! Could it be that the party has been hijacked? The Achilles heel of American Democracy: the paucity of a two-party dichotomy, and the ease with which ladder climbers and central committee members will embrace nihilism and disrespect for principle when it might further their own career and personal wealth.
The system needs an overhaul, and quickly! We can't regain our lost years of decay and pork barrel politics, and the political system is so entrenched that it's flatly resistant to change, but change we must. Regaining the original spirit of the Internet as a uniting force elevating all humanity would be a good prerequisite. The great minds and dreamers that developed our wonderful information technology were motivated more by the vision of shared information and the development of a shining culture and society than the present sales motivated monolith that the Internet has become. Big Brother is here, and he wants to sell you something!
So the solution to our larger problems will come from a freer and more complete distribution of information and the application of advances in knowledge and, dare I say it, science. Quantum computing advances will quickly solve seemingly intractable problems. A simulation could be created to test the effect on our economic system if lobbying were outlawed. How about a peer review system for legislators, tied to their compensation, to replace lobbying money? Provide a regulated process for campaigning that doesn't favor any party, doesn't require campaign donors, and wouldn't allow a party without a platform declaration, like the present day Republicans.
In the interim, let's try to avoid civil war, and somehow return to rational discourse. Perhaps by outlawing foreign ownership of American media. And encouraging our own entrepreneurs to respect the technology they inherited and act in the public good!
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