The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board Week of 10.24
For the Useful Idiots who think they can talk back to a podcast.
Hey Useful Idiots,
Wilson here. We are now 14 days out from the election. The most important midterm election in years. The most important election of our lives. One election to rule them all, one election to find them, one election to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. CAN YOU FEEL IT?
This was the gist of the corporate Sunday news shows this weekend, which, when not celebrating the prospect of World War III, were neck deep in polls, unending claims about Russia and January 6, and final pleas to vote for their candidates. Bernie, Nancy, Liz, everyone showed up for the big day.
And as we draw closer to November 8, with it comes the sickening stench of electioneering. Whether it’s the Democrats promising stricter qualifications for student debt forgiveness, pretending to be pro-choice, and buying more weapons for war, or the Republicans promising harsher border security, pretending to care about babies, and buying more weapons for war, we can all take refuge in the odor-killing perfume of Useful Idiots.
We want to hear your thoughts on the nonsense. But remember, this is the absurd arena, which means you can talk about anything you want: the election, World War III, wtf’s going on in the UK, the Yankees getting swept, the thing you probably shouldn’t text your ex, the book you can’t put down.
As usual, the best comments will be read on the show. Here’s the starter prompt:
What issue is most important in this election? What will be the consequences of the midterm results? What questions do you want Katie and Aaron to answer about the November 8 showdown?
An open letter to Senator Ron Wyden;
I think it’s only fair that I inform you of the changes in my personal view on politics and voting, shaped by decades of government that is unresponsive to the needs of the people.
I was a life-long Democrat, voting faithfully since 1969. I even ran for state legislature as a Democrat. Yet I’ve now come to understand that Democrats in DC now vote in lock-step for militarization and global violence to benefit not me but the monied interests of the world. Waving banners of McCarthyite faux patriotism, DNC forced militarization was the "last straw" for me.
Based on the rapidly increasing chaos in the world and the realization that fewer people every year are able to live with a sense of well-being, I’ve taken an entirely new view and abandoned the idea that anyone currently elected to our federal government has done anything of substance to assure that attainable goal of a sense of well-being for all, a goal which ought to be the primary intent of anyone elected to serve in a government "of, by, and for the people". Indeed the actions of our federal government have taken us further from that goal ever year.
Thus I’ve committed to a completely new set of personal standards for voting. Yet these "new" standards are actually not new, they were set forth in a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. on August 31, 1967, "The Three Evils of Society: Racism, Poverty and War". Until some evidence of progress toward eliminating these three evils is shown, I’ll base every vote I cast on that goal. I will no longer vote for any political candidate who fails to show a history or obvious intent to hold the elimination of these three evils above all else.
Consequently, as I vote my ballot this week I’ll not be voting for you as I have in the past. You’ll not have my mark of approval.
Richard McCluskey
Tigard, Oregon, USA
My view is that those criticizing Biden for not doing enough to relieve crippling student debt, mitigate inflation and bring down the rising cost of living are being unfair. He and his administration are doing their utmost to ensure that we will soon live in a world in which these concerns will be completely irrelevant. After the global collapse of human civilizations and near extinction of most life forms on earth, any survivors will not have to worry about having to pay back loans with interest, and in a subsistence and barter economy no one will need to concern themselves with the price of stuff in dollars or any currency.
So give the guy some credit, will ya?
The only question is whether he will achieve these goals before or after the midterms.