So what’s new in DuhSantistan?

You have caught the major weakness in my stance, which is whether I should defend George Wallace. Of course I don’t wish to do that. Frankly, I am not even trying to defend DeSantis. Who I intend to defend are people like Bluke and Tilly. If DeSantis is a bad leader, as you claim, does that mean that all his supporters must be stupid or evil? I think this is not so, and I hope this is not so.

I basically agree with your second paragraph. I still can’t get over how so many were willing to put aside the ostensible lack of a kindergarten education on kindness to support Trump so they could get a wall. And I also think DeSantis’ flaws are rather fatal. But, I am not prepared to assume all their supporters are stupid or evil. After all, who the hell am I to make that claim? If I knew for sure what was stupid and evil, then I shouldn’t need a democracy. I should just do what is objectively smart and true.

Instead, I want to wonder what i am missing. There are definitely smarter and kinder people than me voting for DeSantis. Something must explain this. I follow Jefferson in suggesting that these political disagreements shouldn’t tear us apart as people:

“A difference in politics should never be permitted to enter into social intercourse or to disturb its friendships, its charities, or justice.”

 

How in the world does the timing have any bearing (vilifying the guy right after he dominated the governor election) on calling out punitive government? Why would the media NOT call out that AND his grab to claim a never before existent "executive privilege " right vs transparency?

 

Damn, what a post. You are obviously a high intelligence poster but you have something almost no one else has on this board.
Humility.

 

Why would the liberal media ramp up the hit pieces on Ron? I don’t know, maybe because he’s gaining traction and the battle has begun to tear him down.
Many posters come in here and regurgitate the cnn stuff verbatim.
It’s certainly heating up.

 

what does winning an election have to do with the legality of a new law or an administrative act?

what percentage of the voting population would be a select few? If say, 40% objected to his policies would they constitute a select few or is it 49.9% to be a select few or ???

 

It’s not just winning an election, it’s the landslide that he was able to pull off.
Rather than exchange hypothetical numbers with you, let’s see how Ron does in the next election. Also, if he is as terrible as you guys say, he’ll lose momentum and lose the people.

 

yeah, Illinois is so awesome people are leaving there in droves while people are coming to FL. Weird. In your warped world you probably think it's the opposite.

 

I used to think that, then Trump happened and I lost faith in the electorate to make intelligent choices as they deferred to the emotional choice. Spock was right, it is our emotions that will be then end of us, and social media and the internet just amplify those emotions as people surround themselves with likeminded people and convince themselves they are right.

 

I very much appreciate it, Bluke. I have put a lot of work into improving myself as a positive member of this group.

There must be truly evil people in this world, but it’s just plain unlikely that they would number in the millions and all be associated with the same group. As you know, I think our conversations would be much more productive if we could stop seeing each other as enemies.

 

I thank you again.

 

Unfortunately lots of people here are enemies of any sort of civil society, with a Hobbesian view of humanity. Lionel Trilling said conservativism was a serious of irritable mental gestures and he was basically correct. Its impervious to reason, which unfortunately convicts the idea of reason itself. We are simply living through the open flaunting of that reality.

 

Gentle reminder that Trump got fewer votes than the other guy, and if the USA were an actual democracy not a pretend one, Trump wouldnt have happened and geography wouldnt decide elections.

 

All the really good fascists won in landslides as well. Does that make them right? Seems to you it might.

 

Gentle reminder that we do live in a certain reality. Be careful of shoulds and what ifs.

 

This is possible, but there is a lot of philosophical heft contained in terms like “enemies of a civil society”.

I have started viewing not Hobbes so much as Burke as a key figure in conservatism. (Upfront disclosure of ignorance: I haven’t read a single page of Burke and got through not even 10 pages of Hobbes before putting it down. As my guides here, I’ll be just irresponsibly employing second hand analyses from this point on.)

Mostly what I mean is instead of the power of the state being the salient feature of conservatism, I see tradition filling that role. It is just so that analysis of tradition almost resists rationality. Why should we follow tradition? Because it is tradition. Yet, tradition does carry with it value. Should we choose to use a method for bridge building that has been employed for thousands of years or a new one engineers developed this year? For me, the former is clearly the superior choice, as that method has withstood so many more assaults, physical as well as intellectual.

I think you’d agree that once tradition slips into taboo, it has gone too far, but I would also say that once rationality has slipped into confidence in restructuring the whole of society in one step, it has also gone too far. I think we as a society lose once we entirely banish either of these perspectives from our town halls.

 

Nothing to do with the “grooming” that gave rise to this crap. Nothing at all. The entire Freak show that DeSantis has generated in his faux Culture War was a contrivance and remains a contrivance.

 

Humility…so now you people are complaining about the weather?!?!?!