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Michael Beaton Profile picture
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1 Feb, 5 tweets, 2 min read
@Dcwash1 Good Question. I am sure w many answers, the best/most important ones, hidden in the shadows of the GOP mission. Which IMO(& others) is to Get and Increase their Power first & last.
Thinking McConnell "we will not give Obama 1 victory" even if a) it was good for the country
@Dcwash1 2/ b) he agreed with the bill/initiative/program on its own terms.

We see this dynamic playing out again w Biden.
Before w Tr, nothing but $$ to toss into the system, now everything is bottled up. I suspect on the similar principle.
Do not allow Biden any victories. Or as few
@Dcwash1 3/ as possible.
You may recall in Nov,Dec when the Senate power balance had not been tipped, McConnell & the Pub's were threatening to not vote on Biden's cabinet choices.

There are other facets of this question. I think this one is one of the foundational ones.
@Dcwash1 4/ Re your implication that 'it hurts their constituents".
I don't see that as a contradiction. It is part of the flaming lying & astonishingly brazen hypocrisy of the GOP to say whatever they need to to keep the "troops" in line, blame failure on the Dem's, but not have to
@Dcwash1 5/ actually do anything to help people, even their people, if it doesn’t fit some larger purpose
It is a hypothesis. Needs to be worked out as a working theory. There are many anecdotal examples.
Incl the many ex of Tr stiffing his 'people' w dashed hopes of jobs & unpaid bills

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Michael Beaton Profile picture
20 Jan
It is moving seeing this display. I suppose there is a sense of coming around the last mile after a long and arduous journey, fraught with perils...and now that is over. Wounded but alive, and growing in strength just for making it home.
A promise that it will be different now.
It is a sense of dodging a deadly bullet. A sense that we might in fact find some of those better angels Lincoln talked about.
A realization that an egoist at the center is a drain on the country, & a wound that consumes all the attn & resources, leaving the citizens adrift.
A sense, not even a hope, but a certainty that the Citizens will be restored to their proper place, not as bit players in someone else's fantasies, but as the reason for the grand experiment in democracy in the first place.
Read 17 tweets
Michael Beaton Profile picture
19 Jan
The excitement of Trump finally being excised from the White House is a marvelous day indeed.
But it strikes me as premature to claim complete victory. This is game 3 or 4 of a 7 game series. The last games won, there remains a violent, virulent, minority who are willing to kill.
There is a GOP Senate who are still enthrall to the general project of Trumpism. There are the specific Congress members who specifically remain at their post. Faithfully being unfaithful to their oath and the country. There are the threats of violence properly being responded to
but in the necessary response demonstrate that this "series" is not over. Games are won. But the anti American Trumpies have not been defeated.

Citing an analogy from Basketball, it doesn’t seem possible, but it happened that a team has come from 3-1 and won the series.
Read 8 tweets
Michael Beaton Profile picture
19 Jan
The detachment from reality is escalating. As if that even seemed possible.
Wisconsin stand on its own?
Not likely.

The important part of this story is the reflection of the mindset of this tribe. Now to be denominated as Trumpers, its underlying philosophy Trumpism.
Trumpism is a philosophy that is rooted in a severe detachment from reality.
From its founder, and his megalomaniacal, solipsistic understanding of the world as his servant, and his own magnificence as the standard of excellence.
Whether Generals who did not understand the Middle Eastern issues; Scientists who did not understand how to drink lysol to combat COVID, or the boggling incompetence at organizing the medical and logistical support and system required to combat COVID. And Etc....
Read 9 tweets
Michael Beaton Profile picture
18 Jan
Trump is shunned in every quarter, except his most rabid and, in his own words “uneducated”, supporters. Those are the ones he loves. The ones he is willing to use, as fodder for his own, selfish cannon, for his own arrogant “wars”.
Increasingly no one else will have him.
Go now.
This article is a fine expression of the military angle on this momement. Recounting the history of the military with past presidents, and how they used their relationship and their farewells to honor the troops; Tr, of course, used his relationship to gild his own crummy image.
As all prior have honored the military for their dedications and work in their own way, according to the times and events, the article concludes that Trump will not have the opportunity to “thank the troops”. Having highlighted that the leaders of the military felt obligated
Read 6 tweets
Michael Beaton Profile picture
16 Jan
Soon this will be in the past...

I think it is likely the only ones laughing are the cynical smirks of those who benefit from our Trumpian pratfall.

The rest of the world appears to be on edge waiting for the day this Trump era is over. Image
Related, however, is the fact that "the way things were" is inadequate. It is not only insufficient to have as a goal "return things to the way they were", but it is in its own way regressive and provocative all over again. Sweeping the problem away for another day.
What is called for is to return to a better, deeper set of values, Ones that are espoused & articulated in our founding documents but not fully realized. Make the necessary changes now. Not someday. Now.
Read 4 tweets
Michael Beaton Profile picture
16 Jan
The assertion & question of unity, unifying the country, wondering what the hell the problem is, and why is all this happening is taking center stage. Dramatically.
As is the corollary question being tossed about, "How to heal the Nation?".

There is a #systems principle
that is a powerful insight into these, & related, questions.

"You cannot solve a problem at the same level it was created."

If the problem we were solving for were some detail, 'where to place a road; what $ to allocate to this or that project' sort of thing, then the way to
think about the problem, the impasse, is to appeal first to the functions of prior planning, history - meaning what did we do the last time, maybe pragmatics...Eventually, if the organization (whether business, community, or governance) may make a decision and that becomes the
Read 34 tweets

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