Now is the time

 I am handing over this blog post to my grandfather who used to be a columnist for The Deposit Courier. This was written in February 1938. Caution, I'm told by my father he didn't like anyone.

Keep in mind - my grandpa was a republican- complaining about the republican leadership. Also, my grandfather had been employed by the WPA to write children's stories and so benefited directly from New Deal programs. 

"NOW IS THE TIME" 

 A political party is, or should be, the result of a mass pressure for the purpose of achieving certain political, social or humanitarian objectives.

When a political party loses these objectives, and deteriorates into just a party of opposition it loses its hold on its followers. This, it seems to me, is what has happened to the Republican Party. From an instrument of planning for the good of the whole country it has become the expression of a few leaders who have failed to plumb the needs of the mass. It has played "politics" when it should have been thinking of how to achieve the best for the most people. In other words, it has lost the honest purpose for which it flourished and from which it grew.

The leaders of the party have fallen from the plane of men with great unselfish ideals proposed for the betterment of all the people, of either political faith, to those who see the party in the light of preferment to themselves. In that light it has become the party of selfish aims. To regain its past greatness, it must obtain a leader who will express the wants and desires of a majority of the people. A man honest in his convictions, honest in his presentation of his ideals and the presentation of honest ideals.

This leader will say "if we as a party fail to present to the voters a plan or a policy," and the plan or policy don't have to embrace all the problems that devil us, "then let us join with minority party or parties who have a plan or a policy that will find favor with the great masses because of its honest and practical truth."

From whence will come this leader? I don't know. But I do know from where he won’t come. He won't be a spoiled rich boy who has visioned himself as the savior of the country but the saving must be his way or it won't be saved. Not a political experimenter who will not be taught by his mistakes. Not a man of an oriental cast of thinking whose prime thought is to save face and who has not the honesty of ego to say 'I have been wrong when I wanted to be right. God let the voice of the people tell which is right and I will so do."

 What a terrible thing it is when a politician turns from that which, if continued would make him a statesman, to the devious and easier way of policy; whose political convictions are as a rubber hose that will bend around the rough spots and not an honest iron rod that will drive through to the right straight and true. This leader must come from the heart of the mass and not be a privileged product of a class.

But Lord God of the Hosts let him come soon for America needs him as never before to save us from the lunatic fringe that are now trying to shape our destinies.

 There must be an Esau crying somewhere in this wilderness of loose and un-economic thought that there is a way out; a plain and honest way" to decent living for the great majority of the people of this country.

"This was planned, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." A very little more planning of this sort and we are undone.

Jed F. Shaw
Feb 17 1938
Published in The Deposit Courier

A behavioral approach to America's epistimic crisi

America is clearly experiencing an epistemic crisis. Meaning - we can't even agree on what facts are and this is preventing us from dealing with the challenges that face us.

Half the country thinks that the news is publishing fake news about the president. (https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/18/trump-media-fake-news-poll-243884) That's not an insignificant number of people. It's all the more disturbing because figuring out whether someone is telling you the truth or not is actually really easy to do.

David Roberts over at Vox - wrote an essay about the depth of the epistemic crisis we are facing. It's subtitle is: What if Robert Mueller proves that Trump engaged in treason and it doesn't matter. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis

In the article he rightly points out that the right is being lied to at a furious pace and that their knowledge of what is really happening is not just lacking, they are being told to not believe the reports of what is happening. IF we have a president who committed treason and half the country refuses to accept that verdict - handed down by members of their side (republicans in the justice department), then how can we even begin to move forward as a country?

While the article does a good job of laying out the problem, it doesn't address how to fix it.

 I teach behavioral science as it relates to ending bullying and harassment and it applies to the problem David addresses.  The question is – how do we learn and unlearn behavior and how has this impacted our current inability to agree on what is true and what is false at the scale we are having this problem.

We have had 30 plus years of brain washing occur on the right. Behavioral conditioning that leads that base to be resistant to fact based information that contradicts their tribal reasoning.  David is correct that this is less a conspiracy than it is just the fact that there is a lot of money to be made on this state of affairs. And he is correct that this is an existential threat to our country and democracy.

Obviously the Russians used our behavioral conditioning against us and the solution – the only solution - is to encourage people back to reality.  The problem is how to do that.  It can be done but it’s really really really hard to do because humans are free range animals. If they don’t get their reward in one place – they will go get it in another.

What has to happen is Rational Republicans have to push back on the fake news.  They don’t have to cross their base, but they can and at least should let the more rational ones know that the crazy stuff is in fact crazy. For too long they have benefited from allowing their base to believe nonsense because it helps get them votes.  The ones that care about democracy need to just stand up to it and take the heat. There is no way to do that without getting the flack thrown at you.  It’s part of the extinction process.

The likelihood is that Mueller is going to prove this and the right is going to explode with people taking to the streets egged on by Russia. If democrats take control of the house or senate next year – they can impeach but that will also cause the right to explode and take to the streets egged on by Russia.

What I have been telling people is that there is no solution to this problem that doesn’t involve a lot of people getting hurt and Russia getting what it wants – America in disarray. But just like with bullying, we don’t have a choice. We either do what we need to do to stop this – or we allow Russia et al to keep bullying us with Republicans aiding and abetting them.

We just need to convince enough Republicans to do what is right for the country and to take the heat that comes with it. This is everything like stopping a bully. It has to be stood up to and the fury of the bully faced.