My Blog Week: May 30 to June 5

A Word on the Week

Haughty Disdain

Recently, counties in Oregon voted, not to join Idaho, but to have their boards of commissioners study and discuss the possibility. Malheur County, for one, voted in favor, 3050 to 2572. Malheur has a population of 30,571, as of 2019; and if it matters, an unemployment rate of 5.9, lower than the present national average of 6.1. Their luck seems okay…

However, something under 20% of the population voted, and while not all citizens of Malheur are eligible to vote, the reluctant and the underage would all be shanghaied to Idaho without representation, if such a thing were possible. There are a number of federal jurisdictions to consider, of national lands that belong to America, of eminent domain questions that should otherwise disturb rightists. (While, ironically, a petitioner named Mike McCarter is quoted as saying [in the Oregonian, May 20, 2021]: “If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will.”

With rightists, we also have sanctity of life, loyalty to the American democracy, “punitive work for you, not me”, and other hypocrisies of interest.

This is not the kind of problem that should pass us by, as a brief eye-roller on Twitter. Our country deals badly with GOP absurdities, which is how, from 2017 to that notable early period of 2021, we got the biggest GOP absurdity of them all. Whether a dismissive attitude or indifference kept Oregon voters at home, it should matter that angry and childish separatists can benefit from a sparsely attended election. Taxpayer dollars, another thing conservatives should care about, will be spent to dance around the issue of every county having the same rights, if voting allows one county to seize possession of property belonging to anyone.

Maybe South Carolina’s laxity in wages and worker safety would start to look attractive to big industry in the Pacific Northwest. Why insist on contiguity? My larger point is that liberals have created an imbalance in public debate, and it has cost them. The idea that stupid, unreasoned beliefs are only differences of opinion grew out of the liberal wish to give a hearing to every voice; and yet, confronted with Qanon, liberal pundits can’t be bothered parsing this out. Why not? We absolutely should employ logical reasoning against stupidity. Shooting fish in a barrel is not so hard (at least they say), and reasoning, the means from which conclusions are derived, is worth teaching. Spouting talking points is not reasoning; spouting facts or factoids tangentially connected to the subject is not reasoning. Why not insist on this over and over until it sticks?

If the pundits took GOP absurdities in the right vein, the Democrats would themselves have proposed a commission to study Antifa. Where is the group’s headquarters? How do they raise their money? Are foreign actors involved? Can anyone name their officers? Do they have training camps? Do their operatives earn salaries? How many Antifa dark web sites can be identified? Do they organize bus transportation to the cities they invade?

And…how could Republicans vote against it? So force this issue instead of pooh-poohing it. Particularly, find a special job for Joe Manchin to do, maybe leading a task force…