Friends of Dave #411: 🤘sweet child o'mine🤔
Where do we go now?
This long, busy, exasperating week has again left me with a lot more questions than answers:
Where do we go now?
I’m not talking partisan U.S. politics here, Friends.
I’m talking as a country.
As a democratic, free society. We are so polarized.
Everything is characterized as a “fight.” A fight for freedom. A fight for democracy. Who are we fighting? If we are supposed to be united, WHY are we fighting?
Everyone is afraid of something. Afraid this right will be taken away or that right taken away. Afraid for their safety. Afraid for their children. Afraid for their freedom. Afraid of progress. Afraid of inequality. Afraid of equality.
What is making EVERYONE so afraid?
People refer to “The Left” or “The Right.” Does anyone even care about “The Middle?”
Not everyone who associates with “The Left” is stupid, woke, elitist and socialist.
Not everyone who associates with “The Right” is stupid, racist, greedy and fascist.
And yet, we are so quick to characterize one another with extreme, absolute, derogatory terms. Think about it — I don’t care which way you lean politically. Online, at the bar or the country club or in a group chat. You do it. I do it. Why?
Why do we permit this to happen?
Where do we go now?
We used to take pride in being long the standard bearer for truth, justice and the “American Way.” We just choose a president who was convicted by a jury on 34 counts of falsifying records to influence the 2016 election in his favor.
This was after he had been impeached twice and played a questionable role in stoking flames that lead to an attack on Congress which threatened the life of his former running mate. Whether or not you agree with the political merits of these statements, they are facts.
There was a time when the moral, ethical and legal integrity of our leaders mattered. Hell, our first president was so righteous he couldn’t lie about cutting down a cherry tree.
In 2024 however, an openly dubious track record with all these attributes can get you re-elected to one of the most powerful positions in the entire world — by a LANDSLIDE.
Seriously, how the f&ck does this happen? How did we get here?
THIS is the best we got?
It’s not country over party. It’s me, my self interests and beliefs, party and THEN country. Whatever happened to “united we stand, divided we fall?”
If you are looking for a culprit, do not blame Donald Trump. Seriously, that is a cop out. He has made it clear to all of us who he is and is not hiding it. This time we should know better.
Do not blame Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or The Obamas or The Clintons.
It’s not social media or main stream media.
Sweet Friends o’mine, I think the truth is much simpler and harsher than that.
It is you. It is me. It is us. It is whatever pronoun you want to use.
We are the cause of this 💩 show. We all broke it — now we own it. How do we fix it?
Oh, where do we go?
Where do we go now?
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
In 2023, global wealth increased by 4.2% as global stock markets rebounded and inflation eased. While Europe, the Middle East, and Africa achieved the strongest wealth growth, the U.S. accelerated at roughly half the rate of these regions, at 2.5% annually. This graphic shows the top 10 countries by average and median wealth, based on data from UBS.
Complaining about things and others isn’t helpful. It perpetuates attachment to ego, identification, and negativity.
Incumbents everywhere are doing poorly. America just proved it’s not exceptional. Trump’s victory in the 2024 election was powered by a remarkably consistent nationwide trend of voters turning against the Democratic ticket.
Here’s what we know: we don’t really know anything. And anything you think will happen as a result of this election probably is wrong. Good food for thought.
New forms of media periodically reshape our culture and politics. FDR mastered radio, JFK leveraged TV, and Reagan nailed cable news. Obama energized young voters via the internet. Trump hijacked the world’s attention on Twitter. This year it was podcasting. Interesting point of view here from Professor Galloway on the influence that podcasts had on the 2024 election.