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THE VIEW FROM HERE - All non-extremists should quit their political party and become Independents without joining another party. The reason to de-register is to withdraw support from extremists. If one quits only to join the other party, one is supporting different extremists. Extremism itself is the evil which is destroying the nation.
Quitting Reduces Hate
When division becomes polarization, dislike turns to hate. When one walks away from the GOP or DEM label, however, one can emotionally disconnect from the extremists. A person who has de-registered from a party has no reason to hate “The Other.” Those in the center realize that “Yes, Trump says terrible things,” but so too does Nikole Hannah-Jones with her absurd re- write of history. When one looks to the Right and sees fools and looks to the Left and sees fools, one realizes that it is wisest to follow the maxim, “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Escaping the emotional strum and drang of polarization lifts a heavy weight.
Extremism Is a Tool for Party Leaders to Keep Power
The leadership of both parties has the same goal - power! Irrationally passionate people angrily vote their hate and fear. Hence, both parties gin up mortal of The Other.
Each party caters to its extremist trolls knowing that emotionalism turns out the voters. Hate Money Stalks America. Here’s a dynamic which people miss – attacks by the other party tend to unite the party they’re trashing. Even when moderate Republicans recognize that Trump is off-the-rails, the Wokers’ hyper- vituperative mud slinging causes moderate GOP to close ranks. There is no
better way to create group cohesion than for outsiders to attack. This psychological response evaporates when one is neither GOP or DEM. Rather, centrists think, “A plague on both their houses.”
When the quitters do not register with the other party, the leadership will realize that its extremists are driving its former members towards, but not into, the other party. Leadership then refocuses on pleasing Independent voters - because that is key to holding onto power.
Power, It’s All About Power
Virtually all politico honchos are power-mongers. Integrity is seen as an evil because being a two-faced liar gains more votes. The most famous politicians with integrity are Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and we know what happened to them. Power-mongers love polarization as it leads to money, votes, and power. When a nation is divided into US vs Them, there is no room for rational thought. In fact, intelligent people who believe they understand the country are hopelessly muddled. Take for example, A.G. Sluzberger, publisher of the New York Times. In his interview with Lee Remnick of The New Yorker Magazine, Sulzberger states, “If you look up the classic tenets of liberal democracy, it’s about rule of law, equality, and human rights. You would never see a story in the New York Times—or The New Yorker, for that matter—that argued against those things.” June 10, 2023 A. G. Sulzberger on the Battles Within and Against the New York Times. Sluzberger is not alone in his mishmash of confusion.
(1) We are not a democracy; we are a Republic.
(2) At its core, democracies have no rule of law. The will of the voters is supreme. Due to its constitutional balance of power, the Republic has rule of law at its core.
(3) Equality (and equity) are neither inalienable nor constitutional rights and result in polarization and often to civil war.
(4) Who knows what he means by “human rights” since equality and democracy are opposed to individual inalienable rights.
In 2019 the New York Times published the racist screed, The 1619 Project, which is at the forefront of racial polarization and energizer of White Supremacy. Two years prior in December 2017, Sluzberger had been named NY Times’ publisher. Thus, he cannot distance himself from publishing the extremist The 1619 Project, but that does not relieve him of the duty to repudiate it. Sluzberger claims that the NY Times is “independent.” He stated, “I feel like ‘objectivity’ is a narrower word. ‘Independence’ is the word with the longest tradition at the New York Times.” Independence from objectivity is a questionable value as it encompasses extremism. The NY Times’ 1916 Project falls on the far left end of extremist tomfoolery.
Likewise, Donald Trump is independent of objectivity.
Another similarity between Sluzberger and Woker Left, on the one hand, and Trump and the Alt Right, on the other hand, is that both have no use for the Republic. Extremist Supreme Court Justice Alito is at war with the concept of individual inalienable rights as he believes the federal government’s protection of inalienable rights such as Liberty makes the central government too powerful. Rather, Justice Alito favors 50 individual states where the voters decide which rights to permit and which rights to abolish. That is the core of his decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597
U.S. . Dobbs harkens back to Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) which denied the inalienable right of liberty in favor of each state’s determining who could be a slave. June 8, 2023, Samuel Alito and Wokers are Kissin’ Cousins
Quitting is the Best Option
Because reasonable fact-based people cannot convince true believer extremists to waver in their faith, staying within either party is to remain hostage to the crazies. After one re-registers as an Independent, there is no extreme position with which one is obliged to agree.
While people may think that if they leave the party, the extremists will put forth their lunatic candidates. Fine! The crazies overwhelmingly lose.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])
