Making the ‘right’ enemies shouldn’t make a politician electable

By David McElroy · July 26, 2011

What do you think about Michele Bachmann? Obviously, if you’re a real conservative, you’ll love her. Why? Because “those evil liberal Democrats” hate her, of course. Isn’t that good enough?

It’s true that Democrats most hate Bachmann. (Check out the hyperbolic comic book treatment she’s been given recently.) But if you’re a Republican or a conservative, is that a good reason to support her? Does it make her reasonable, right or sane?

I started thinking about this a few minutes ago when I heard a well-educated and generally well-informed lawyer tell someone that he liked Bachmann:

“I haven’t taken the time to carefully study Bachmann as a candidate, but I’m supporting her because the most impressive thing about her is the fear and hate that the Democrats have for her. If the liberals hate her, that’s my kind of president.”

I wonder whether this guy knows that Bachmann’s only employer as an attorney was the IRS? Yes,Bachmann was an attorney suing taxpayers for the IRS. That was her job. And this is the candidate that so many anti-tax Tea Party types love?

There have been plenty of crazy quotes attributed to Bachmann. She is said to have opposed the census because the forms were going to be used to round people up to send them to concentration camps built by FEMA soon. Her comments about historical events have made it obvious that she’s ignorant of history. For instance, she once said something about the Founding Fathers of this country working until they had eliminated slavery. (That must have been news to slaves in the early- to mid-19th century.)

But my purpose isn’t to take down Bachmann here, so the specifics of those claims don’t matter right now. It would be too easy, just as it’s too easy to make all of the presidential candidates look foolish. The point is this. If you’re going to participate in a system that I now believe is an immoral sham, at least take the time to support someone for the right reasons. Don’t support someone you know nothing about because “the other side” hates her.

If I were still at the point of participating in the political process today, I’d be working for Ron Paul, although I’ve made it clear before why I won’t be voting for a man who I admire very much. But if you’re going to participate in the system, at least place your trust in someone honorable.

Electing a Republican president isn’t going to change things anyway, especially if you’re talking about the mainstream electable candidates. But if you want to even pretend to have hope of change, don’t choose a candidate because the other side happens to hate her, even if she has inspired several comic books about why your enemy hates her. Choose someone with ideas and integrity and vision.

The enemy of my enemy isn’t always a sane and rational person.

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The late Steve Jobs was at the center of our culture’s transition from analog to digital. He co-founded Apple Computer. He led the team that revolutionized personal computing with the first Macintosh. As CEO of Apple, he led the development of the iPhone and later the iPad. You would think the children of such a man would be surrounded by technology. But Jobs and his wife Laureen didn’t let their children use iPads. Their home had few screens of any kind. Even though Jobs spent most of his time developing and selling Macs and iPhones and iPads, he was home with his wife and children for dinner when he was in town. The family ate together at a simple wooden table in their kitchen — and there were no digital devices or focus on popular culture. Instead, he’s said to have guided his family toward deep discussions of art, philosophy and education — with no iPads to be found. If the man who guided the development of such products chose a different path for his own children, does that suggest that his digital experience taught him that children need human connection, not screens? And does it suggest the possibility that we might be better off if we made the same choice for our families?

For four years, Donald Trump’s supporters screamed that everything that went wrong was the fault of Joe Biden. They were sometimes right and they were sometimes delusional. (Anybody who knows me understands that I can’t stand Biden any more than I can stand Trump, just for different reasons.) But for two months, Trump has rampaged through U.S. political life — vandalizing pretty much everything in sight — and the vast majority of his supporters are silent at best. Many watch as he blows up the world economy and they make excuses for him. They’re in absolute denial, even about things that Trump is doing very intentionally. Anybody who understands economics and history knows that tariffs are a terrible idea from a pragmatic point of view. Anybody who values individual freedom knows that tariffs are massive taxes on individuals — and they’re a tool of political control over the ability of people to trade freely. Trump is the antithesis of everything which political conservatives stood for just a few years ago. It’s far past time for people who claim to be conservatives to reclaim the principles and values which they used to claim — and stop this mad man before he can accelerate the day when we experience economic and social collapse. Open your eyes to reality and reject this lying narcissist.

On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

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