Breaking news: I'm fed up

In trying to make sense of American politics, and the Angry White People Party in particular, I have for some time tried to differentiate between politicians and the vast mass of Republican voters. After all, when some of our family and friends and neighbors continue to support the odious 45th president, despite everything we now know, there is comfort in thinking they are being manipulated.

So, yes, shame on those Republican politicians who are fanning the flames and making Trump the odds-on favorite to run for the most powerful office in the world for a third time.

But there comes a point when absolving all those garden variety voters for their poor choices becomes indefensible. I'm not happy to say this, but it's where we are at this point.

It is possible to be a "bad citizen" in a democracy and it's time to start finding ways to point out the lack of policy thinking, the lack of support for basic tenets of democracy, and the painful trolling of one half of America by the other. 

The situation in America has echoes in current Russian society, where a large percentage of the population is being fed constant lies, leaving many Russians choosing between what they can see in their busy cemeteries and online and what they are told by a government that many realize consistently lies to them.

I know it's Putin's War, but when thousands of Russians are dying in Ukraine each month and the economy waddles along and nothing seems likely to change any time soon... how is that much different from the world of the angry white people who subsist on the manipulations of FOX "news" and refuse to come their senses no matter how many times they are presented with the truth?

And this week we have Tucker Carlson, an entertainer on FOX, presenting bizarre "evidence" that Jan. 6, 2021 was no big deal. Just tourists. Just reverential visitors to the Capitol. Ha! It's nice to see some backlash to his blatant lying and manipulating, but I have doubts that many dedicated FOX viewers care much about actual facts at this point.

They just want what they want. And that makes me a type of elitist, since I feel justified in looking down on people who make immoral and illogical choices when there are readily available options that could not only make them better citizens but help them in their daily lives.

But at least I am not a hypocrite.

And while on the subject of hypocrisy, I am increasingly appalled by the whining of the Angry White People Party when they sense they are being made fun of or criticized by normal Americans. After all, they never hesitate to label anyone not sharing their views as perverts and scum and traitors. They love to troll the "woke."

But they can't take the heat. Wimps.