Operation Ongoing Bullshit
Yes, Right and Left Can Come Together in America
I had a great time this weekend with family, including my brother-in-law who’s a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. If I’m on the left, he’s on the right (whatever those often vague political labels may mean). Guess what we agree on? A lot, actually:
+ We both agreed the Iraq and Afghan Wars were disasters.
+ We both agreed $105 billion in more weapons and “aid” to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, etc. is a complete waste of money. We’d both rather see that money spent here in the USA, especially on America’s crumbling infrastructure. (“Crumbling” as a descriptor is inseparable from infrastructure here in America.)
+ We both agreed the government response to Covid was badly botched and that Anthony Fauci often lied to the American people. We both agreed government experts should have treated us like adults, admitting they couldn’t answer all the questions about Covid. We both think it’s more likely than not that Covid was a man-modified virus that leaked from a lab in China.
+ We both agreed Joe Biden isn’t the answer in 2024. My brother-in-law is open to Trump; I can’t vote for Trump for so many reasons. A minor disagreement, though we’d both like to see more and younger candidates, not a Biden-Trump rematch.
+ We both agreed a ban on assault weapons would do little or nothing to stop gun violence and mass shootings in America. There are already 20 million AR-15-type assault weapons in America; sorry, a ban won’t fix anything.
+ We both agreed the New England Patriots suck this year, but that Mac Jones isn’t solely to blame for an offense that simply can’t score points.
+ We both agreed Budweiser went well with our turkey and sausage gumbo.
+ We both agreed “White Heat” (1949) with Jimmy Cagney is one of the greatest movies ever made.
+ Finally, we both agreed we are immersed in Operation Ongoing Bullshit, a felicitous phrase my brother-in-law came up with. We are constantly being bullshitted by “our” government. I put “our” in scare-quotes because we agreed we have a pay-to-play government. Pay a lot, as in millions of lobbying dollars, you get to play a lot. Can’t pay? Too bad. You have no say.
Operation Ongoing Bullshit is one of the more honest names I’ve heard to describe what the U.S. government is usually up to. Right and left can heartily agree on this, I think.
Far too often, we’re told there are unbridgeable differences between right and left in America. Differences exist, of course, yet there’s so much Americans can and do agree on. To cite only one example, I think most Americans agree with James Madison that ongoing war (and ongoing BS, for that matter) contributes to the death of democracy. And also to our colossal national deficit, now in the neighborhood of $34 trillion.
It’s time to come together, America. It beats being divided, distracted, and downtrodden.
Your experience / dialogue w/ your brother-in-law is not unique. At a person-to-person level, I find it fairly easy to find a number of points of agreement with others who may come from a supposedly 'opposite' political perspective. When we get to leave aside for a moment the differences (which often, I find, are reactions to the culture war fights), and examine the values that are most closely held, there's often a lot more of substance to agree on.
Unfortunately, the two sides of the Duopoly favor corporate power, the growth of money in politics, war and in particular war spending, and they both like to keep their factions in line by keeping alive / fueling the culture wars, now often focused heavily on social identitarian squabbles. That culture war, along with reactions pro and con to Trump, are enough to keep most people from even wanting to talk with the neighbor who happens to belong to the 'wrong' Party.
But as you express well here, when it comes to those issues of most importance, there is a lot of agreement potential. So thanks for continuing to build such bridges.
Hi Bill! This is Buzz Davis, Vets for Peace in Tucson.
You have a number of good points. BUT what is the basis of your talk is: The discussion is among two former military members who have been in some forms of combat, i.e. purposeful killing.
Nearly all of the voting public today (about 60+ percent of the citizens) have never been in the military or if they have they were support troops and not in the line of fire or they were in the peace time military.
Men, I find, can be very "brave" about fighting X, Y or Z people if they are talking about the nation sending "other" people to war rather than themselves or their extended family
With Mr. Trump we have a very good example of a man who can be a trough talking but when the rubber hits the road he has a sore heel he says.
Mr. Biden is also a trough talker. In the 1960's he did not have heel soreness, he was a politician and too important to resign or take leave as some elected officials did during WWII.
All the wars will leave us like they left Sparta and Athens: All energy and money and people spent on forever wars and two destroyed societies. And both became "has-beens."
At this point Biden needs to be impeached for assisting war crimes, Dems in the House and Senate must expel the 147 members who voted to help the insurrection and expel them under the 14th Amend. Sec. 3. Then after 147 Republican members Congress are gone, then the House should impeach Trump for an attempted Coup and the Senate should convict and deny him holding any future elected or administrative office in the USA along with denying him any of the benefits of formerly holding office (i.e. retirement, office, library, body guards).
Regarding some of the commentors -- How can people be foolish enough to believe Trump when he talks about war and peace?
Those who believe only what they wish to believe coming out of the mouth or email of a liar are like a person who is beaten by their spouse saying. "Oh, I know she/he loves me and didn't mean to beat me and she/he said she/he will never do it again, so I am going to stay with her/him.
Men and women can fool themselves and all of us have probably done that once or a number of times in our lives.
We need Trump and Biden out of the 2024 race and new blood in!
Peace! Buzz