Declaring Intellectual Bankruptcy

WHEN DONALD TRUMP was defeated in his bid for reelection in 2020, he lost with virtually no formal suport from the Republican party. There was no party platform, no formal agenda of ideal and plans for the american people to puruse and consider. Nothing. This situation remains unchanged. A major American political party utterly bereft of ideas, intellectually as well as, at least ostensibly morally bankrupt. Four years of the Trump presidency had produced only scandal, hatred, and the philosophical vacuum of a political movement which had nothing but opposition to progress to offer its constituency. Scrutiny of the conservative-Republican agenda reveals that their only discernible platform consists of opposition to liberalism generally. Liberals want to strengthen and sustain Social Security and Medicare, conservatives want to cut back on both. Liberals want to emphasize traditional and ongoing American bigotry against minorities such as African-americans and LGBTQ people, conservatives want pay no attention to these concerns. The list goes on. Instead of making America great again, the Trump era only made America, which entered the Trump reign as great as ever, stagnant, isolated from the world, alone in its pursuit of indecency. The Republican National Committee, which consists of one hundred and sixty eight of their most devout, seems to be searching for an answer. In its current incarnation, it and the evangelical Christian community it represents, is more intent on investigating every nook and cranny of the Biden administration, merely for the satisfaction of electoral revenge, than addressing and solving the nation's pressing problems. A consensus has emerged among journalists who follow the charade of importance closely that the Republican party in its present incarnation stands for precisely nothing. It has become the party of Trump, the party turned cult following whose only purpose is to reinstate its corrupt icon back into the presidency, by violent mob and orchestrated overthrow of the government if necessary. When the Congressional sub committee investigating the insurrection of January 6, 2021, issued it final report of more than eight hundred pages, there was scant mention of the influence social media had in helping foment and shape the violent insurrection. Yet, social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, played an essential part in the process. Society was given advance warning of all the signes of impending violence, but chose to take no preventative action, even as the threats of violence and insurrection become increasingly obvious, too obvious to ignore, too ovbious to act upon. And because of this, because wehave not adequately learned the lessons of recent history, we are condemed to repeat our mistakes. Whether George Santayana or Lord Acton first warned us of the price we pay when we fail to remember our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them. And, as Goethe said: "Only by mistakes which really irk us do we advance".