Politics in the USA

When I first got to grad school in the US, I was amazed at the diversity.  Men and women from all over the US: Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, California, Illinois, Ohio; people from abroad: Canada, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Italy, Germany, mainland China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangla Desh.  There were people studying many subjects; undergraduates and grad students; blacks, certainly whites, Latinos; singles of both sexes, and married students, with and without children. 

I also met junior faculty, who had just been hired; and secretarial staff, clerical staff, bookstore staff; athletes, cheerleaders, coaches, and spouses. 

It was an election year, and when November rolled round, I saw electioneering on TV.

Back then I learned to recognize a$$#oles, in real life, and on the screen.   Soon I came to realize that Reagan was one of these AH's, albeit a very stylish one. 

I decided, at that time, that this was American politics, about which I didn't know a lot; if they wanted to elect an AH, that was their business.  I watched all the fallout from US politics, and groaned inside, but affected a nonchalance, mainly to feel better about the chaos. 

Soon I got a job, and found that my colleagues-to-be were incredibly welcoming people, who appreciated the various things I could do, and quickly arranged for me to get immigration.  It involved a great deal of effort on their part, for which I am truly grateful. 

Many years later, I was returning from a visit home, and going through immigration; it was an African-American officer at the turnstile, and he was studying my visa, and my passport, which was still issued by the land of my birth. 

"Mr. X?"  He used my real name. ('Archimedes' is just a Net Name I invented when my students and I first began interacting with the Internet.)

"Yes?"

"Man, you've been an immigrant longer than I've been alive!"  I looked suitably embarrassed.  "What are you waiting for?  Most people would have applied for citizenship long ago!"

Well, needless to say, I didn't apply for citizenship as soon as I got home to Williamsport, because the foolishness of the Republican administration was easier to tolerate when I was outwardly an immigrant.

Then Trump became president, and I decided: enough with the games.  Various other incidents helped push me over the line, and I applied to be a citizen. 

One day, I found myself being sworn in as a citizen.  I got to vote that November, and, as luck would have it, helped Joe Biden to be elected president. 

My point for this blogpost is: US diversity has not lessened; it has increased.  There are stunning variations in attitude among the Republicans, as well as the Democrats.  The Republicans have such a great diversity of attitudes that it's mind boggling.

Not all of them hate the Left - leaning ideas of some of the Dem leadership, but most of them do. 

Not all of them are believing Christians, but some of them are. 

Not all of them want to prevent women from getting abortions on demand, but lots of them do. 

Many of them want to get rid of government waste.  But so do a huge number of Dems!  We're not stupid; we know a lot of the Washington bureaucracy is the legacy of ancient pork-barrel deals that have outlived their usefulness. 

Not all the Republicans support Trump, but they're convinced that the Trump/Musk team has a better chance to 'clean up' Washington than any others.  But not all of them are persuaded that it's being conducted the best way. 

What about Social Welfare programs?  I suspect that a lot of Republicans know, privately, that they're necessary, and depended upon.  But they can't admit it, for fear of getting into trouble with the GOP secret police. 

What about women, minorities, immigrants, and children?  Generally speaking, they care a lot less about these demographics, and won't go anywhere near expressing support for them, for fear of being labeled 'Woke'.  They have to show each other that they're the meanest, nastiest, controlling-est, testosterone- infused monsters, to establish their cred with the boys.  They sneer at their compatriots who have cars with mufflers that actually work. 

Biden appealed to the most moderate guys in the GOP, and women.  But Trump skillfully whined about being bullied by the courts, and they sympathized.  The GOP has sympathy for Trump—I just can't see why; he's obviously a fake—unlike the Dems, who're likely to shoot him on sight.  Someday I might understand the pleasure the MAGA crowd takes in Trump, but that day is not today.  More than likely, many of them can't stand him either, and they definitely can't stand Must!

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Golf, while in the White House

Trump declared a national emergency, which gave him extra powers.  It's those powers that he invoked to put immigrants in jail, shut down departments, etc.  Some he's out somewhere in the South, playing golf (badly).

He'd better finish all his nonsense before his term expires, because we're going to have to make very carefull legislation to make sure that future presidents will not be able to do all the extra-legal things that Trump did.  Future presidents will be put in a straight jacket.  At least the Republican ones.

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One Big Problem with NonReaders

People are declaring that the US system of education is broken.  All right, people; you get a star sticker.  And You get a Star, and You get a star!  (Just kidding!)

These days I worry about how to sequence my thoughts, to take into account reader fatigue.  Can you believe this?  But a diatribe on US Exceptionalism was not what I wanted to draw your attention to. 

One thing that I thought was good was the idea of referendums.  You put these questions on ballots, and people get to express their opinions on the matter.  But the questions, depending on how subtle they are, need to be phrased carefully.  But it's my belief that citizens are gradually losing the ability to understand tricky language.  Think about that. 

Those who formulate questions for referendums are going to increasingly be able to phrase them in such ways as to confuse voters into voting exactly the way they do not feel.  Some young people are only comfortable communicating in emojis.  I mean, consider that they feel the need to have even secret meetings in a meeting app.

But seriously, though in certain quarters, reading at a high level is taken for granted, in other quarters, reading too much gets a child condemned by its peers as elitist, and blackballed by the parents of kids who are "emoji learners," to coin a phrase, and many school boards aren't happy about making demands of their darling children!

I think Henry Ford is indirectly to blame for the failure of US education.  It works fine in the Third World, where kids can be brow-beaten into learning tough material in their large classes.  In the US, though, education doesn't lend itself to economies of scale.  US kids know their rights.

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