It's Sunday once again and I'm sitting on the back porch smoking and drinking coffee, listening to a little James McMurtry. Not for sure if it's McMurty's sharp, sarcastic wit or the looming end of the weekend but it seems like a good time to ramble and unload a bit (don't say I didn't warn you). Clocks went back an hour here last night and that always throws things off a bit which should make this coming week even more interesting.
This next little bit is going to be one for the history books I suspect. Covid is currently cooking with napalm and the dumpster fire that is this election gives no indication of abating after Election Day on Tuesday. I saw where businesses in NYC and Washington DC were boarding up windows already and cops in North Carolina were pepper spraying people marching to the polls, seems things are already off to a promising start...
History and politics have always been major interests of mine (it's what I studied in college) so the recent goings on have been more than a bit fascinating to watch unfold. Most of y'all have probably heard the old saying "Those that don't know their history are doomed to repeat it," but the wits throwing that around always seem to overlook the historians corollary to that, "those who know their history are also doomed to repeat it." Viewed from a distant enough perspective, history appears to go in cycles, swinging back and forth between opposite extremes much as a pendulum moves and recent events make me suspect that we're in the midst of one of those major swings in direction.
Recent events have reminded me of several parallels from last century. The civil rights protests, race riots, distrust of police and government, and polarization of society in many ways mirror the run up to the 1968 election. No comparison with history is exact (hence the danger in trying to draw lessons from it) and this one is no different. 1968 was when the pendulum started swinging back towards the right, I suspect we're currently experiencing then end of that swing and the beginning of a new one back to the left.
The other parallel that really stands out to me is the early 1930s with the FDR administration and it's battles over the Supreme Court and the New Deal. Court packing was getting thrown around then as well and GOP opposition to the measures meant to alleviate the troubles the country was experiencing ultimately served to cement the ascendancy of the Democratic party for a considerable period after.
Ultimately, I expect Joe Biden to win this election. Not because I like him as a candidate (As a matter of principle I always vote for myself in elections, that's the only candidate that I trust to represent me properly) but because of macro trends in this country, especially demographics. The GOP relies on a smaller but typically more motivated base to win elections but the demographics that base primarily draws from is steadily growing smaller as a percentage of the country's population. When the Democrats base is motivated like they are now it does not bode well for the GOP's prospects. The abandonment of any pretense of ideology under Trump and the single minded pursuit of getting the courts loaded with as many of their stalwarts as possible are not the actions of a party that expects to be in power any time soon.
I've been wrong before (once or twice at least) and either way there is little any of us can do to affect things at this point but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Anyways, that's enough about that...
With lockdown 2.0 looming large (or in some cases already on the way) this winter is shaping up to be less than fun. I was doing good to not go stir crazy from boredom during the first one and the weather was relatively nice then. I used some of the time to go over my back catalog of photos but there's only so much of that you can do before you're tired of staring at it and ready to go take new photos. Any of y'all got ideas or plans on how to deal with a new lockdown? Any boredom relievers that'll you discovered during the first lockdown?
I reckon that's enough rambling for one day, y'all be safe out there.