We used to joke that insanity was hereditary, you get it from your children. The particular form of insanity that is appearing across America seems different. You get it from your local politicians. The specific item that caught my attention was the flight of the Democratic representatives to the Texas state legislature to keep a Republican majority from enacting any legislation they don’t support. I’m not a Texas resident, but I did read their proposed bill on voting. It seemed to me to be very reasonable. It addresses voting by mail and prohibits general mailing of ballots and accepting them without proof of identity. Those appear to me to be worthwhile objectives. The Democrats disagree. They can vote against it if they wish. But what they chose to do was to leave, en masse, in order to preclude the presence of a quorum needed for the passage of any legislation. I am at a loss to see how that does anything to advance the democratic (small d) process. The actions taken, by themselves, seem to be sufficiently irrational. But then the Vice President got up and praised them for what they did, and even compared them to heroes of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. This disease has now taken root in Washington DC, too?
I have never believed that the “Black Lives Matter” movement was either necessary or desirable in order to assure equal treatment and equal opportunity. I distrust the basic premise of ‘critical race theory’ that appears to me to be that racism not only exists, but that it cannot be eliminated and that certain minorities must therefore be given special compensation, either in cash or by reverse discrimination. I do believe that discrimination exists. I’m Jewish. I suffered from it first hand. But the politicians have changed what was once a struggle for equality into something different, and divisive. They even gave it a new name: Equity. Why do Afro-Americans need a new National Anthem? Does that foster unity? Why don’t Latinos, who make up almost the same percentage of Americans as the Blacks, need their own, separatist, anthem?
Another case where the current American administration has gone astray is within the realm of foreign relations. The President now has a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Palestinian Affairs. Why? Current Palestinian Political leaders have shown themselves to be quite solidly against supporting any theoretical dream the USA has for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Dictator Mahmoud Abbas, who rules the Fatah dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, is in the 14th year of his democratically elected 5 year term. The Gaza enclave is run by the Hamas faction after they took over in an armed coup. They have been awarded recognition as a terrorist organization. What they both have in common is an aim to create a Palestinian State in place of Israel (NOT alongside Israel). So what is the reason for having a special Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for that?
The latest case of cognitive dissonance comes from the Unilever corporation. They own Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Cognitive dissonance, for those who might be unfamiliar with the term, is when you consciously are aware of something that does not agree with what it ought to be. There is an inconsistency present. In the case of Ben and Jerry’s the directors decided to halt distribution of their ice cream to Jewish residents of the “west bank”. This is a direct surrender to pressure from the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement that uses those tools to support political positions against Israel with regard to an Israeli-Palestinian solution. The support of BDS is illegal in many states of the US and certainly contrary to several laws, both American and international. So how does Unilever let their subsidiary go forward with such a policy?
Looks to me like the new version of that old saying is that insanity is hereditary, you get it from your government.
Wetherhorn 