Strange Bedfellows

Sigh.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/3/13498912/conversation-roger-stone-dirty-trickster-trump

I've known about this guys actions for a long time, but I've never heard his thoughts.
I find that I'd rather have a GOP pretty much like him, than any of the other iterations on offer.
I disagree with him vigorously on economics, the role of government, race and even the definitions of several words...but I agree with him on other things.
Anti-elitism, for one.
I agree with the “let's accept our loss on the culture wars” stance as the one I'd like to see fomented on the Right.
I agree that the current epistomological chaos(Internet=”every person, a reporter/thought-leader”), while unfortunate and harmful on many levels, presents certain opportunities.


Just a reminder, I'm a big Lefty on all of these issues.

But I definitely share a Libertarian Streak with Roger Stone.
For all the corrosive nonsense on the “Alt-Right”(*), at the very least they have that Libertarian “Leave well enough alone” outlook on the myriad ways of Being Human...even if it's buried beneath piles of racist, misogynist sewage.
I know...I know...what a sad state, that mere acknowledgment of a right to exist is an improvement...even if bondage and rapine are the preferred interaction with those allowed that Right to Exist.
Contrast that to the ordinary, everyday Teabilly...with them, I always get the vibe that they rather wished that they could just shoot me, if they only had the balls, and thought they could get away with it(and that I wouldn't put up much of a fight, lol). With them, I(and so many others) are not afforded a Right to Exist.
I've been saying for years that we on what remains of the Left in this country need to get off our high horses, and offer a beer to our crazy frothing neighbor and his fighting cocks and race-car engines over the back fence.
Them folks ain't goin' away, after all.
May as well take advantage of their current confusion, and implant a few Mind Virii of our own, lest the Great Wurlitzer of Confusion and Hate find it's bearing and do it for us.
They will continue to Wear the Sheet...to be racist assholes...
But our very Liberalism requires us to accept that as their Sacred Right to Free Thought.
Educating them differently on things like racism, misogyny, homophobia and the rest is a long term project...one that has to happen socially and culturally and by exposure...us, exposed to them.(see: “coming out of the closet” and it's effects on the attitudes towards Gay Folks).
Help them to remember that Libertarian(and Christian!!) “Live and Let Live” meme, and we might find that we agree on many other things...things of great import, right now.
Instead of beating them over the head with Climate Change...tell them how much jack you don't spend on electricity with your paid-for rooftop solar array.
Instead of mandating that they accept every jot and tittle of gay culture(see: “Party and Play” for what terrifies them...it's a thing)...or insisting that they abandon their (largely artificially inseminated...go figger) concerns with the unborn...
Lead them through the logic of universal provisions of condoms, with compassion and sans condescension.
The point in all this is that we do have commonalities...and we must, necessarily, share the country with these folks.
Let us be what we say we are, and reach out to them.



I wouldn't want Stone as a neighbor...or an in-law...but I wouldn't mind if he hung out at the feedstore I go to on occasion.



(*) “Alt Right”, Dark Enlightenment, etc .
All is in Chaos on the Right Side of American Political Philosophical ferment.
Names are useless.(another point that I agree with Stone on)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/opinion/campaign-stops/go-midwest-young-hipster.html?_r=0

Further evidence that we must reach across the back fence to our crosseyed brethren.
...and more:

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/1/13407844/republican-civil-war-trump-loses

http://thebaffler.com/blog/letter-louisiana-leibner

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-come-from-the-land-of-trump-and-i-know-why-hes_us_581a0c31e4b014443087af47