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Hi, and welcome to The Common Bridge. I'm your host, Richard Helppie. Today, no guest, just going to talk a little bit because I've just got to get some things out of my brain, off my mind, and to the airwaves today. I also want to warn you in advance, I'm going to seriously fulfill my brand promise. That brand promise, of course, is every episode of The Common Bridge has something for everyone to not like, no matter your political persuasion, so stay to the end and understand that even if you're politically opposite somebody, they're hearing a lot of stuff they don't like too.
The topic today is tribalism versus policy and a call to action; we all need to resist nonsense. What is tribalism? My definition, it's when someone points out that the party or candidate that you've chosen is doing something idiotic and instead of asking your tribe to make a change, they point at the other side with some exaggerated claim of their foibles or an attack on whoever is making the remark versus dealing with the criticism at hand. So let me ask you this: how's that tribalism working out for you? Are you salivating over the ultimate defeat of the new Marxists recently called "woke" or how about the elements of the MAGA extremists? You think that defeat one of those is going to happen? Hmm. What do you think a victory would look like? Do you think America will strive for excellence? In preview, there is zero chance of anything but continued escalation and an eventual civil war on the partisan path we are on. I do not exaggerate, no hyperbole. Eventually, we will have a really critical civil war. Now I guess if you want to destroy the country, you're okay with that. But in my estimation, the only way to fulfill the American promise is to quit the false duopoly of Republicans and Democrats - don't vote for a party. If there's a particular person that you think is doing a good, reasonable, statesperson-like job, terrific. Quit consuming the propaganda put out by the established media ecosystem.
Leading lights, most recently NPR and others, have said - and they've demonstrated - they don't see their mission as objective reporting, they see their job as fueling the partisan divide. So your - and our - best hope is resistance, fight back, don't buy their stuff, call bullshit where you see it. I started this program four and a half years ago over issues like guns and healthcare and immigration, seeking common middle ground and in that time, the partisan divide has only grown larger despite all the opportunities there are to bridge it. Why has it grown larger? There's profit and there's power in it. But all that power and all that profit comes from us, the people. You don't need to switch parties or political outlook to resist, again, you can call nonsense on your own affiliation. So let's start. Hey, Biden or Trump? How ridiculous is that choice? Biden doesn't want to run against anybody, Trump doesn't want to debate anyone. And it continues after the DNC shut down the primaries and refused to let Joe on a debate stage with, I don't know...RFK Jr, Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson. And the Republican primaries catered to the Trump wing.
This is where we are, as the chyron across the CNN news screen said, "Biden hits the campaign trail while Trump is in court." The hush money trial - which if you read the court documents isn't about hush money, but about internal accounting entries made by the Trump organization - it delights the tribalists because of the perception that it harms Trump; although some polling data would suggest that it's fueling him...but whatever. Please resist the destruction of our justice system to win an election, insist on a fair fight and equal protection. Both sides agree that these court cases are political theater. As one pundit put it, the case is an embarrassment of prosecutorial ethics and apparent selective prosecutions. And on the other side, the analysts are betting that a Manhattan jury won't care about the law and won't care about the facts and that that will hurt Trump by keeping him off the campaign trail and drain his financial resources.
Now, look, if I were running against Trump, I'd want him on the campaign trail speaking extemporaneously. That's where his self-disqualifying statements come from. Trump being muzzled may actually help him. And as a side note, if Donald Trump does win the election, the crowd that's now pining for Alvin Bragg's idiotic quest will be racing to say that the law-fare was a bad idea. Remember, you heard it here first. Now, despite the campaign field being cleared for him once again, Biden cannot let a gaffe opportunity pass him by. Our president claims - without evidence - that cannibals dined on his uncle when Little Joe was just two years old. So now we have two guys spewing nonsense and one of them will be in the Oval Office - again, resist. In this drama, Trump is alleged to have dozed off in that courtroom. The democratic media is delighted. Quote, "...now he can't call our guy sleepy Joe." Look, that isn't the withering logic they think it is. It shows that what we are getting served up by the tribal partisans are two old guys that probably can't fire on all cylinders.
Meanwhile, back at the election, the battle is on for the votes of women. The Democrats are pouring everything they have into abortion, while the Republicans want to stupidly take on in-vitro fertilization and sensible birth control measures. Because apparently, in the view of some GOP Neanderthals, people are only going to get it on if they want a baby; we don't want to let any artificial elements prevent that conception. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the Biden administration continued its own assault on women by erasing most of the Title IV provisions. Men can now take academic and athletic scholarships from women. Men will have full access to bathrooms, locker rooms and other women's spaces. Men could be housed in dorms with women and more. Does that change to Title IV really affect men? Well, under the new policy, colleges will be allowed to use a lower standard to find someone guilty of sexual misconduct and colleges will be able to do away with requirements for live hearings or cross examination by the accused - kind of encoding what MSNBC wishes for the entire nation: conviction by accusation. God help our sons and grandsons.
But Biden doesn't want to let the schools limit men from competing in women's sports because...I don't know, that must be more fair or something. Look, are you surprised by the gutting of Title IV? I'm not. This is an administration that began its reign by sicking the Taliban on Afghan women who wanted to be educated and participate in society. If you are a Democrat or a Biden backer, you can call out the destruction of Title IV and get back to your winning issue of abortion. That's a good way to resist. Now, not to be outdone, the crazy Republicans in Arizona want to haul out an 1864 abortion law and enforce it today - 1864, stuck on stupid? This is the same historical period where the term "sawbones" was used to describe surgeons. If you are a Trump backer or a Republican of any stripe, can you call this out? Resist. Your challenge will be that stupid people often don't know who they are and they may not be paying attention. But Biden says you aren't a woman if you don't vote Democrat. Well, at least you've got to give him credit for an attempt to define "woman," as flawed as it is.
In his Title IV destruction, students and faculty must compel speech by requiring the use of these so called preferred pronouns. So every English and literature major and regular folks who like a dictionary have to comply or else. Resist. It isn't that hard. Speak English. You don't have to post your pronouns. Get a grip here. Speaking of redefining words, I remember the quaint days of, I don't know, earlier this morning when Merriam Webster Dictionary defined puberty as "the condition of being or the period of becoming first capable of reproducing sexually, brought on by the production of sex hormones and the maturing of reproductive organs. These, along with the development of secondary sex characteristics in humans, and other higher primates are known as objectively observable conditions." Now, as the Cass Review, after a four year extensive study, calmly stated - and everyone should read it - non-binary/binary trans are not real, objectively observable conditions. But state legislatures have mobilized, NGOs are raking in millions, and school systems are teaching such mental and emotional conditions as if they were real, objectively observable conditions. Most of the world is moving away from this; we need to resist it in the United States. Worse, hospital care is collapsing around this scientifically unsupported narrative. I had a recent visit with a medical provider and part of their intake and post visit was to get a recording of sex and gender. So I asked how would they treat me if I thought I was suffering a miscarriage. I have to tell you that being able to deliver this deadpan and watching the changes on the face of some of the caregivers was worth the price of admission. It's a great way to resist. You want to resist, men? Insist on a pap smear. Women, ask for a PSA test and schedule a vasectomy. Because if you don't you know, you're being discriminated against. Maybe for my next appointment, I'm going to be offended if not asked if I'm a global or flat Earth believer.
Anyway, enough of that. We've seen some gross incompetence spreading to Boeing airplanes losing panels, and container ships taking out the Key Bridge. But no worries, the best and the brightest are at our Ivy League schools working out civil and aeronautical engineering so that we can enjoy great infrastructure. [Laughter.] Well, one of the protesters, a 21 year old Ethnicity, Race and Migration major, was arrested. An Ethnicity, Race and Migration major. The level of student debt that taxpayers must fund is unknown. Now what kind of job can one get with a degree in Ethnicity, Race and Migration? Professional victim? I don't think you're going to be building any bridges. Resist. Insist these colleges - that get nonprofit status as cost to us taxpayers and benefit from the loan sharking known as student debt - start producing something that resembles a useful education. Insist on it. In other nuttiness, defense contractors must be the new unifying National mission between Left and Right. We've gone full "Catch 22" and full "Idiocracy" - hopefully you're familiar with that book and that movie - Republicans and Democrats joined forces to fund three wars that the populace doesn't want, especially not on our borrowed money. The Face the Nation hosts can't understand how Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, now third in line for the presidency, shouldn't be paying more attention to the far right extreme wing of his party because he needed Democrats - the other party - to move legislation through. The horror! Mike Johnson working across the aisle and muting some of the extremists in his own party.
Now, that bipartisan duopoly of Republicans and Democrats didn't actually get we, the people anything besides more tax and further in debt, and showed their true colors waving flags of a foreign nation on the House floor. It should be apparent to all those elected that they're not supporting the United States citizens. Quit voting for them. Pundits are making a case for the billions in these bills because munitions are going to be made by American company manufacturers - what's good for M&M Enterprises is good for you. Quit tuning into this nonsense. Okay, look, will the path of speaking up and resisting be easy? Nope. Consider those formally identified as firmly on the left side of politics - Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher come to mind - both are being shunned and resisted for speaking the truth. Taibbi for relentless reporting of facts, and Maher for calling out the insane far left, including fear of being against sexual abuse of children, because that might be seen as a far right wing political stance. Seriously, support these guys from across the political spectrum. You can find other examples. Do we really want to give serious commentators, like Taibbi and Maher, the choice of acquiescence to nonsense or put on a red MAGA hat? Is that really going to work? So is there time for a course correction? Do you think a course correction can happen without your active involvement?
Look back over the last three, four years when we were promised a return to normalcy; we just had to vote right and we were going to get returned to normalcy. Now look where we are. What can you do? I'm going to enumerate them.
Number one, be fearless. Your silence isn't going to protect you, your silence will make it worse.
Number two, be as nice online as you are in person. People are not at each other's throats, except when in the partisan battle.
Number three, be even more fearless. Acquiescing to support a tribe isn't going to protect you. If the courts, border control, law enforcement and the currency are all undermined, we're all toast. There is no escaping.
Number four, speak up. Call bullshit on your own tribe.
Number five, speak up some more. Find a member of the other side and find areas you agree on. One of the hallmarks of my life was being able to talk to people from all backgrounds as a youth and as a hitchhiking young person and as someone who was doing business in so many different locales. People aren't much different. Reach out, it's easier than you think. Look, Robert Greenfield is one of the most popular guests on The Common Bridge. He and I got to know each other because we met online with mutual friends, taking different sides of various issues yet I believe a real respect and a genuine friendship has grown. There are lots of examples like that.
Number six, resist the duopoly, resist the established media ecosystem, quit buying their stuff, support independent candidates, read real journalism - and, of course, Substack's direct to consumer publications is at the top of the list.
Number seven, the established parties and the admittedly corrupted established media ecosystems aren't going to change course unless and until people quit buying their stuff. That is why I repeat that message so often. We're going to keep getting what they're selling as long as we keep buying it.
Thanks for listening. I hope you found something to not like in this episode and I hope you find maybe a nugget or two that you did like. I hope that you'll enjoy the remainder of your day today and I hope that you'll reach out and help us put an end to this partisan bickering. With that, this is your host, Rich Helppie, signing off on The Common Bridge.
Stuck on Stupid, or Resist the Partisan Polarization