2024: The 2-Party Tipping Point?

Every 4 years I think, "Will this be it?  Will this be the year the American public FINALLY awakens from their slumber & realizes the 2-party system is a sham, offering the mere illusion of choice and democracy, prompting them to vote for a 3rd party candidate in numbers great enough to matter?"  And every year I'm disappointed.  But this year may just mark a turning point.  Don't get me wrong:  I'm not delusional enough to think an outlier like RFK Jr, Dr. Cornel West or Dr. Jill Stein could actually WIN, but I do see more and more people calling out the MAGA/Blue MAGA cult-like behavior of the 2 parties.  And after that 1st debate?  Even more so.  

Again, don't get me wrong.  I didn't watch the godforsaken thing.  But I saw enough screenshots of Biden's frozen, geriatric spaceface to know what's up.  And I have enough Trump-supporting loved ones to know that their support for him is nowhere NEAR as enthusiastic as it was the 1st time around.  It's still a cult & the True Believers will still follow their leader off a cliff to their own demise, but there are only so many federal trials a man can withstand before he begins to look like a bit of a crooked slimebag even to his flock of idiots.  The man lies like he breathes, telling an average of 6 public lies per day, totaling a whopping 30,573 untruths in his 4 years in office.  That, and the whole QAnon prophecy never came to pass.  Trump also allowed his diehard insurrectionist followers to be prosecuted & didn't use his presidential power to pardon people like Julian Assange who basically put him in office by exposing the fuckery of the opposing party, instead choosing to pardon his equally slimy Wall Street friends & insider trading criminals.  For a guy whose campaign promise was to "drain the swamp," he left an awful lot to be desired and definitely filled it up with a bit of his own muck.  

And Biden's presidency has been an equally dire failure despite the lack of mean tweets & civil unrest at home.  He may not be a felon but don't get it twisted:  he IS an international war criminal for what he's enabling in Palestine.  And that shit he stirred up early in his tenure by suddenly pulling our troops out of Afghanistan with no long-term plan for, well, anything was pretty criminal too.  The mental image of those desperate Afghanis falling off the sides of military planes, choosing a painful & certain death over life under the Taliban will never leave my mind.  Abandoning all those military weapons to the Taliban was not too bright either.  And then there's the whole loss of reproductive rights thing that happened after he promised to "codify Roe" on the campaign trail--something many a Democrat has promised & failed to deliver despite their ability to do so with the stroke of a pen.  Between all that and the Rx drug/baby formula shortages, INSANE cost-of-living increases & continuation of evil Trump policies like the fascist border policies & lack of action on COVID, it's safe to say Biden did not "Build Back Better".  

But after that cursed debate it should be clear to anyone with eyes that Biden himself did not build back ANYTHING.  If Thursday's sideshow taught us anything, it's that for the last 4 years, our country has been run by others in his administration as well as other unknown behind-the-scenes actors with still-functioning neurons, their brains not yet overtaken by the plaques and tangles characteristic of dementia.  I'm old enough to remember when Reagan was raked over the coals for his 2nd term, pundits debating whether he was in the early stages of dementia from '84-89.  He likely was, & there should be 0 doubt in anyone's mind that Biden is in the moderate to advanced stages of dementia currently.  So why the radio silence from "follow the science" mainstream media outlets like NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC & NPR? 

Debate time noted for posterity.

From the frozen, mask-like facial expressions to the constant clumsiness/tripping to the lost look in his eyes to the "gaffes" in speaking that have been steadily worsening over time, only one conclusion can be drawn:  Joe Biden is suffering from the progressive brain disease of dementia.  Oh, and as for why he performed so much worse at this debate than during many of his other recent appearances:  it took place at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.  What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?  Well, people with dementia often experience what's known as "sundowning," a phenomenon in which all their symptoms get worse after dark.  Whether it's Alzheimer's, vascular dementia or one of the one hundred plus other varieties, we don't know.  But it's clear he is demented & needs to be at home receiving the appropriate care, not traveling the world serving in one of the most important roles on Earth.  Calling this out isn't cruel:  it's actually incredibly cruel-bordering-on-criminal to ignore it & act like nothing's wrong.  Continuing this charade is nothing short of elder abuse.  

After watching RFK Jr.'s interview on Dr. Shill, err, Phil, I came away with the impression that he's too honest to be president and would likely meet the same fate as his father & uncle.  His insider knowledge of how the FDA, NIH & other 3-letter agencies operate & his determination to stop their corruption, which at this point runs too deep to be stopped by ANY one person, puts him at great risk.  Ditto the MLK-esque Dr. Cornel West, who once went on conservative Tucker Carlson's show & convinced him that democratic socialism was a good thing, prompting him to reply after about 30 seconds of Biden-esque blank staring: "Well if that's what democratic socialism is, then I'm onboard."  I honestly thought Roger Ailes would cut his mic on the spot.  And my love for Dr. Jill Stein goes back many years, but she's already been painted as a Russian agent, a hippie kook & of course, she's a woman.  Something we've never had as president in 200+ years as a nation.  An incredibly hypermasculine, violent & warlike nation.  

90 minutes with 3rd party candidate RFK, Jr.  (Credit Merit Street Media)

At this point, I'm convinced the only way we'll ever get a decent president is if names and parties are removed from ballots at the voting booth & people are given viewpoints on the issues to vote for instead.   For example:  "How would you prefer climate change be addressed?" with a list of (5) multiple choice answers representing the answers given by the different candidates (all of whom would be given equal debate time & fair media coverage).  At the end, their score will reveal which candidate they voted for.  No takesies backsies after ballots are cast, just your true and honest answers.  This would eliminate party loyalty and Cult of Personality behavior, which is exactly what the Powers That Be don't want, so it's unlikely to happen.  But it would be a far more fair & effective way of doing things.  

The real question is whether this nation in its current iteration will be around long enough to try other solutions or even see many more elections.  Democrats & (typical) Republicans get us involved in never-ending wars abroad & Trump brought the war home, trying his damnedest to start a Civil War.  Billionaires continue to create a worsening of wealth inequality, the national debt increases & other nations tire of our bullshit.  And what do we do?  Make silly memes about how our country is run by geriatric criminals.  If this was France we'd be in the streets with Molotov cocktails demanding better.  That's how they obtain & maintain their amazing working conditions.  But Americans are too lazy, distracted & propagandized, believing such forms of protest to be indicative of "poor work ethic" or similar.  So here we are, with our Simpsons memes and our murderous shadow government. 

Cartoon references are EXACTLY what we need right now.   /s