Methinks, the art of persuasion has run out of gas,

[cachukis]

for some, and been taken over by the cudgel. When you have little way of convincing others that your perspective has merit and you want your way, to what alternative can you turn?
Mitch McConnell has been brilliant at avoiding the cudgel. Say what you will, he has persuaded his following to stay true to their faith. He waits for opportunities to guide, to influence.
He has an audience of users, abusers, and downright folks stuck in an age that time forgot.
It's not an enlightened bunch working on a better world, but a frustrated bunch making ends meet while making themselves feel good about it.
These people need pastors, guidance.
They don't have time to philosophize, because if they did, they would make the time.
These are our neighbors, some friends.
We are quitting on them and falling into our own self serving quagmire.
We have reached the edge of nadir.
We will not escape climate change.
We will need our neighbors more than ever.
We, who see, must be neighborly.
Our neighbors want neighbors, but are at a loss how to do it.
The recent exposure of fox patrons opened minds after CNN views, verifies our path.
There is a bit of truth in almost any statement.
Clarifying the nugget is parental.
Try as they will, they won't stop what they are trying to stop.
Our job is to help them reconcile that futility.
We won't get the entrenched, but the ones not digging so badly can be pulled out of the hole.
122°f in Pakistan.
Management of power or water in Powell and Mead.
We are in serious times.
Putin is a pustule complicating it all.
Simply, we've all let it happen.
Writing on the internet ain't going to stop it.
Drill sergeants jump into your shit before you are out of bed.
Or we accept our ice cream cone before it melts and feel good about it.

[elleng]

1. Something like that;

dems could sure use Carville and H. Dean.

[cachukis]

2. I'm not sure we're thinking right.

Washington and Adams were anti party. Jefferson accepted that parties were the flow and pushed the ball down the hill.
Both Carville and Dean are altruistic; they believe we should live truthfully.
That world is gone.
Rabbit ears are a distant mirror.
We have outlived the best of times.
The generations coming will never know the excitement of "The Rolling Thunder Revue."
They are not seeking an Oracle. They have one in their hands. They are instantly brilliant.
We are chasing an escape from a rotary crowded with aggressive drivers not kind enough to recognize our dilemma.
We put ourselves here.
We sold our house and moved into a 1970 rebuilt Airstream to stay ahead of the maelstrom.
Proactive.

[elleng]

3. 'altruistic; they believe we should live truthfully.'

[cachukis]

4. They are both tough cats. They both tell it like it is.

I phone banked to North Dakota for Dean. People are set in their ways.
For example, tonight we visited a market where our very successful daughter, in another field, was marketing her original granola under our borrowed tent. We sold antiques from our shop but did markets and shows for years.
I challenged the passerby, somewhat Carney style to lure them to the samples. I used schtick. The passerby didn't appreciate schtick.
Our mindset is dealing with an audience we did not teach, in fact ignored with our own hubris.
We grew up thrilled with the spread of Americana without realizing what that really was.
Luckily, at an early age 16, I spent the summer of '68 in Europe.
I got to see America from the outside. We all need to see ourselves from the outside.
Sadly, many of us won't. And they vote.
I believe our generation squandered the best of times like every generation before us and every generation following because we we consumed our own infallibility.
We allowed the Supreme Court to happen. Shame on us.