politics out of control in the USA

I have a few liberal friends. I don't intentionally not acquire liberal friends but for reasons that extend beyond how we feel at the ballot box I think there are certain characteristics about liberals and conservatives that are just not compatible. For most people the conservative or liberal aspects of their lives have a grip on the rest of their lives including what sort of activities they engage in and this controls to some degree the social circles that they end up in.

I'm spiraling now. The point is that the other day I was hanging out having some lunch near a lake with 2 friends that are liberal and they were basically high 5-ing one another over the fact that Colorado and Maine have decided to take Trump off the ballot for either the primary, or just in a general sense.

I think they were doing this at least in part because they know that I am safe to talk about politics around, because I am not blue or red, I am purple or whatever dumb-ass color it is they assign to third parties that almost never win anything. I also don't lose my shit because someone politically differs with me and am capable of having a sane conversation with someone disagrees with me provided that they can as well.

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I don't fully understand why Colorado and Maine did this nor do I really care to dive into how it is possible. I think it is pretty safe to say that a large portion of why it was done has to do with politics rather than justice just like a great deal of almost anything that happens in our country, especially to Trump right now.

When they were basking in their glee about Trump being taken off the ballot in these states I let them have their fun and I am not sure if they were trying to get a rise out of me but when I didn't initially say anything about it one of them did ask me what I thought about it and this was kind of proof that at least one of them was trying to rope me into the conversation.

I just tried to nail a couple of points home and hoped that my liberal friends would listen: One problem with this is that they really shouldn't be celebrating what many consider to be a partisan rigging of sorts because this knife can cut both ways and should this become some sort of trend we are going to start seeing other states respond in turn. This partisan warfare will only escalate until we have 2 USA's which honestly, I don't think would be such a terrible idea anyway.

The other point that they were more likely to listen to was when I pointed out to them that this celebration is purely political posturing because the US Supreme Court is going to overturn this ruling by Colorado and I believe it will likely be a 9-0 decision.

The next thing that should concern them is that there are a ton of registered Independents out there like myself that have no allegiance to either Republicans or Democrats, but when we start seeing what appears to be an attempt to limit the freedom of choice that a population has, we start to lean in favor of the side that is being attacked, not the side that is doing the attacking. There are likely many people in Colorado and Maine that just got turned into people who are going to protest vote for Trump purely because of this attempt to keep him off the ballot.

One of the people in the conversation later on talked about how the electoral college system is a horrible system that is only in place because without it, Republicans would never win and this is where I had an "A-HA" moment for her. How can you decry one system that you perceive to take power away from one side (her side) but at the same time applaud something similar that is taking power away from the other side (Republicans.) It is because this is what our country has become: People don't seem to care if something is fair or "right" anymore, provided that it favors the side that they prefer.

I think this is a dangerous way to think because this is what tyranny is. You might enjoy it right up until the moment that it stops favoring you and because I don't believe that the government is anyone's buddy, it is only a matter of time before the cannon is pointed at you.

I'm sure that 2024 is going to be a truly fun year for popcorn munchers like me who mostly don't engage in the conversation but just stand by and watch things burn. People are going to lose their minds like never before and who knows? Maybe CNN will actually get some viewers as time goes by. In the meantime I predict that DJT is going to win the primary in a landslide fashion and if the Democrats were smart they would put basically anyone else on the ballot other than Biden or Harris if they want to stand a chance at winning.