It's EZ to say: May you live in interesting times.

Today's update:

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/08/1071198056/theres-chaos-in-kazakhstan-heres-what-you-need-to-know

Politics still aren't EZ - Reflections on Kazakhstan and the U.S.

Jan 6, 2022 – One year later and one month since my last blog post.

I was listening to BBC today. They were reporting on political violence occurring in Kazakhstan. Crowds there were rioting and attacking government facilities. The BBC reports explained that the violence was due to the failure of the central government to address with fairness long-standing concerns of the citizens. The reporters were expressing shock and dismay that the government of Kazakhstan was referring to the rioting citizens as ‘terrorists,’ implying that there would not be political violence there if the central government was not failing. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be in favor of the rebellion and counter to the government, which, to be clear, is authoritarian and had called in Russian troops to shore up the establishment. Many residents of Kazakhstan interviewed on-air were expressing surprise and dismay that such events could happen there, in one of the main cities of their land.

The above report followed the BBC’s report on the events in Washington DC on this date a year ago, and President Biden’s remarks of earlier today. Likewise, BBC reported on shock and dismay that such could happen here, in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Otherwise, the contrast in attitudes and reporting was stark. The BBC reporters had no problem with the U.S. Government referring to its rebelling citizens as ‘terrorists.’ The BBC reporters didn’t hint that perhaps the U.S. Government (minus Mr. Trump) should share any part of the blame—they covered, in depth, evidence that Mr.  Trump should carry some of the blame (which I certainly agree with). But I must ask, could the differences in reporting be indicators that the media is biased? Could the entire Trump presidency and all its trappings be at least partially a result of our establishment's choosing to ignore the concerns of many? Or do we decide that nearly half of our country's people are simply evil or insane?

The horrific events in the U.S. a year ago were and remain very complicated.

Current reporting forgets that Democrats have called conservatives “deplorable, despicable” and “backward” for years, all the while investing no apparent effort into listening to concerns counter to their own agenda. For decades, many of the liberal elite have demonstrated a ‘better than you’ attitude without showing any attempt to understand others’ positions. On (taxpayer-supported) college campuses, they have demonstrated that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applies only to liberal speech. Could our establishment be at least partially to blame for not listening to the concerns of citizens? That seemed to be the case for the Kazahkstan establishment, according to the reporters.

It seems to me that the liberal half of our political body has treated half of our citizens as an abusive spouse treats their partner, setting that partner up to be easily seduced by a lover who will listen and not call them derogatory names.

BBC did report that Democrats distrusted the 2016 election to pretty much the same degree (61%*) as Republicans distrusted the 2020 election (62% initially increasing to 68% today*). What has caused the increase in Republican distrust over the past year? It is easy to blame the increase in distrust to the BIG LIE and social media spread of related conspiracies. While probably a valid point, I believe there is more to it. On January 6, 2021, Mr. Trump was nominally in charge but as a lame-duck president was not able to propose changes that may have improved the security of future elections or our democratic republic’s institutions--even had he wanted to, which I don't believe he did. The situation is complicated by our republic form of government, with 50 different state laws and elections to make up the whole. The federal government doesn't have the authority to fix everything. 

Mr. Biden’s administration has pursued prosecution of those who participated materially in the violence against the Capitol a year ago with no compunction shown in using the 'terrorist' label. But the charges against those prosecuted have been trespassing, not insurrection. Is there not proof of insurrection? We have not seen the current administration successfully implement anything to address improving our election security. Have they proposed significant improvements to the overall fairness of our institutions? Perhaps H.R.1, the For the People Act, was intended to do that, but it was not crafted in a form that could be passed in a 50-50 split Senate. Maybe something like including a universal voter ID (with assistance, funding, and assurances to make the ID available to all) as an offering to conservatives would have tilted the balance in favor of an improved voting rights bill. I don’t know if that would have been enough to attract the needed Republican Senators’ votes. When Texas passed a voter-ID law (never fully implemented) I volunteered to work with a local organization to help the elderly, poor, disadvantaged, or handicapped get proper and acceptable IDs. In the 90 days the organization was actively and very publicly seeking to provide that help within Bexar County, Texas (with a population of over two million, 17% of whom are living in poverty), we got zero calls for help. No one identified a single eligible voter that did not have a valid government ID. I did hear of one person in Austin that qualified for help in getting an ID they didn't have, but they refused assistance. It seems most liberals were interested only in defeating the voter ID law and not in helping any ID-less disadvantaged citizens (if any exist) comply with the rule. (Are they afraid of that voting rule? And if so, why? Other countries that liberals present as model societies, such as Finland and Germany, require voter ID.) Changes in U.S. state laws regarding federal elections are piecemeal and seem counterproductive and in some cases harmful and regressive rather than helpful.

On a freeway overpass, as I drove under, a small crowd waved U.S. and Don’t Tread on Me flags and displayed signs that said, “ANTIFA + FBI = Jan 6.” I do not believe ANTIFA had any significant involvement in the events in DC of January 6^th. I have seen no proof of ANTIFA involvement. I have seen reports that seem to indicate that the FBI leadership made conscious decisions to fail to act on intelligence that could have allowed Capitol authorities to be better prepared for January 6^th. If that is true, was it done to increase the chance of the success of the attack on the House, or was it done to allow the attack to become worse than it would otherwise have been, thus hardening attitudes toward those who participated in the attack on the House?

So, this is what we’ve come to. Kazakhstan and the U.S. Compare and contrast.

*As reported by BBC on NPR.