"The Rules"

 I keep seeing posts and videos where people - outraged people - talk about how the regime isn't "playing by the rules". 

They're right, of course. That's sort of the point. 

The ugly part of the situation with what's happening in DC right now is that this is exactly what many people voted for. They were tired of playing by the rules, because the rules hadn't helped them in so many years...  And Democrats, for all their pontification about being for equity didn't really do much for many people. They ignored the fact that we had a significant jump in homelessness over the past 4 years, due in large part to a wage gap the likes of which the world hasn't seen since France in the 1700s. 

And anyone who's a world history major knows how that turned out.

To be very clear: I am not, in any way, shape, or form, supporting or condoning what is happening. I'm saying that it's happening because a lot of lower class people were tired of being ignored or dismissed by their government. When you're ignored, dismissed, and the general feeling in the room is that somehow you failed yourself with things that were literally out of your control, it's hard to continue to support the party that you feel is doing this to you.

And when you start hearing someone else saying that you deserve better, you start to listen. The trouble is, in all of that "you deserve better" rhetoric, there's a lot of hate, blame, and empty promises in there as well. But the sound of "you deserve better, I'll give you better, all you have to do is vote for me and I'll do everything you want" is just such a siren song for people who've been ignored so tragically over the years. And they're willing to side with anyone who might give them even a crumb of legitimacy in their lives, or at least provide some sort of justification as to why their lives are currently shit.

Democrats haven't courted lower class people in a long time, because that's not where their donors come from. And while many people (usually boomers) think of the US as a "melting pot", it couldn't be further from the truth. The US was founded by very rich, old, straight white men, who for a long period of time, felt that only land owners could vote, because only land owners had the education to understand laws. While constitutional historians might disagree on what these men might have meant by certain statements in the constitution, the bill of rights, and the subsequent amendments that came about over time, they all have to agree that this is what the country was founded by. 

That means that, in the end, the people who have always run the country have been rich, old, white men. As amendments were created, the landscape of rights changed, and there were a lot of uncomfortable adjustments made for those amendments. But ultimately, the majority of laws, even up through 1976, directly benefited and catered to straight (or at least straight-acting) white men. 

So, with all of that, why would any logical white man want to upset the balance of what the government is doing right now? Well, that would be because some white men feel that they still don't have *quite* enough power or money. You can never be too rich, right? Or apparently too white. 

The rules, as they are written right now, are not helpful for either side. They aren't helpful for the current regime in power because they're blocking them from power, money, and control. They aren't helpful for those who oppose them because the rules follow long, arduous processes in courts that can be bought by enough money and bribery. And because if the right just ignores the rules, then the opposition following the rules isn't going to make anything happen in time for everything to be broken.

Following the rules is what got us here - and following the rules is not going to get us anywhere. There will have to be a point where the opposition to the current regime stops playing by the rules, too. And once that happens, everyone stuck in the middle is going to be in for a bumpy ride.