This Week's Funniest Joke

The Funniest Joke 

This week’s funniest joke was told at the Republican National Convention. Mike Pence – who is not generally known as a comedian – told us that only Mr. Trump could save us from the wave of violence that would be brought on by the election of Joe Biden as president. With a straight face, Pence told us that we had to elect Trump as our president if we wanted to be safe from the violence and disorder that a Democratic administration would bring on. What a laugh!

The thing is that Mr. Trump is our president now. The disorder and violence that Pence wants us to fear are happening right now on Mr. Trump’s watch, and we can see that he has no idea what to do about it. He talks about how wonderful the police are, and he ignores the fact that a black man in Kenosha was shot in the back seven times. (In the back seven times! Let that sink in.)  Mr. Trump pretends that the deaths of people like George Floyd or Breonna Taylor are collateral damage in a “war” to save our “way of life.” He stirs up people’s fears, inflates his chest, sticks out his chin and “promises” that he will not allow “radicals and anarchists” to endanger our country, but his claims are a joke because he is our president now, and he doesn’t know what to do.

Two Ways to Maintain an Orderly Society

The simple truth is that there are only two ways maintain an orderly society. One is to provide what our Pledge of Allegiance calls “liberty and justice for all,” and the other is to use violent repression of dissent. When we provide liberty and justice for all, we don’t have to worry about civil disorder because no one wants to disrupt a fair and just system. If we don’t provide liberty and justice for all, we can insure social tranquility only by repressing dissent. Stalin and Hitler are the models for that. They had orderly societies, but their peoples paid a dreadful cost. (If you want to know more about this alternative, you can read about the Sicherheitsdienst.)  

If we want to have a just and fair society without resorting to violent repression of dissent, we have to provide “liberty and justice for all.” We cannot have one system of justice for white people and another for black people. We have to work to realize the promise on which our country was founded. We don’t have to achieve perfection all at once. People are patient, and if they can see that we are moving toward a more just and fair society, they will wait. If they can see that their children’s lives will be better than their own lives, they will be patient.

Mr. Trump Has No Idea What to Do

Mr. Trump has shown clearly that he doesn’t understand any of that. If we want to know how Mr. Trump would deal with our country’s disorder and violence, all we have to do is look around. We don’t have to hope that if he were president, he would know what to do. He is president now, and it is obvious that he has no idea what to do. So, Mr. Pence’s claim is a joke, or perhaps it is the punch line to a joke that has been going on since 2017.

To Get Change, Vote for Change

If we elect Mr. Trump on November 3, we can be sure that nothing will change. He will be the same clueless blowhard after the election that he is now. He doesn’t know what to do now, and he won’t know then.

So, wake up! If you want change, vote for change.  Elect Joe Biden!