For a lot of us right now, it’s very hard to express in words how we feel about the 2024 presidential election. Disgust, anger, anxiety, fear, dejection, uncertainty, despair and many other feelings are widespread among Democratic activists and anyone who cares about democracy, decency or human dignity. And those feelings are completely understandable and rationa, given the disastrous, disgusting thought of Trump becoming president again. I mean, at least in 2016, we could tell ourselves (delude ourselves?) that many of our fellow Americans simply didn’t know how bad Trump could be, thought he’d just “shake things up” in a good way, didn’t really mean some of the crazier things he said, etc. But THIS time around? There’s simply no possible way that people didn’t know *exactly* who and what they were voting for. And that’s really, really appalling – and disillusioning, for those of us who still had delusions about the tens of millions of Trump supporters out there.
So anyway, it’s still only been a few days since the disaster, but I’ve noticed that most Democratic “leaders” aren’t really addressing what happened honestly, forthrightly or seriously. Instead, I’ve seen a bunch of pollyannish, seemingly oblivious statements about how “we’re going to be ok” (President Biden), or how they congratulate President-elect Trump and will work with him, or how supposedly there’s still a lot to be hopeful for regarding our country’s future, etc. Pretty much total bulls***, in other words, seemingly detached from reality and “gaslight-y” in tone. I mean, get real – this is a f’ing disaster, no two ways about it, and we’d better acknowledge that, put our “big boy pants” and “big girl pants’ on, and fight back – hard.
With that, check out the following video, which I think brilliantly captures what happened on Tuesday and what it says about our country – again, MUCH more articulately than the vast majority of our political “leaders.”
“Well, it’s two days after the election, and yesterday I had a really hard time trying to pinpoint why I don’t think I’ve ever felt more heartbroken and hopeless as I do now. There have been a lot of times in my life when I’ve been disappointed, when I’ve been depressed, when I’ve been angry, but I have never felt these things to the depth that I felt yesterday. But I gave it some thought and I think I figured it out.
The reason I’m so heartbroken, destroyed and absolutely disgusted with the results of this election is that it invalidates everything I have ever been taught about how I should live my life and everything I’ve tried to teach my kids. So it’s an absolute betrayal to realize, at 57 years of age, that when it comes really down to it, over half of this country really doesn’t value the notions of being kind, being generous, loving your neighbor, being accepting, having empathy, showing understanding, being truthful, being ethical in business, being sensible and levelheaded, not being a bully, not being selfish and not being a total asshole.
And because I’ve been taught these things my entire life, it’s really easy for me to see that Donald Trump is a vile and despicable human being. He exhibits everything that I have been taught to set my sights against in order to be a good functioning member of society. But now, over half our country supports this person and believes that he’s the one who’s going to make America great. Well hey, here’s a secret – someone who has worked so hard at sowing discord is never going to do anything to unite us. That’s his big lie. Because he doesn’t benefit from Americans coming together. He and all the Tucker Carlsons and Alex Jones out there, they profit from the rage that they’re able to manufacture.
So don’t tell me it’s okay if we disagree, as if this is akin to our individual preferences for wine or toilet paper. This is not a simple disagreement. This is you telling me that the values I’ve held dear my entire life have no meaning or place in the real world. This is you telling me that I should be shrewd, deceptive, cruel and intolerant. This is you telling me that the type of person you really admire and look up to is a rich, entitled, narcissistic, criminally convicted pussy grabber. And if you’re one of those guys out there that likes Trump because, well, he says what’s on his mind, he tells it like he sees it, he doesn’t have a filter. Yeah, you know sometimes you need a filter.
There was a time not that long ago when being an asshole wasn’t cool. If you were a shitty person and you just kept a lot of that to yourself, then society was all the better for it. But now it’s all let’s make America great *again*. And what I’d like to know is what specific time in American history are you talking about? What year exactly? Because for a lot of folks, this right now, this current time in American history IS the greatest – and you know that. And for some reason you don’t like it. It’s like this crazy idea that giving certain rights to someone else somehow takes some of yours away. Or are you just pissed that you’re not special anymore? And so you can feel special again, you’ll be more than happy to drag us all back 70 years when our Black brothers and sisters had to drink from separate water fountains or back when if you were nonstraight you had to stay in the closet. Personally, I’d like to go back to a time when assholes had to stay in the closet.
And don’t tell me, oh don’t be stupid, you’re getting it all wrong, it’s really about none of that, it’s really about the economy – as if that excuses the behavior. You’re willing to overlook all the other fascist rhetoric, because all that’s doing is showing your wives and your daughters and minorities and LGBTQ and other marginalized groups that you’re completely willing to throw them under the bus as long as you can save 5 cents a gallon on gasoline. Did your stock portfolio get a bump yesterday? Well good for you; maybe you can sit offshore on your new boat and watch this country burn to the ground.
The reality is that as a country, we had the opportunity to take the high road, to stand for something higher than our basest instincts, to stand for equality and fairness, to stand for the overall good of everyone. But over half of y’all kept us from taking it. And the whole world was watching. And you know who else was watching? Your nonwhite friends, your nonstraight friends, your wives, your kids, your daughters.
So to anyone who actually does claim to value those higher ideals – you know, the ones I mentioned earlier, the ones we were taught as kids in Sunday school, yeah Christians remember Sunday school? – if you claim to hold any of those same values but are at the very same time enamored with Trump and perfectly pleased for the outcome of the election, me and millions like me deserve a fucking explanation.”
Special request: can we have some – ANY??? – Democratic leaders who actually talk like this? Or is that simply not possible if you’re a politician?
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