Fox News reporters describing their version of a liberal agenda can be a bit dramatic. I’m not sure we have enough time for that today but I would like to discuss how to keep the United in our States. Too late?
OK, hear me out for a sec. If you’re hoping, secretly or otherwise, for four more years with a reality TV star in the Oval Office, I’m talking to you, because I care, but I can’t afford to trust you. And yes, I realize you might not trust me either. But this matters, so let’s try to get through it.
Fact: Donald Trump did not create systemic racism, sexism, classism, or any other isms. We all know they already existed. Donald Trump says racist things and enacts racist policies. The Bible and the American Flag, even medieval symbols have been twisted by now empowered white nationalists (fascists) into what they are certainly not. And the tweets? Don’t get me started. They are limited to the words he uses in every speech:
“Dangerous
Gay
Mexicans
And
Immigrant
Welfare
Mothers
Forming
Gangs
With
Thugs
Are
Coming
For
Your
Job
After
Raping
Traditional
White
Families
Hashtag
MAGA
Hashtag
Guns
Hashtag
Fake
News.”
Seriously though, he’s hardly the first president we’ve had who has a track record of racist positions; flip your almanacs to the chapters on Richard Nixon or Woodrow Wilson as a start.
Sexism? Hah! The subjugation, trivializing and bullying of women knows no party allegiances whatsoever. Kennedy and Clinton were prolific misogynists, though not unique in politics. If we’re talking about class hangovers, or for that matter LGBTQ+ rights, Trump’s treading a path worn smooth by Reagan and plenty before him. Nothing about Donald Trump is groundbreaking, or original or “Christian”, decent, honest, inspiring…sigh.
“Hey kids let’s watch our leader … Never mind! “
Fact: He didn’t even singlehandedly destroy the public trust; that’s more than he can take credit for. Our public trust has been in a tailspin that started somewhere between our founding and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and accelerated as public education ghosted more and more of our young population since the 1970s.
Donald Trump is not an evil mastermind — at least, he’s a cheap excuse for a “mastermind.”
Since the last election cycle I feel sorry for comedy writers because it must be hard to lampoon the personification of a joke- one that’s on all of us.
If you ever saw the animated movie Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, you probably remember Tim Curry’s star turn as Hexxus, a sort of dark-energy force of pure destruction. Hexxus has no agenda but his own power and all that is destroyed in his quest to increase it is of no concern. That’s basically what we are dealing with: a cartoon monster of mindless appetite who grows fat on suffering, confusion and strife.
No wonder Betty coda didn’t trust humans. We humans can’t even trust humans! The neighbors just put a MAGA sign in their front yard. They seemed so nice. Invasion of the Body Snatchers? A limited news cycle with no interest in where the money really goes? Neglecting to verify sources? A concussion, followed by memory loss? Fear of a Black Planet?*
The specifics of the suffering are miraculously overlooked by MAGA supporters identifying them selves as Christians — this includes children in cages, Black people being murdered with impunity, and the “reallocation” of any public funds 45 can get his tiny hands on, even with irrefutable proof.
Trump will throw anyone and anything under the bus if it serves his deathless need for a limelight.
Fact: This isn’t really a liberal versus conservative thing. No: seriously, it isn’t. No one remembers this because apparently we have the attention span of a goldfish, but Trump, in case anyone is still keeping score, was a Democrat and a crony of (and fundraiser for) the Clintons. He’s also been an Independent. In the end, he’s not really anything. He’s human anti-matter and goes wherever he can generate the most chaos. So let’s put that all aside. It’s not about party for Trump, and by that token, we don’t need to make it about party either.
Whatever Trump is, “ideologue” isn’t the word for it. His “pre-existing condition” isn’t bone spurs, but rather his complete lack of cogent ideology. What he’s capable of, and so good at it that it earned him the name “Teflon Don,” is acting in his own self-interest no matter how much carnage it creates, and never taking the rap for it.
That’s what we elected. A social media troll. An overgrown schoolyard bully. A guy whose only real skill set is getting away with things like leaving 5 young men to rot in jail (Central Park Five) knowing they didn’t do it. And I’m not saying “if you vote for him you’re a racist” or “if you vote for him you are a white supremacist.” You might be, you might not be.
If you support this guy’s reelection, then the best case scenario is that you skipped World History class to get stoned behind the gym and never asked anyone what you missed — the worse-case scenarios start with “wantonly contemptuous” and descend from there. If you vote for him, you either know you’re voting for chaos and the continued nuclear winter of the public trust, or you don’t know that’s what you’re doing. Either one is a big, big problem. Some might call this problem huge.**
* Apologies to Chuck D and Public Enemy.
** pronounced “yuge”.
Special thanks to the brilliant writer, editor and Poet Laureate Amy Glynn.
Of note: All artwork is original in that I create mixed media works, but images within the piece may be borrowed and modified from a variety of inspiring creative sources.