Because I am so politically aware, and because I take the long view of American progress and I have thought about this nation's political history I am usually the one my non-political friends come to for advise and comfort after a big election does not go as they (we) hoped.
On this blog I think my most used expression is "This great republic" and by that I usually mean - we are better than our current political leadership, we have survived a crisis in the past or just a general our country will be fine.
After Trump won enough electoral college votes to become President of this great republic I could not be the comforter to my friends. I could not promise them that this great republic would be safe or even survive under his leadership.
For the first time in my life I began to doubt that this nation's future was going to be better than it's past.
A racist was elected President
A failed businessman was elected President
A TV reality game show host was elected President
A man married 3 times was elected President
A man who bragged about grabbing women by the pussy was elected President
A man who did not understand why we did not use nuclear weapons more often was elected President
I tried to bring comfort to my friends, I tried to say this great republic would survive but I just could not.
But, then I saw congress was incapable of fulfilling his mission and I gained a little hope. Maybe if we just do nothing over the next 4 years this great republic will hang in there.
And, then Charlottesville happened this weekend.
Today during a summery of events on CBS Sunday Morning I started to cry.
It is 2017.
Racism is thriving in this country.
Bigotry is thriving in this country.
Often after overtly racist events occur politician and pundits say "We are better than this"
Clearly we are not "We are better than this".
If we were Charlottesville would not have happened.
I no longer have hope for our future.
I have given up.
We will no longer a great republic.
We will no longer be the indispensable nation.
We will no longer be Ronald Reagan's Shining City Upon a Hill.
Donald Trump and his racist supporters will destroy this nation and I can think of no way to stop them.
I think some people are paying far too much attention to the Presidency and the media for that matter.There isn't a whole lot of KKK or Neo Nazi members.They have been both pretty small groups for some time now, and they didn't have anyone's ear.You don't see many wide shots of this little shindig of these groups for a reason. So that leaves the so called alt right.
ReplyDeleteWhatever its origins somehow the phrase took up new meaning in the last year or so for very dissimilar people who were working to either get Trump elected or to keep Hillary from getting elected. I am a fan of people like Dave Rubin, Gaad Sad, Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia. Seven months ago I have seen these people and plenty others get labeled as part of the Alt Right or at least people who travel in that circle .I watched and listened to others who were identifying as alt right, and never did it seem to constitute a racist element( well the 4chan people come off that way, and some of them probably are , but a lot of them are just shit posting wannabe hackers living in their parents basement).What happened is that it started years ago as some small organization of racists and stayed small until about 2016 when for whatever reason this other movement happened and the name got co-opted . A little like how the republicans stole the tea party from Ron Paul and turned it into something else.
Anyway the past was forgotten and would have stayed there had Trump not won.But here we are , and a few months ago The Atlantic published a piece on one of the guys who apparently started the whole thing and what he was up to now, and poof, guess who are all racists ? Convenient for the dying dinosaur media and dyed in the wool DNC progressives.Its easier for them to beat that stick and call that whole thing racist.That the racist element got Trump in the Whitehouse. Sorry but that is BS. The people I mentioned before are classical liberals who ditched the party as did a whole lot of middle America when it became obvious that they were not being listened to.
Like I said, forget Trump, why the heck can't the Dems get a win almost anywhere right now? Why the hell does a party that ought to be dead from all the infighting ,who have no real platform,why do they have control over both sides of congress and are far stronger in state governments.People don't really love the Repubs that much. The DNC literally can't buy a win and by most accounts they are poised for more hurt the next cycle.And that's with El Trumperino hitting very low digits. How did we get here? It isn't racism. Fix the DNC. Most in the middle don't like much about the GOP, but enough of them are tired of being harangued.