I can’t explain it. I can’t comprehend it. I have no idea how we got to this point. The easy answers (cheating, bigotry) seem too easy…any sense I have ever had about justice and public decency has been turned on it’s head.
A party that has acted horribly, shutting our government down to the brink of economic collapse, a party that has tacitly (and now directly) encouraged hostility & violence, a party that refused to follow the rubber-stamp process of confirming justices and appointees, a party that disenfranchised thousands of voters, a party that has put their own power over country time and time again was rewarded rather than punished for that behavior. They allowed the radical wing of their party to dictate their actions, constituents who have no interest in improving our government, who just want a rabid lawyer to argue their case and take no prisoners regardless of the collateral damage to the nation and it’s people . There must be a right and wrong and my way or the highway. No compromise, no discussion. The past years have been an example of how NOT to govern a nation as there has been a complete breakdown and abuse of the checks and balances intended to force governance.
A candidate who said (and did) bigoted things that would have disqualified anyone running for any office in the last 50 years was able to get away with lying. And lying about his lies. And admission of his own lies. No one cares that he is in this for profit. and power. and blatant nepotism. and god-awful taste.
All that we value as Americans is now dust. No longer can we lead the free world towards any sort of values. There are no more higher ideals once money becomes the number one and only priority. Our government is not for and by the people it is for and by the rich. This is something we have always complained about and yet we just elected the poster boy for this concept.
A leader should serve those he or she leads not the other way around. We know this. We know he is corrupt. We know he is a lying piece of shit who would step over his own grandmother for a better piece of real estate. We know this and accept it. He is a caricature of every negative stereotype that exists in the world for Americans. He represents the worst in us. The pinnacle of greed, ignorance, entitlement, unfounded conviction, narcissism, bigotry and sexism.
And yet somehow he is now our leader.
How I feel right now–is this how others felt when Obama was elected? Certainly there were those that believed he was a deceiver, a closet Muslim sympathetic to terrorists. I accept that those who live in their own bubble would think this (or worse). As our President stated anyone who watches nothing but Fox News is not going to like him. It makes sense now the hatred and loathing those people felt about Obama. I am hopeful that the opposition party, which needs to find it’s own soul, can obstruct our current leader as effectively as the GOP hamstrung Obama.
Big difference in bubbles: the beliefs about Obama were founded in things that were insinuated, implied, and flat out non-facts…our current leader has said and done things that prove who he is. You can choose to ignore them or rationalize them, but the statements are there, we can confirm that he said (or did) these things. He has not released his tax forms. He has not had a press conference since July. Obama never said “I am going to take all your guns” but Trump has said many times he wants to build a wall, kick Muslims out, Mexicans are sending rapists, I just grab them by the pussy, etc…am I truly in a bubble if I can argue an air-tight case with the evidence presented?
I want to know if I am so deep in my own bubble that I am missing something. Because if not, then the only options I am left with is 1) the people of this country are a lot more tolerant of bigotry, of sexism, of racism, of homophobia, and anti-Islam then I could have ever imagined and/or 2) there has been some major fraud committed that would explain the difference between polls and results. The first is the probable answer but I am not sure which is more damaging to us as a nation.