As I write this, the Democratic convention wrapped 15 minutes ago. For the 1st time in the 240 year history of the country a major political party nominated a woman to stand for president of The United States. Over the 4 days, the contrast with the Republican (GOP) convention the week before was evident for all to see. I will not offer a side by side comparison of the two. Instead, a Republican who is a good friend of mine challenged me to explain "why your party is so great". Now I'm fairly certain that I've NEVER described the Democratic party as "great", but to be fair, during this election cycle I've been yelling long and loud to all that will listen to not only denounce Donald Trump, but to actively work to ensure that this clown never gets anywhere near the levers of power. At the same time, I've been fighting back attacks on Hillary Clinton from the more progressive "left". I consider myself a liberal. However I am not a radical. I believe in the institutions of our government, if not always the people that occupy them. I've been studying the modern Civil Rights movement for several years now and my take away is that you never get everything that you want in one go. You take your political victories when and where you can get them and build upon each success and then jealously defend them. One should not let their obsession with "perfect" cause them to miss the opportunity to grab "pretty good". "Perfect" is a unicorn. So I've been in the middle of a whirlwind of crazy, with supporters of a bloviating, egomaniacal, racist, juvenile xenophobe on one side (that list of adjectives could have been MUCH longer!), and die hard Bernie Sanders supporters who would feel justified in not backing the only candidate that could defeat him because, for a myriad of reasons that don't amount to anything remotely significant when compared to the consequence of a Trump presidency, they feel that a vote for that candidate compromises their principles. It certainly has something to do with Hillary Clinton escaping indictment on federal charges and the DNC's emails being hacked and exposing bias for Clinton over the insurgent campaign of Sanders. So given all that, what IS so "great about my party"?
My wife says "Democrats are just nicer people". That could be it, but there needs to be a bit more meat on that bone. I can't explain why I'm a Democrat without drawing a stark contrast with the Republican party. Sad as it is, our country operates within a 2 party system. If you want to play the game, the teams are either Republican or Democrat. I am primarily a Democrat because to be a Republican would make me feel dirty. Now to be clear, though I don't agree with the principles of the traditional Republican platform, I feel that a healthy conservative party is essential. A one party system is not an option that anyone should want to see. But those aspects of the GOP (Small federal government, low taxes, individual responsibility, projection of American ideals, strong military etc...) are not what I find most objectionable. It's not so much the Republican party that I find offensive, mostly it's Republicans themselves! Clearly that is a sweeping generalization, as this post started with a challenge from a Republican FRIEND of mine. I do have some and value them greatly. However, we've all heard the adage "You are judged by the company you keep", and for the last 50 years, the GOP has actively and openly courted the worst members of society into their tent in an effort to maintain power. They strategically rebranded themselves from the "Party of Lincoln" that abolished slavery, into "The White Man's Party". I am not "race baiting", I am not spinning a conspiracy theory. This is just fact. When Barry Goldwater was running for president he rightly assumed that he was not going to get the Black vote after voting against the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and that the GOP should go "Hunting where the ducks are"... The ducks were white people. Until 1965 the southern states were universally represented by white Democrats. As a block they were known as "The Solid South". They were able to do this by enforcing segregation and suppressing the black vote. After the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the white segregationists felt lost. They felt betrayed by the Democratic Party (Lyndon Johnson was a Democrat) and it went against their upbringing to even consider the Republican party of Lincoln. Richard Nixon actively courted these voters into the GOP. It was a numbers game. It was their "Southern Strategy". There were many more white people of voting age than black. They could afford to do it. So the racists now had a new home. They simply switched hats. Most of the powerful southern Democratic senators never switched though, as they would lose their hard won seniority and thus their influence. Party label meant little to them, as they would vote as Southerners, and not Democrats. But as a party, this was the beginning of the modern GOP. Had it stopped there, it would have been bad, but not nearly as bad as it was to get.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy
Growing up I was not interested in politics. I had no affinity for either side and really felt that the country mostly operated on auto-pilot regardless of who was in charge. Then at 24 years old I had my first personal political encounter while living in Bangkok, Thailand in 1993.. I was working there for a bit, Bill Clinton was newly elected and Hillary Clinton was working on universal healthcare. I used to hang out at an ex-patriot bar, where I found myself sitting next to another American that was also a regular. This guy also happened to be the chairman of the Ex-pat Republican party in Thailand. Again...this meant nothing to me. That is until he started ranting about "Hillary-care" as Clinton's healthcare plan was known in those days. I could not understand what his problem was. I asked him "Why don't you think that everyone should have healthcare?.. What happens to the sick and the poor that can't afford quality care? What if they get cancer?" He said "Why should I pay for their illness?" To which I replied "Because they are people, they are Americans and they are sick?" (framed as a question). Then he sipped his drink, looked me in the face and nonchalantly stated that "Not everyone should live..For the species to progress, the weak and poor will have to die off eventually"... I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! That was a real conversation. I thought he must be kidding... He wasn't. When I picked my jaw up off the bar, I determined that if this asshole was a Republican, then I was a Democrat!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993
In the following decade I came to solidify my views. I think world travel played a part. Traveling through some of the poorest 3rd world countries on earth, I'd often think that if not for an accident of birth, I could have been born into that kind of poverty... scrounging through garbage and living in a hole in the ground. Instead, I was born a white male in the United States. If not a guaranteed winning hand, it was certainly an aces over jacks Full House. I was made keenly aware of the privilege afforded me. Not that I was necessarily "given" anything, but I had very very few obstacles placed in my path.
Over the years it became increasingly clear that the partisan battle lines were being drawn. A short list of political skirmishes.
Minimum wage increase- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Raise taxes on the wealthy- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Gun Control- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Universal Healthcare- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Gay Rights- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Corporate Welfare- GOP for it, Democrats against it.
Food stamps- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Funding Planned Parenthood- GOP against it, Democrats for it
Immigration Reform- GOP against it, Democrats for it
Unemployment Insurance extension- GOP against it, Democrats for it.
Raising the Debt Ceiling to pay our existing bills- GOP against it, Democrats for it (used to be a no brainer bi-partisan formality)
Cutting Social Security/Medicare- GOP for it, Democrats against it.
Climate regulation- GOP denies it's a problem, Democrats want to tackle it
Science in general- GOP is regressing to the Bible, Democrats are dismayed by this.
Most of these arguments mirrored the discussion I had in that Bangkok bar. "Why should I pay for some lazy poor person?" "Because it's right fucking thing to do, that's why!"
That is why I'm a Democrat.
At the end of the day, "Why should I pay?" is not a valid argument to not help the neediest amongst us. Of course there are long winded stances on both sides, but often if comes down to money, and the perception of "fair". My feeling is that government is designed for precisely this purpose. Government should foster an environment that enables success while simultaneously providing the safety net that prevents families from falling though the cracks. I think that the GOP misses the point. They frame these issues of money and income inequality as "Class Warfare". Personally, I don't care how rich a person gets. You should be able to accumulate as much wealth as you can. There should be no ceiling! However, I firmly believe that there should also be a FLOOR beneath which no citizen in this country should ever, EVER fall below. That we have as much homelessness and poverty in this country is a national disgrace. That we can't come together as a country to care for our sick, poor and elderly is an outrage to me. So where do we stand politically? I feel if that floor has to be constructed with the tax dollars of billionaires who have benefitted from the fortunes afforded them in this country, then they may have to learn to get by with $16 Billion instead of $20 Billion, or even $16 Million instead of $20 Million. (Gasp!)
Politically the GOP has managed to reframe debates away from the people who would benefit by trying to scare the crap out of people. (Government takeover, socialism, The national debt etc...)
They did their best to kill the Affordable Care Act and are STILL working to dismantle it 6 years later. Many GOP led states have even refused federal funds to expand medicaid to it's poorest citizens for purely political reasons. There are REAL people that are dying due to those decisions. It was more important to score political points at Obama's expense than to enact laws that could help literally millions of people.
That is why I'm a Democrat.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article76161897.html
Lastly, I'll say a little about Donald Trump, as he represents the state of the current GOP.
Donald Trump is not an anomaly. He is the natural culmination of the GOP "Southern Strategy" that I described earlier. He is nothing but a mirror held up to society. Terrifying. I find it amazing that the Bush's, Romney's and other establishment Republicans are outraged by him, as he is their Frankenstein Monster. The GOP has been building this beast for nearly 50 years. They have been fostering racial and religious divisions for decades. To listen to people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones Laura Ingraham etal, is to see the rise of Trumpism. It's mean. It's authoritarian. It's very scary. His embracing of Richard Nixon's "Law & Order" campaign is startling. He plays and preys upon the fears of the masses to his own benefit. I've said it a zillion times. Terrorists can not destroy our way of life, only WE can, by succumbing to authoritarian rule in the name of "safety". That is crazy. Society hinges on certain things.I stand on the subway platform and trust that no one is going to push me in front of a train. Nothing is stopping people from doing it. If a lunatic wanted to do that to me, all of Donald Trump's bluster could not prevent him from doing so. It would just mean that we would live in a world of police surveillance, curfews, security check points, etc...is that the "order" that Trump is offering us? The Terrorists would not be doing that. THAT WOULD BE ON US! We would cease to be the country we aim to protect. Freedom means that from time to time shit will blow up and people will die. We pick ourselves up and move on. I watched the towers fall on 9/11, I knew people that died in them, and yet I still feel this concept of freedom is worth dying for. All this tough talk about "American Exceptionalism", yet when a few dozen people out of 300+ million die, we lose our collective minds. Don't fall for it. Be strong. If a political party's first response to terrorism is to be terrified, then perhaps that party should not be making decisions related to that subject.
I put it to you that Donald Trump is a shameful badge that sticks with you. You can't cherry pick what you like about a man such as him. You can't say "He'll keep us safe" while you are ignoring that he mocks disabled people for laughs in front of a crowd. You can't say "He tells it like it is" and ignore that fact checkers can't seem to keep up with the stream of bullshit that comes out of his mouth. You can't say "He'll secure our border" and ignore that he wants to make a registry of muslims and have a religious test for entering the country. You can't say "He'll get rid of ISIS" while he is encouraging violence at his rallies. If you are for him, you are for the bigotry, the religious intolerance, the bullying, the xenophobia...all of it. It's a package deal. He is a stain that you will have to wear on your sleeve going forward. His behavior is HIS behavior. It's childish, ignorant and mean, but we've come to expect it and unbelievably some seem to have accepted it. But your support of him speaks to YOU. If you are going to support someone who would make it acceptable to mock my disabled daughter, or call her a fat pig because she might not meet a certain standard of beauty... What does that say about you? You have to own that. We can have a real discussion about Hillary Clinton's email server and the history of supposed scandals that have been leveled against her, but ask yourself if SHE behaved in ANY way similarly to any single one of Donald Trump's outrageous acts, what would the fallout be for her? When you have former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke saying that Trumpism has cleared the way for him to run for Senate, what does that tell you? The REALLY REALLY disappointing aspect of this election cycle is the lack of political courage shown by the GOP establishment. To watch them cower and fall in line behind a demagogue that they surely disagree with on almost everything is shameful, and they will carry this baggage with them going forward. Ryan and McConnell have literally had to twist themselves into pretzels to fall in line. Not exactly "Profiles in Courage". When Newt Gingrich came to power in 1994, he decreed that "party" trumped "office", meaning before all else, you were a Republican FIRST and a congressman SECOND. Compromise became a dirty word. Party purity started to become paramount. Say what you want about Democrats, they may be many many things, ideologically pure is NOT one of them. (Ask Bernie Sanders' die hard supporters)
That is why I'm a Democrat.
It's NOT a hard choice for me. Is there corruption and abuse? Certainly. I'm not an idiot. Politicians are known to have a loose relationship with the truth from time to time, but in NO WAY is the mendacity the same on both sides of the aisle. The false narrative of equivalency is maddening.
Being a Democrat means standing for racial equality, sexual equality & gender equality. It means treating healthcare as a right, not a privilege. It means acknowledging that climate change is a real threat to our security and that every citizen has the right to vote. If our government was NOT so divided along partisan lines, and compromise was something that happened...ever... I'd probably be more inclined to be independent. But as it stands now, the lines have been drawn and I fall squarely in the Democratic camp. I realize that I've fallen a bit short in answering the question "Why is my party great?" and spent most of my time explaining what I feel is wrong with the GOP. At the end of the day, the answer to latter explains the former. Lastly, ask yourself why no artists are requesting that the Democrats stop using their songs at their speeches while Republicans are constantly being asked to cease and desist? Artists tend to be the conscious of a society. While in this election "I'm With Her", generally, when it comes to artists, I'm with THEM!
(I have edited this piece WAY down, I should probably write a book with more historical context, I left so much out!)
Friday, July 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
The Idiocy Trifecta: Politics, Terror & Guns
The anger following this mass murder in Orlando is deep and wide ranging. I realize that I am not alone in this. I get angry at the senseless loss. At lives interrupted and shattered. I get angry that these people, mown down in their primes, often get overlooked on the way to a more sensational narrative involving politics, terrorism and guns. Politics, terrorism and guns. Holy fucking shit. Where to start? I suppose we can take them in order.
Politics:
That this massacre happened in the midst of a presidential campaign makes it hard to resist politically. That it happened in the midst of a presidential campaign involving Donald Trump has helped to make the discussion and grieving process cheap, tawdry and distasteful. Amazing how easily those words attach themselves to his name. Leave it to Trump to turn the deadliest mass shooting in US history into a moment to praise himself, bash Hillary Clinton and dive further down the “Birther” rabbit hole with regard to President Obama. (which is already pretty deep)
Only Trump gets away with starting statements with “People are saying….”. It’s always “people” never him. “People are saying that Ted Cruz’s father killed JFK!”. It’s not him, take it up with the people. “People are saying that Obama was not born in this country…”, “People are congratulating me for being right about the Muslim ban in the wake of this attack…”..etc. It’s always “people”, never a specific person. His abstract hyperbolic statements give him little cover to say “I did not say it, people are saying it!” Well if there is one thing we’ve learned in the last year it’s that people are fucking morons. You could lead them straight off a cliff if you told them there was ice cream, a gun and 10 dead muslims/immigrants just over that ledge. That they are so easily deceived by this blatant con man makes me sick to my stomach. I feel like Roddy Piper walking around with the magic glasses in “They Live”. I can’t imagine why millions of people can’t see through this clown.
That he got forced into donating the $1Million he promised the veteran’s organizations by reporters actually doing some reporting, pissed him off so much that it has finally led to him BANNING the Washington Post from covering his campaign. I think ALL media outlets should stop covering his campaign. They are just encouraging him. I always found it funny that Bernie Sanders supporters felt the media was ignoring him. They were not ignoring Sanders, they were covering the orange train wreck on the other side of the street. Can you blame them? If they have a choice between a grumpy old man droning on about the same 3 things and a crazy orange man spewing incoherent venom, with a strong undercurrent of violence, where do you figure they will point their cameras?
This Trump experiment needs to be stopped. It’s not funny, it’s not interesting, it’s not even entertaining. What it is is embarrassing, insulting, and very very dangerous.
As of this moment, if you are a Trump supporter, here is an abridged list of what you are voting to support…
Expanded use of torture (Worse than water boarding)
Banning Muslims from entering the country
Neighbors spying on and turing one another in for questioning.
Expelling undocumented immigrants from the country (by use of force if necessary)
Nuclear proliferation in unstable areas
Expanded war in Middle East
Trade War with China
Breaking treaties with allies
Denying Global Warming, and firing up the coal plants.
Undermining US credit
Building a physical barrier between the US and Mexico
Mocking POW’s, The Pope, The handicapped, reporters, political rivals, The President, and seemingly every single person to ever disagree or criticize him.
Praising Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un as effective and strong leaders.
Birtherism
Capital Punishment for teenagers who were wrongly convicted of rape. (Central Park Jogger case 1989)
Bankrupting investors
Conning the working class out of their money
Banning newspapers that he feels are unflattering from covering him... (censorship)
This list could go on for pages…..
Here is the real point. I don’t care what reasons you might have for rationalizing your choice. At this point, after everything that this bloated, piece of shit has said and done, if you are still supporting him, then you have probably crossed the point of no return as a human being. I’m telling you, in case no one else has, and because I know that you don’t care for political correctness, that you too have consciously decided to be a piece of shit as well. This is not even a political difference of opinion, as this is not about politics. This is not about saying “Well Hillary is under investigation for her emails!” Fuck that. This is about a man who will prey upon fear, race, religion and hatred to advance his own agenda. What his agenda is, is Donald Trump. Always has been. The man has not done one day of public service in a life devoted to greed and self-aggrandizement! When the NY Times reported that his casinos in Atlantic City were failures that left investors and contractors holding the bag for millions in debts, Trump crowed that HE personally made millions. That it was at the expense of everyone else is not relevant to him. The promises he made about revitalizing Atlantic City back then sound an awful lot like “Make Atlantic City Great Again!”... He is full of shit and not even terribly original about it.
At the end of the day this is NOT a GOP v. Dem decision or a Liberal v. Conservative decision. This decision is about being a decent human being or being a piece of shit. Choose wisely.
Terrorism:
Terrorism is a mind fuck. It’s what it’s designed to do. My thoughts about what happened in Orlando was that it was probably NOT terrorism in the true sense though it was indeed terrifying. That was a crazy, hateful person, maybe even gay, lashing out in self-loathing at who he was. It was not a real political statement, it was suicide in a blaze of glory, not unlike the German guy who crashed the plane full of passengers into the mountain, just more hateful. This asshat had no idea what the difference was between Sunni or Shia Islam, so don’t tell me he was a radical Islamic extremist. But even if he was, even if this was like the Paris shootings, or 9/11, people need to understand that while the terrorists do indeed have the power to take lives in horribly violent ways, they do NOT have the power to destroy our way of life as some politicians would have you believe. Only WE as a country can do that. And we do. Repeatedly. We play right into the hands of ISIS and Al Qaeda every single time. They are terrorists, and we as a country never cease to be terrified of them. They wave a red cape in our face and we bullishly charge. Who does that benefit? All they need do is release a threat over the internet and watch NYC go on lockdown and security officials around the country run around trying to “secure” the nation from these cave dwellers. How powerful that must make them feel! They flinch and we jump 20 feet in the air and cower. Then, should something happen and people die, we act as if the zombie apocalypse is upon us, suspend civil liberties, and watch as politicians vie to see who can act tougher on TV in the “War on Terror”. It’s a thriving industry. Where would Rudy Giuliani be without it? Here is the problem. We have to decide what sort of country we want to be. What does “Freedom” mean to us? The U.S. is always going on about “Freedom” and how we are the home of the “Free” and the greatest country in the history of the world. That is a bold claim, but if we are REALLY going to be a free and open society, then we have to be willing to absorb these blows as part of the deal. If we are to have a society where everyone is free and one can walk the street without fear of government oppression, then you must accept that from time to time, something is going to blow up and people are going to die. In short, we need to counter terror with bravery and strength! Don’t misunderstand me, I really hope it’s not me or anyone I love that gets killed, but I’d like to think that the country would realize that for all the flowery talk, that “Freedom” as a concept and way of life is worth standing up and dying for. As President Obama says, ISIS does NOT pose an existential threat to the United States.
They are not coming to invade and take over the country. There are only a few thousand of them living in shit holes in Syria and Iraq. However, our FEAR of ISIS is really dangerous, and empowers scum bags like Donald Trump and Dick Chaney to prey on our collective fears. I feel that New Yorkers have it about right. We suffer the blow, we grieve, we move on. That is the template that the country needs to follow. Anything more than that validates the tactic. If we succumb to the hate, division and knee-jerk reaction towards authoritarianism that people like Trump espouse then WE are destroying our way of life, NOT the terrorists. It’s one more reason that Trump needs to be scraped off of the soles of our collective shoes.
Guns:
This debate drives me insane. There should NOT even be a discussion about this. I’m actually pretty good about seeing both sides of an argument, but in the discussion over gun control I just don’t see it. There is little legitimate reason for owning handguns and ZERO legitimate reason for owning assault rifles. The best one can say is that they are cool, and fun to shoot. It’s like arguing with Nigel from Spinal Tap. This gun goes to 11! A deeper reason sort of goes hand in hand with the terrorism mind fucking. People who own guns actually FEEL safe owning them, when in fact, every objective study shows that people with guns in their home are over 40X more likely to shoot themselves or a loved one than any sort of intruder. It’s like a bad insurance policy that does little to insure you but has a very good chance of killing you and your family. Of course that only happens to OTHER people. You know, the irresponsible gun owner, not the law abiding, pure folk who would never get drunk and kill someone over a parking spot, or a cell phone in a movie theater, or loud music, or a zillion other reasons people shoot each other in this country. For 20 years the US had an assault weapons ban and miraculously the country did not fall apart and similarly we did not have mass shootings every 28 fucking seconds! How on earth can this country not see that if EVER there was something that begs to be regulated, it would be an instrument of death that could potentially slaughter dozens of lives every minute without reloading. Go ahead and make that self-defense case. I’d LOVE to hear how you need to mow down swarms of illegal aliens who are storming across the border to rape your daughters and steal your jobs. What the fuck is wrong with you people?!! No civilian should own a weapon of war! It’s really that simple! The good guy with a gun nonsense is just that. Nonsense. The shooters in these horrible attacks are not even having to buy these guns illegally. They all do it legally and above board. We are not even making them work for it! At least make them sweat a bit… They should have to wonder if the seller is an ATF agent or other law enforcement. Better yet, make them go all McGyver and build a pipe bomb or something. That sometimes works to deadly effect (Boston Marathon), but often it doesn’t. Remember the Shoe Bomber, The Underwear Bomber, The Times Square Bomber etc… they all failed to detonate! Hell even the San Bernadino shooters could not get their pipe bombs to blow up. Their assault rifles sure worked though! They bought those legally and killed a slew of people with them. No one is saying that new laws would prevent ALL future attacks, but this open tap of weapons needs to be shut off! Why are we still even MAKING new weapons. We have over 300 million guns in this country. Allow that number to sink in for a second. 300 fucking million weapons of death in the hands of the civilian population. Please know that today’s “good guy” with a gun is potentially only a a divorce, job loss, or bankruptcy away from losing their minds and being a “bad guy” with a gun. You can’t arm a population of 300+ million people and expect that people aren’t going to get slaughtered. And they DO get slaughtered. Every. Single. Day. This is a uniquely American issue. No other western industrialized nation allows its citizens to murder one another with guns the way we do. This incident may have just tipped the scales so that death by terrorism shooting edges out death by TODDLER shooting. Yes, kids under 5 years old kill nearly as many people in this country as terrorists do. Further, we can’t even have a rational discussion about the problem without the NRA and it’s GOP proxies claiming that regulation=confiscation. It’s all connected. The same fear that drives people to buy an assault weapon to protect themselves from terrorists, drives people into the arms of demagogues like Donald Trump. He gleefully stokes the fear and encourages them to buy more weapons and “defend” themselves. Let’s game that out a bit. Aurora, CO movie theater. Lights are out, a madman bursts into a crowded movie theater and opens fire. Several good guys with guns leap up and start firing as people are running for their lives and cowering in fear. The smoke fills the room. The good guys have little way of knowing WHO the bad guy is, they just know that THEY are good. Anyone with a gun is now a target. Same holds true for the police that might burst into the room. Anyone with a gun is now a target. In the confusion, the good guys start killing one another as well as bystanders. It’s a circular firing squad. Same situation in Orlando. A crowd of drunk people on a dance floor with loud pulsing music. A madman opens fire. 5 people pull out their weapons… what could possibly go wrong? I’m not saying that under no circumstances could a shooter be stopped by a trained civilian with a gun, but to use that as the ANSWER to a national crisis over guns is absurd. We have an addiction, and need a serious intervention. When you find yourself in a deep hole, the first order of business is to put down the shovel and STOP DIGGING! If your answer is more guns, then you are part of the fucking problem. Please wear your Trump hat, Confederate Battle Flag belt buckle and NRA lapel pin so that I can stay as far away from your moronic lobotomized ass as possible.
In the wake of this horrible, murderous tragedy, it would be wonderful if the US could put aside it’s useless, intransigent method of governing (shouting past one another) and come to some understanding of itself. We are a melting pot society, it’s what truly makes us exceptional. And if bloviating orangutans try to convince you that this melting pot should not include people that don’t look, act, pray or think like you do, please remember that how we respond to moments like these are akin to holding up a mirror to society. Take really long hard look and tell me if you like what you see.
Friday, May 20, 2016
The Company You Keep (Le Grand Orange)
The Company You Keep (Le Grand Orange)
This whole Donald Drumpf thing is not getting better. In fact it’s actually getting worse. Much of the GOP establishment is predictably falling in line and trying to rationalize their support of the carnival barker that could rightfully assume the moniker once ascribed to the much loved baseball star of the NY Mets and Montreal Expos, Rusty Staub (for his red hair)… “Le Grand Orange”
Le Grand Orange of the GOP is an all together different animal. His relationship with the truth is hostile at best, putting the lie to the famous quote by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynahan that “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Le Grand Orange feels very much entitled to his own facts. His facts are a loose combination of things he’s read online, been told anecdotally and things he wishes were true. Mashed together and repurposed through his Twitter feed, these bits of fiction or “ficts” take on a life of their own until he and millions of people come to believe that his ficts are facts. It may very well be pathological. In the immortal words of George Costanza “It’s not a lie, if YOU believe it”
That so many believe that Le Grand Orange is a “straight shooter”, that he “tells it like it is”, is actually more ironic than any Seinfeld episode. The list of current lies is so outrageously long that I could not conceivably list them all, but just today (TODAY!) he lied about…
Opposing intervention in Libya (in contrast to HRC’s “poor judgement”) Problem is that he supported it… ON VIDEO!
His opposition to the Iraq war in 2003 (he claims he was against it… but…really?)
Claims that Hillary Clinton wants to do away with the 2nd Amendment and take away your guns.
But the single most amazing load of crap that he has repeatedly run on this season, and the one his supporters have clung to as proof of his outsider status, is the “I’m self-financing my campaign so will not be beholden to anyone.” nonsense. He just received campaign promises from Sheldon Adelson to the tune of $100,000,000, and is now plugged into the GOP fund raising apparatus looking to raise $1 BILLION. This of course raises the question that if he so incredibly wealthy and has $10B, why would he need to do this in direct contradiction to his boasts of self-financing?
It’s amazing. You almost get overwhelmed with the amount of bullshit spewing from his face that you can’t actually react to all of it. So there is the serial nature of his lying, and then there is the targeted bigotry, meant to rile up the worst aspects of the base. Muslims, Mexicans, the Chinese etc… all are fair game and all are, well…. not white. The question that a Drumpf supporter needs to ask oneself is this. If it is CRYSTAL CLEAR that this man is blatantly lying and making a mockery of the process, the presidency and the people who support him.. what does that say about YOU, the person who actually supports him? He is clearly playing you for a fool, and yet, and YET, there you are, cheering him on and buying his hats. There you are laughing and cheering as he mocks disabled people, objectifies women, threatens to ban an entire religion from entering the country and deporting millions of people forcefully. This is not about him, Le Grand Orange is a clown for sure, but more than that he is a big scary funhouse mirror held up to our society. When you, a Drumpf supporter look into it, what do you see?
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Stop for a minute and think... President Donald Trump!!??
Politifact.org "Lie of the Year 2015"
He amazingly claims to be a "self-made" man. Saying his father gave him a "small loan" of $1 million dollars to get started. Of course when his father Fred Trump died he did leave Donald a few hundred million dollars. So that makes him the perfect example of the guy who was... "Born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a triple!"
Everything he says is designed to garner a reaction. And the more people react, the more outrageous he gets. However, his single most disqualifying act, the act that speaks directly to who he is as a human being, was when he cruelly mocked a physically handicapped reporter in front of thousands of supporters. This reporter had the temerity to report that Trump was making up the story that "thousands of Muslims were on rooftops cheering the towers coming down on 9/11". See, that is a classic Trump tactic. He'll say THOUSANDS, when there might have been 9. You say he's lying, and he'll point to the 9 and say "Who's to say there were not thousands more we don't know about?" But back to the mocking of the afflicted. Trump was so outraged, that he felt the need to curl his arms and press his chin into his chest, doing his best Stephen Hawking impersonation, and start to speak as this reporter in a manner one might associate with a mentally disabled person. It was clear. It was unambiguous. He was playing it for laughs.
Once the disbelieving press rightly called him on this behavior, Trump DENIED doing it! Are you going to believe HIM or your lying eyes? He can't walk that back, and I can't un-see it.
I am the proud parent of a 4 year old autistic girl that is the light of my life. The thought that a schoolyard bully, and that is what he is, could be elected president of this country and that people would somehow think that it's OK to mock and bully my little girl, because after all, the PRESIDENT is doing it, just makes me shake with rage.
This is not about his hair, or his spray tan or his "strong hands". It goes MUCH deeper than that, though his vanity does play into it. His nature is to bully and insult his way through obstacles. Here is a short, very abbreviated list of examples:
Huge proponent of "Birtherism" (Barack Obama is NOT a US citizen, therefore not legitimate)
Illegal immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug smugglers (Though some are good people...whew)
Islam hates us, and all Muslims should be banned from entering the US.
John McCain is only a war hero because he got caught. Trump likes the competent ones who did not get caught and spend years as a POW.
Carly Fiorina is too ugly for people to vote for.
Sen. Marco Rubio is "Little Marco"
Sen. Ted Cruz is "Lyin' Ted"
Mitt Romney would have "Dropped to his knees if I'd had asked him too"
Women who have abortions should face criminal punishment.
He would bring back medieval forms of torture "Worse than Waterboarding", because other countries do it.
I've not even gotten to any of his proposed policies, but I don't really need to (not that he HAS any real policies). All of this should be enough to convince anyone of the absurdity of his candidacy. If anyone can envision a person that would behave like this sitting in the Oval Office, making life and death decisions about the future of this country and the world, then they are the other part of the problem. What Trump likes to call... an "Enabler".
Please look ONE MORE TIME at that video of him mocking that disabled man and ask yourself if you could imagine Pres. Obama ever in a million years doing that. Ask yourself if you are OK with a person that would even THINK of doing that being the leader of your country and it's face to the rest of the world.
I'm sure I will have more to say on this as the campaign ensues, but for now...
#StopTrump2016
Gavin Guerra
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