Friday, July 22, 2016

on the eve of destruction


I've been avoiding all things political for weeks months!, scrolling past everything that even smacked of politics, to the point of staying off FB because even scrolling past I am still inundated with the headlines and the meanness and fear and demonization and hatefulness and the total lack of compassion or decency or even politeness that has infiltrated this country, all of that seeps into my consciousness and it's like a bad taste in my mouth, an oily tang.

I rarely comment on news postings now and I have mostly stopped reading the comments altogether. I have enough trouble finding good in human beings as it is and if social media is the mirror of society that it is purported to be, I'm not likely to change my opinion any time soon. Few know how to be civil or even care about civility. It's a race to the bottom to see who can be the most vile in their comments. If they aren't insulting your integrity simply because you don't agree with them then they are threatening you with violence and if you are a woman, then it's double down in the most crude way possible. This is America today.

The Texas Republican party had their convention last May and voted on their new state platform that consists of 266 items. Last time one of the planks in their platform was being against teaching critical thinking in the schools because it might cause children to question their parents/authority for real. Some of the things they voted on to include this year are the complete repeal of the Voting Rights Act; the phase out of Social Security and, of course, the immediate repeal of the ACA; abolishing the IRS as well as the Departments of Education, Energy, Housing, Commerce, Health, BLM, Transportation, and the ATF; the right to just ignore federal laws they don't like; abolish the minimum wage; the demand for a Constitutional Convention so as to gut the basic principals of this country and allow them to hate on those icky other gendered people and deny them equal rights cause their god says so and run them out of town on a rail, so to speak, as well as chucking the whole separation of church and state thing so that they can impose their twisted form of religion on the government and through the government; and of course being totally against abortion, outlawing it completely as if that will stop it from happening. The petition to secede did not make it on the list but only just barely.

Now the national Republican convention is over and Trump has the nomination. Every speech given was full of lies and full of fear and finally Trump himself got up there and promised not to lie and then stood up there and lied or if he actually had a raw fact correct, it was presented in such a way as to be totally misleading. I'm not going to analyze his speech. Plenty of people have done so already pointing out the falsehoods and the inaccurate extrapolations. That anyone would vote for this man is scary. That he might actually become president of this country is a nightmare. That one of my brothers-in-law is a Trump supporter leaves me speechless on the one hand and aghast that I have been such a bad judge of his character all this time on the other.

It's not that Trump lies, which he does and mostly, or that he's unrepentant about it. It's not that he hasn't floated one single bit of policy or plan on how he would accomplish all his aggrandized statements of 'making America great again' aren't we still the richest biggest superpower? or 'getting America back' code for 'making America white again', which he hasn't. It's not that he hasn't any idea of what it takes to govern having never been in any kind of public office rich people don't govern, they give orders although all that is certainly extremely important. It's that he is completely unsuited to hold the office of President.

This is a man who in an interview before the 2008 crash said he HOPED the bubble would burst because then he and people like him would make a lot of money. He HOPED that thousands/millions of people would lose their homes because of bad banking practices so that he, Donald Trump, could make a lot of money. This is a man whose endeavor after endeavor has failed and oftentimes filed bankruptcy, who always managed to protect his money and so the fall was taken by everyone else. This is a man who has built his empire and his fortune by screwing over his contractors by not paying them or by paying them a pittance of money owed. This is a man who imports foreign workers so he can pay them less. This is a man who blames the opposition for jobs and industry lost and who has his gear made anywhere but in America. This is a man who is saddened because protestors can protest without the police or paid 'enforcers' bashing in their skulls so he encourages his followers to do it instead and then offers to pay their legal bills. This is a man whose supporters give him the Nazi salute. This is a man who lusts after his own daughter. This is a man who sics his lawyer on anyone who disses him with the orders to not just get even but to destroy the perpetrator. This is a man who cannot talk about anything but how great he is. This is a man who in his acceptance speech promised he would protect LGBTQ citizens from FOREIGN ideology but said nothing about domestic ideology and whose party platform calls for legalizing discrimination against the LGBTQ community. This is a man who casts everyone who isn't white and male as somehow deficient or evil or a criminal. This is a man who has chucked political correctness aside to 'say what he thinks' and in the process has legitimized hate, racism, and violence against those that are hated. This is a man who gained political support from people by threatening to ruin their careers if elected if they didn't support him. This is a man who has hinted that he will hire someone to do the parts of being President that he doesn't want to do.

I'm going to borrow from this essay: http://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12218136/donald-trump-nomination-afraid and I suggest you go read it and this is not the only essay I have read that has come to the same conclusion.

He is vindictive, a bigot, a sexist, a liar, a narcissist, he admires totalitarian dictators for their 'control', he never apologizes only attacks, he surrounds himself with yes-men, has not bothered to learn anything about policy, he is, for all his wealth, incompetent, he is a bully whose only response to any criticism is to demean in the worst possible way the perpetrator, he incites and encourages violence among his supporters.

He painted a picture of this country that makes me wonder if we are living in the same country.

Two things have leaked out about what he plans if elected. First he will seek to change the law so that he can purge (fire) from every corner of government anyone who does not agree with him. The second thing is that he has claimed that he will bring the 'lawlessness' rampant in American society to it's knees on Jan. 20, 2017 as soon as he is elected. Coming from a man who admires totalitarian dictators and who thinks anyone who isn't white and christian to be a terrorist or rapist or murderer, how do you think he plans to accomplish that and who is he going to target first? Because there will be seconds and thirds and whether you are a citizen or not won't matter one bit to him.

If Trump is elected President, you can kiss your constitutional protections goodbye.

But it's not just the citizens of this country at risk, it is also our position on the world stage. This is a man who has said he will use torture without hesitation, he will authorize the use of deadly force against the families of suspected and known terrorists, he will not necessarily come to the aid of our NATO allies. He will have the nuclear codes fer cryin' out loud. And wouldn't that feed his colossal ego, pushing that button.

This man is in no way intellectually or emotionally prepared to be the President of the United States and he is making no effort whatsoever to become so. 

And an alarming amount of people are ready to vote him into office.




16 comments:

  1. insanity insanity insanity and it is indeed terrifying! Hillary has some heavy lifting to do!

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  2. I barely can do the FB thing too. It's too much. When I come away from it and from the news and even NPR, I feel like I can't live life normally. I will be glad to see Hillary speak, that, I will listen to but not much.

    You did a wonderful job in this post, Ellen. You hit all the spots. I hope you feel better, maybe feel a little bit of relief from writing it. It was so well done. And I agree with every word.

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  3. As an outsider, being in the UK, I can tell you that I have not come across one person outside the USA not horrified. I'm so surprised he's got this far. Still we needn't worry about the Trump Boris handshake across the ocean now and the hair product tips they'd be passing each other.

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  4. The current political morass is all a knee jerk reaction to becoming a minority. Except for voting, and for standing my own principles, I have no solution. I do have a vision of "them" contracting, circling the wagons, back to back, defending their rights against the hoards. Actually, I imagine them in Texas, though Utah would be fine, too.
    I wonder what has become of all the women in this country. We worked very hard for them.

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  5. Well said. Every word. This is a National nightmare that such an evil, egotistical man could be considered for president.
    I can only hope that Hilary marshall her strongest allies to get out the vote to defeat him.
    I feel that he gets so much press time, smothering everyone else.

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  6. Totally agree! Terrifying & baffling. And 2016 has sucked so royally for us this year that I'm afraid he just might win.

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  7. I'm with you on all counts.

    Just out of curiosity, what does your brother-in-law say about supporting him? I'm always intrigued by the reasons people offer.

    I continue to believe he cannot win. I don't say that much because I don't want people to get lax about voting -- we need every vote against him! But deep down, I don't think he's got a simple majority of voters in his corner.

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  8. He's a sociopath. Pure and simple.

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  9. It is sickening. I think his supporters are the die hard republicans who won't vote for anyone not on their ticket. I swore he'd never get this far so I must not really know anything. I do know the republican party has been dying for the past 16 years or so, and we are seeing its demise. Though I'm a demo, I do think the repubs will come back a much better party. Kick out the Rove's, Cruz's and the old guard moral majority and they may have a chance. I don't even want to know any Trump supporters.

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  10. Adding insult to injury; November 8th is election day and it also happens to be my birthday. If Trump wins the election I might not get out of bed for a few days.

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  11. I just had a dear, intelligent, and honorable man tell me he was voting for Trump. I think he is a one issue voter and he does not want gun restrictions. He also blames Hillary for Benghazi deaths even though eight investigations could not prove her singular actions brought this about. Yes, it depresses me greatly because I liked to think that Trump's supporters were all uneducated poor white guys who lost their jobs, and now I see the truth.

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  12. I have been looking forward to this post you promised awhile back! I, too, am unfortunate enough to live in TX. I don't understand what has happened to brains, common sense, in this world we find ourselves in now, This next few months will surely be the longest, dreariest of our lives. Sad that we must live wishing for time to go fast. I just hope things go the way they SHOULD, and Trump gets TRUMPED by Hillary in November.

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  13. I keep wondering how did we get here? Who are these people? This is just scaring me to death.

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  14. The government not working together got us here, The media, used by Trump and promoted by their sponsors to earn more revenue, got us here. The first name used in the news every day and last joke said by comedians at night (Trump) got us here. We should not have laughed so loudly, or taken it for granted that he would go away and maybe we would not be here. I have never been so sad for my country or been more surprised to find out how many Americans would support this fascist bigot.

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  15. I've avoided politics on TV, social media, and any conversations about politics, especially at work. I actually work with people who are FOR Trump. mind boggling! I just can't believe he's has gotten this far.... we are so screwed if he actually get elected......

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  16. It is frightening. And it could really happen.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.