I've been relatively silent about the recent US election, which found Donald Trump to be the winner of the electoral contest. There have certainly been many opportunities to point out errors in thinking, errors in accusation, errors in logic and errors in process, but in a sea of dissent, another shouting voice is simply useless. And anyway, if you know me, you know I didn't support any of those assholes running.
It's worth noting that there exist some striking, and troubling, similarities between our results this November, and the not-so-distant results of another country I shall leave unnamed for the sole purpose as to not invoke a cliche, no matter how fitting it may be. Quite unfortunately, making valid comparisons to a historical event only provokes the armchair commentators of the internet, now also known as the American People.
What should be noted going forward is the willingness of lawmakers to taunt the public they serve, as in, for example, the "Suck it up, Buttercup" legislation recently announced in Iowa - itself, a godforsaken fly-over territory often found crying to federal lawmakers about its poor-me role in ethanol sales and production. During Fox and Friends, Kaufmann said,
“That’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and that also doesn’t prepare kids for life. In life there’s winners and losers and when your car breaks down, your kids get sick or you have to take a second job to pay your mortgage, you don’t get to go to a cry zone, you don’t get to pet a pony. You have to deal with it,”
Never mind the last eight years of hearing, "President Obummer gonna take r guns!" and "We got a Moozlem in office!" were both pathetic pleas for attention. And never mind that Bobby's above dumbassed rant seems to be addressing a separate topic altogether; i.e. misfortune vs. protest. And never mind that he's a 31 year old man going by Bobby, instead of Robert. And let's just nevermind that he's more or less part of the same generation he seems to be admonishing. What we can glean from this legislation is that an idiot redneck like Bobby Kaufmann represents nearly 50% of the American population who fails to understand the difference between 'hot' and 'cold', 'good' and 'bad', 'narcissistic megalomaniac idiot" and "narcissistic megalomaniac politician." Because what's at stake here isn't that a Republican won - Donald Trump isn't a Republican, just watch the near meltdown of the party prior to his miraculous election where they called him everything but a Republican. This is about racism, bigotry, misogyny and hate coming to the forefront of our historically diverse nation.
What should also be noted is the willingness of a public to suddenly stop being "American", and start being something much uglier, more akin to a nation ruled by totalitarians. This is highlighted by the attacks on people of "different ethnicity" post-election. What is quite unfortunate is that the very people attacking these "ethnics" for being "other", likely have family - not so far off the boat - who experienced these very same attacks. In fact, what makes us American is our diversity. But we'll have to save that bit for another time.
What we should take away from all of this is that our country is divided, painfully, angrily; like a festering blister burst open and exposing raw meat underneath, infected and red, and perhaps days from becoming gangrenous. The calls to "unite" and "come together" have all been from wolves in sheep's clothing - the very same wolves who refused to unite under "Obummer", and the very same wolves who cheered when federal lawmakers took many opportunities to quell the processes for which they swore an oath to uphold (gov't shutdowns, Supreme Court nomination hearings, etc.), setting a dangerous precedent for politics going forward. And fuck it - not just dangerous, but despicable. These same actions, in the hands of the opposing party, would have been decried as treasonous. And this ridiculous cycle continues at the hands of a power elite on both sides while we fight over the fecal scraps.
Because you know where we're heading? To ruin. Plain and simple. Donald Trump being elected did not ruin this country, nor would have a Hillary Clinton victory - those are part of our political process. What is leading us to ruin is our division. Political lines were drawn in order to garner votes, not as measures to better our peoples' lives. We are the starving ones, not them. We are the cold and hungry ones with stagnant wages, long working hours, crummy benefits, and an inability to afford things. Not them.
So if we are to fight, let's stop pointing fingers at the little letter on our voting cards under political affiliation, and let's stop pointing fingers at those talking heads that come on every four years to tell us they're "one of us, one of us, gooble gobble, gooble gobble!" Let's start getting fucking serious. Next time a politician comes to your state, string him or her up by the throat and hold a knife to their belly. Weren't we a Nation for the people, by the people? These bastards aren't our people anymore. It doesn't matter if you're white, black, red or yellow; from Syria, Mexico, Ireland or Italy. What matters is that you're goddamned American. Join the ranks. Kill the politicians and let's start over.