I tried, really hard, to stay up last night until the
results came in on the last few states. Instead of making it through, Matt and I
went to bed, fingers almost literally crossed, that the outcome didn’t
play out as it appeared.
As I slumbered, I dreamed of Wisconsin. Of New Hampshire and Maine and Pennsylvania. I imagined that,
when I woke up today, my fears about the state of our union were fruitless.
I was fucking wrong.
But, then, I’m a woman so I’m usually wrong. A liar. A
criminal. Right?
For everyone who voted for the Republican candidate for
President, congratulations. Your candidate won.
The schoolyard bully took what he wanted, by presenting zero
plans for why he wanted it in the first place and even less of a plan for what
he planned to do once he got it. Except some vague promise that he would make
our country great again.
Because all that mattered to the man was that he won. There was nary a consideration for
what would come from the 1461 days the office would be occupied. There were no plans
laid out of how to get there (wherever there is). No clear-cut paths to pulling
the country out of this hole we’re allegedly buried in right now. Being un-great.
Policy, foreign or domestic? No need to share those plans
with the country you’re going to represent because, in your own words, we
should blindly “believe me” that it’s going to be “tremendous.”
Life has shown me in my short 43 years on this planet that
people who say “trust me” or “believe me” with a level of frequency, generally can’t be trusted or
believed.
But none of that matters. We’re going to be great.
Again.
And that’s the real issue for me. The writer in me thinks
words are the most important form of communication. I also know that nothing said in a
presidential race is done without careful consideration. Every word
is used to affect/effect change.
So now I sit here thinking of the republican campaign
slogan. The one printed up on so many hats, tee shirts, bumper stickers donned
across this country. The one that actually managed to get that guy a boat-load
of blind sheep following him right into the proverbial gas chamber.
Four tiny words. Ending with the word ‘again’.
To say ‘again’ means that something has already happened and
the same thing is going to happen another time. Perhaps multiple times but at
the very least, twice. Need more? Here are some examples of how to use the word ‘again’ as
we all wake up this morning to hear the news:
- I’m throwing up again (meaning, I already threw up at least
once).
- She lost her access to healthcare again (And if she gets
pregnant, that lazy bitch had better not try to live off welfare now that we’ve
removed literally every other option for her because she can't get birth control OR an abortion. Ha ha!).
- My gay friends are celebrating their anniversary again.
Oh wait, no they’re not.
In fact, after this result, most people I know and spend
time with will never be the same.
Again.
Because I keep going back in my mind over the last 240 years
of history in this country, trying to pick out the time period when we were
great for the first time. As a collective nation. As democracy became a thing and hearken back to that point in time when we were all treated as equals.
Like I said, the ‘again’ can only be used if there was a
first time occurring.
And truly? I can't come up with one single time period that all people were treated as equals. Let’s consider a brief overview of the base history of this
nation:
The world is flat.
The world is not flat.
I can sail to India.
You landed in Florida.
That’s okay, we can send hundreds of people to the place I
just "discovered."
Uh, people already live there.
No problem, genocide is cheap!
You want to wipe out an entire population so you can have
religious freedom?
Sure but really I just want more than I
had before. Land! Freedom from tyranny unless I'm the tyrant!
So, what’s theirs is yours because you have the guns?
Precisely!
And now that you “own” all this land, what’s the plan?
Why, get rich of course.
The homeland wants their cut.
War.
War.
Systematic decimation of the Native people’s entire
culture.
War.
Industrial Revolution.
War.
War.
AIDS.
War.
War.
You forgot to include the war on, well, everything (which of
course has brought more of that thing into the country) and you also forgot some
teeny tiny issues like slavery, literal witch hunts, racial profiling.
Oh yeah but nobody cares about all those losers anyway
because us white dudes rule!
Uh, the majority of the population no longer looks like you,
talks like you, thinks like you.
Yes. They do. We proved it last night. We win! Again!
So in my very truncated history of time in this country
there is one glimmer of promise in what we might see ‘again’ – a time when white,
male, aristocrats got rich. er.
Well shit, as a female I can’t wait until all the men make all the money! Take back their formerly great country again!
In fact, I think I’ve been looking at this all wrong.
If the men are the only ones making money we ladies can go
back to the days where we had nary a care in the world. Our dinner was always
on the table because we put it there. With a huge fucking smile on our face and a bow in our hair. We didn’t need concern ourselves with
silly things like paying bills, not desiring sexual advances, having jobs.
Ah hahahahaha!
We don’t work outside the home. That's what men do. We don’t do anything unless it serves our
man.
Our rich, white man with the terrific job that is so
difficult and complex he needs to have sex with his secretary to take the edge
off.
Is this a 1984 comedy flick or the real world?
Oh, or are you upset because I generalized an entire segment of the population
into a stereotype you don't like very much? Wait, that can't be right. Republicans don’t care about that stuff, they have
generalized every segment of the populace so saying shit like that out loud definitely
shouldn’t bother them. Right?
Then again the bully really
hates being called out. And he will make up whatever rhetoric he needs in order
to discount every single one of our logic based views. I’ll likely be strung up
and burned at the stake any minute now.
So as I consider all of the above facts I want to share
three thoughts to conclude this article:
As defined, Democracy - a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges –
is very likely over in this country for real because ALL citizens will not be
afforded that equality of rights necessary to live up to the term. Don't believe me? Read all about the dude about to become VP.
Get your honey-lemon tea ready Charles Schumer,
we really need your long-winded conversational skills now more than anything.
A huge majority of people reading this article will have no
clue who Chuck is, why that last statement matters, or how politics actually
work in this country. But congratulations anyway because that shit no longer matters. The soon-to-be POTUS doesn’t know either.
Hate breeds hate. And a country
driven by hate is where we all started out to begin with. Back in the early days of this country and this presidential campaign.
Now here we are. Again.
Or, perhaps, in this case, still.
• • • • • • • • • • •
In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.