
On January 6, 2021, Carmi was still blanketed in Trump signs. The next morning they were all gone. Where did they go? Why did they disappear so suddenly and thoroughly? I just keep wondering, why you all felt the need to take the signs down on January 7, and seem to have forgotten why.
A third of Americans are functionally illiterate. The percentage of Americans who can read at an eighth grade level is less than 50%. As has been the case for most of human history, these are the ones you can count on to follow a leader, no matter where that takes them.
Liberals can’t understand why people believe the blatant lies Trump tells. The truth is it’s the demographic above he’s reaching out to. The others realize that duping the customer ensures Trump has a quarter of the votes locked up. You all are in the joke. Trump has guaranteed you a pay raise.
I watched Trump onstage with Elon Musk, who started his career working illegally in the US. Musk went right wing and bought his way into Trump’s spotlight for north of $60 million dollars, carving out a chunk of the swamp for himself. Musk’s PAC ran a sweepstakes to get people to sign essentially an oath of support for Trump, in order to glean their personal information, in return for a chance to win a million bucks. Given away every day. How’s getting money out of politics going Donald?
But as we found out today, the winners were decided well in advance. The rest of the people were suckers. That’s how the richest man in the world, and the man who wishes he was, looks at those of you who think they will look out for the little guy.
The problem with Trump is a big chunk of those followers can easily turn into a mob, as we’ve already seen. When that happens Trump either can’t control them, or doesn’t want to. Either prospect is terrifying. After all, the two would be assassins had one thing in common. They were former die hard Trump supporters.
What we’ve torn out of our American experience is trust in our fellow Americans. We don’t disagree now, we demonize. Trump literally demonized Harris, before turning his eye of Sauron on the rest of us who oppose him. Taken literally, we are the enemy, in a fight for this country.
Dehumanization is the last hurdle that lands you in a civl war. There are those among us who have already leapt that hurdle.
Maybe it’s time for a divorce. Except now that it’s the enemy within, it would be like getting a divorce from a Siamese twin.
I realize this and also realize, I’m their fucking target. What the militarized groups admit is it has to be a terrorist war, which means targeting each other. My parents didn’t raise me to keep my mouth shut. And I live in a town where my political beliefs put me in a distinct minority. I see what you all say on Facebook when you talk about Democrats. And I’m pretty sure more than a few of you are a couple bubbles off plumb and well armed.
I don’t think Trump set out to be a petty tyrant. He wanted to be loved, and it didn’t turn out how he expected. So he removed the remaining filters that kept us a civilized country. Tucker Carlson said at a recent rally, to wild applause, “There has to be a point at which Dad comes home, and he’s pissed. He’s not vengeful, he loves his children. Disobedient as they may be, he loves them, because they’re his children. … And when Dad gets home, you know what he says? You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now. And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this. You’re getting a vigorous spanking because you’ve been a bad girl, and it has to be this way.” When Trump came on stage it was to cries of “Daddy’s home.”
I imagine I’ll have a recurring nightmare of walking down the street and hearing voices from behind the shrubberies, “hey little girl. It’s time for your bigly spanking.”
Half of American voters want to elect as the leader of the free world, and the custodian of the nuclear codes, a man who called his opponent a prostitute and a demon, extended the description to all his opponents except for the men – we’re all gay, who wants me to dress like a little girl so he can be my spanking daddy and publicly expressed admiration for Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.
Where do I sign up? This sounds like the grade school playground all over again. Near the end, my mom reverted to her childhood as well.
This election brings out the William Butler Yeats in us …
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?