Tuesday, November 15, 2016


 "They say signs that the end is near, I wonder can I walk a righteous path holding a beer" - Resurrection by Common

(written on Saturday) It's been a difficult week.

I can't help but to look back to 8 years ago this week when president Obama was first elected. All the hopefulness, all the anticipation of change, all the wishful thinking. And while somehow in the back of my mind that euphoria was tempered with an 'oh crap I know they going to shoot him before he gets into office!' anxiety which thankfully didn't come through I still felt like it was a momentous occasion. Something truly wonderful had happened.

A black president!

Didn't think I'd see that in my lifetime.

Flash forward to this week and if the Obama election took us to euphoric heights, this election has had the opposite effect and plunged us into the depths of worry and despair.

Crap! THEY DID WHAT? Really need those coping mechanisms now.

Who would have thought that someone spouting the hateful and divisive rhetoric of a Donald Trump would actually win this election and now be president-elect of the USA?

I'm trying to make sense of it. I need someone to blame maybe. I mean seriously, whose fault is this? I need scapegoats to make me feel somehow better. OK not better but to justify to me how this all happened.

And so I blame the disillusioned and the apathetic who refused to vote. Only 58% of the eligible voters voted. As the line goes if you don't participate you only have yourself to blame. Can't complain now if you didn't do your democratic duty. Oh you thought your fellow man had your back? You thought your fellow man was smarter than that? You saw both candidates as equally revolting? Voting changes nothing you said? One vote means squat?  Still your fault that a spouter of misogynistic and racist statements is now the president-elect. Hug dat up!

And so I blame the Bernie fans. Some of you are up there in the disillusioned and apathetic pile. Yes your candidate failed to get the nomination and you were depressed and angry, real angry. And maybe you were cheated and you definitely feel cheated. But so what! Suck it up! So cheated you decided as we would say in Barbados to 'cut off ya nose to spite ya face'. Yes you folks that declared Hillary the devil even though she was the selected candidate of your party. Or maybe the Democratic party wasn't your party and you saw Bernie's platform as a socialist agenda you could get behind, damn the Dems.

And so you refused to close ranks. You preferred to vote for Gary Johnson or write in Bernie or to not vote at all. All to spite Hillary thinking you were unfaired or that if you voted against the Democrats things would change. Down with the status quo you ranted!  Do you have regret now with a Trump presidency? What's your take on the rise of overt racism with children and minorities being bullied in just the few days post election? And that's just the start. Yea this is on you guys.

And I blame the Democratic party. Not only does it look like you had some shady backroom dealings to sort out the democratic nomination and swing the primaries in your or Hillary's favor but you guys misread the populace totally. Yes Obama has been an awesome president but let's face it Hillary is totally uninspiring.

Saturday Night Live said it best this weekend:
"Why aren't people turning out for Hillary like they turned out for Barack Obama?"
 "I mean, maybe you're replacing a 40 year old charismatic black guy with a 70 year old white woman. That's like the Knicks replacing Patrick Ewing with Neil Patrick Harris."

An inspiring democratic candidate might or probably would have won here. A candidate without so much baggage as well. In a sense Hillary's experience weighed her down, it was used against her because a lot of folks were upset with the status quo and the same old politics. That's not to say Bernie would have won. I still think he would have been pilloried as a socialist and that some of his proposed initiatives would not have withstood scrutiny. But Hillary rode the wave of its a woman's turn next and I'm the experienced candidate and didn't get it done. She should have but man that baggage and those emails.

And not only did you misread the situation Democratic  party, with regards to the candidate, but you misread the situation with regards to what the average person, white mid-westerner, southerner, small town dweller wanted. People were upset about jobs and immigration and liberal policies. Yes you didn't need to pander to them like Trump has but maybe just maybe let them know that their views were valued and they were being listened to. That you felt their concerns over a loss of jobs and strange fears of newcomers who they didn't know. But you fell for that recent rhetoric that said unless the Republicans courted Latinos and Blacks there was no way to have another GOP president and umm y'all was well wrong.

But back to the Hillary emails.

I blame FBI Director James Comey. What were you doing bringing the email controversy back into play a week before the election? I mean come on son! And if people paid attention. I mean really paid attention they would have realized your press release was utter nonsense. It had nothing really to do with Hillary at all just Anthony Weiner's emails. Come on dude!! Why'd you do Hillary like that? You sir opened the door and affected an election's results. That door for folks to pile on the "but Hillary is shady and she needs to be arrested and she's evil" and all the other b.s bandwagon when really for a lot of them it was like naa I don't really want a female to lead so I will look for any excuse to oppose her.

Yea don't think I forgot you guys. I blame you sexists too. You, but women shouldn't lead folks, perhaps quoting obscure bible verses or some misogynistic logic to justify your bias. Come on now Hillary had the experience. You really should have experience before going into this job don't you think? What did Trump have? A tv show and questionable business practices. Sure let's give it to that guy.

How you going to pick and prod at Hillary's email scandal and totally ignore Trumps racism and his not paying taxes and all the litany of other scandals and reasons he was a questionable candidate. Come on now son. Let's keep it real. Y'all didn't want a woman presi!

And now let me get into the folks I really want to blame. Yea y'all Evangelicals particularly you white evangelicals. Cause you know we must add a color adjective to Christians cause of course we're going to have segregated heavens right?

Yea you bible thumpers and holier than though cats. I'm talking about you.

I mean I honestly get that some of you feel persecuted. That some of you may see the new gay marriage and anti-discrimination laws for gays as an abomination. That the  Kim Davis stuff really got to you. You felt like your rights were being affected. Or that some of you don't like the government's stance on abortion. Lets all vote for President simply on the one issue of repealing Roe vs Wade why don't we. Ignore all the other stuff.

But even if you were anti-democrat did you listen to what Trump was saying. Did you really listen? Did you listen to his voice captured on tape talking about 'grabbing pussy'. Did you listen to his sexism? Did you really hear to his repeated racism and his blame of America's woes on immigrants? Did you see who was supporting him? I mean did you really really look at the fringe groups that were supporting him?

You my so-called Christian friends deliberately got into bed with Neo-Nazis and the KKK. Let that sink in for a minute. You joined arms with Neo-nazis all because of gay marriage and abortion. Bravo!

You the cats that always claim the moral high-ground got into bed with the racists. You sicken me!

Don't take this as an anti-church, anti-God polemic. I believe in the same God as you but I seriously question your interpretation of his wishes. You could have argued both candidates are flawed and maybe you shouldn't vote or maybe not push yourselves into the discussion but perhaps ask for the nation to pray and make its own decisions based on where God lead them. Instead church leaders openly told congregations to vote for Trump. You chose sides when both sides were flawed! And for this I'm disappointed.

I was led to believe that sin was sin. What gave you the right to judge abortion and LGBT rights as bigger sins than racism,and sexism? Show me the bible verse that says racism is a lesser sin, that thou shalt pick the sexist and misogynist, the one who seems to support sexual assault over these other sins? Just show me that verse and I will just let this go.

But nope you dudes lost your moral high ground with this move. Your vote has led to further division in the USA. Your vote has led to fear amongst those of other religions. Fear amongst those of other races. Fears amongst those of other beliefs or sexual orientations. Your vote has led to the emboldening of those used to be fringe groups who oppose all that don't look or dress or believe the same as them. The kick out the Muslims and the Latinos and the "those uppity niggas need to know their place" groups. You my 'Christian' bredren must take your fair share of the blame for this.

So now I've got that off my chest. It is what it is. Blaming didn't really help but at least I got it out of my system. But some innocents will and are already suffering as they face taunting and assaults and discrimination directly because of this election result. All we can do is hope to help them if we can but we cant undo whats been done can only live with it.

ps: We even got some white rights signage popping up in Toronto. I guess the Trump triumph has brought out all the racist thoughts


Empath said...

I am trying to determine if you missed anyone. But yea there is a lot blame to go around and the sad truth is people on both sides would have held their noses while they voted. Paul Ryan for instance put party before country, as he endorses the man then denounced the man, still voted for him. Partisan politics be the same everywhere, which is discouraging, especially if you are a from a vulnerable group. It means that the people who have the job of implementing legislation that will directly or indirectly affect your life to the negative, can't see beyond their own partisan agendas. I understand why many folks would be scared. Don't get me started on the churchies. All kinds of soul searching needs to be done on their part.
The Democrats have a lot of rebuilding to do.

VirginiaC said...

Well said and I wonder if all those who had any doubts before have a settled mind now that the proverbial shit has hit the fan.
And so it begins......