The stupid prevailed, as predicted, and won over half the US Congress. It's depressing alright, but what the hell. I can't say it's surprising. Ever since I can remember (I'm in my sixties) there's been this vast, under-educated, self-serving, shallow-thinking, violence-prone mass of Americans who oppose any sort of community other than their own narrow, particular community.
The ruling classes lead them, again and again, into war and destruction like a herd of dumb cattle, while they moo and stomp and shit and do exactly as they are told. Even worse, they'll trample you to death if you stand in their way. Yes, it's a depressing thought.
On the other hand, politics isn't everything - not by a long shot - and just because a bunch of assholes are running the government, that's no reason to despair. Assholes have been running governments for millenia, but somehow art and culture and intelligence have survived them. The spirit of compassion is inextinguishable, like the spirit of art. It's an eternal thing.
I stand firmly within that spirit (I would even call it a community of sorts, an international community) that includes most all the best writers, poets, painters, actors, playwrights, dancers, musicians and composers, vagabonds, refugees, a lot of prisoners, and millions of homeless people all over the world. This is not an insignificant coalition.
Are things much worse for us now than they have ever been? I don't think so. We have always had to work twice as hard as anyone else, to gain any recognition whatsoever. More often than not, it has come post-humously if at all. Does that discourage us? Of course it does. Does it change our course, does it make us deny what we believe in? It does not.
So fuck the Republicans. And fuck the majority of Americans as well, if it comes to that, if they go that way. Let them do their worst, even if they lay waste to the whole fucking country, they will never be able to even touch the faith and solidarity and hope of me and my people.
We ain't gonna disappear just because a crowd of creeps have a lot of weapons (both financial and actual) trained on us. That has been paar for the course, historically speaking.
America has provided a battleground, upon which we have fought and won many a battle. It has been a refuge, and a solace, and a doorway of hope for so many of our ancestors. But little by little a kind of entropy has set in, and America has lost its bearings. America today is (to a very large degree) fat and lazy and selfish and irresponsible, and mostly ignorant. Thanks in no small part to American television. Let's not kid ourselves - the America of today is an aggressive, dangerous, xenophobic, and unprincipled superpower.
Those are just the facts ma'am, just the facts.