This past week, I commented on a thread on Facebook. It was a pretty innocuous comment along the lines of, “I am going to miss President Obama.” Almost instantly I was attacked by right-wing trolls (a.k.a. friends of a friend). I was called a “snowflake.” The president was called, among other things, “Obummer” and “Nasty Ape.” I took the high road, wished them a nice life, and reminded them that while a single snowflake might not be much of a threat, a group of them can form blizzards, even avalanches, and overwhelm you.
That is what political discourse in America has become. We have devolved to the lowest common denominator. It isn’t enough to just disagree with an opponent: we have gotten to the point where we treat politics as a blood sport. Those on the right seem to have cornered the market on the worst of it. Even the most innocent conversation turns into a political knife fight. Have a conversation about going to the doctor, and it will turn into a rant against the Affordable Care Act.
How did we get here? Politically, I am in the same place I was in 1989, back when I was considered a moderate. Not a moderate liberal, not a moderate conservative. I was a moderate. In 1990 I voted for a Republican, Scott Klug, for Congress. Not because he was a Democrat or a Republican, but because we agreed on issues like the national drinking age of 21 being wrong. He also supported family leave. He was also pro-choice, and was one of the House members who cleaned up the House bank. He lost my support when he sided with Newt Gingrich in shutting down the government twice in the '90s.
Today, Scott Klug could not get elected as a Republican if he held the same views as he did in the early '90s.
I am still pro-choice, I still think the national drinking age of 21 is wrong, and I am still for family leave. I also still think it is wrong to shut government down for political leverage. Back in the '90s I thought we should have universal healthcare. I was just out of the Army and earning $880 dollars a month working full time in a lumberyard while attending school full time. My GI Bill paid for school, and that $880 (before taxes) had to cover rent, a car payment, and groceries. There was not enough money for a $300/month insurance policy. When I finally did get insurance through work, it seemed that everything was a pre-exisiting condition. Universal healthcare would have helped me out a lot then—just as it would help out a lot of people today.
My politics have not changed that much over the years, but some things that were not an issue for me then are now—like student loan debt. But I am pretty much in the same place. Yet I am not longer a moderate. Today, I am on the left fringe of politics. People I used to be able to discuss politics with are now so far to the right that it’s frightening.
There are a lot of reasons for this: the Reagan revolution, Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America, the ridiculous impeachment of President Clinton, the rise of right-wing radio, the loss of the fairness doctrine, and other reasons too numerous to count. We have lost the ability to think critically. We cannot get half the country to give enough of a damn to go out and vote. We let our politicians pick us, instead of us picking our politicians.
Where do we go from here? We are going from a constitutional scholar, a well-spoken, eloquent, all-around nice guy as president, to a man I would not let anywhere near my family. A man whose character is so vile he is unfit for office. That isn’t even getting into how unqualified he is to hold the office. I have been told time and again that all Americans need to get behind Trump and come together and support him.
How can I support him? I served on the East/West German border in 1986 and 1987 when I was 19 and 20 years of age. I literally stood toe to toe with Soviet soldiers during two tours at Observation Post Alpha. Had war broken out, my life expectancy was nine minutes. If I talked to or even gestured to our enemy, I would have been court-martialed.
Today, we have a president-elect who has been compromised by the Russians, the very same people I was defending this country against so many years ago. I love my country and I have served this great nation. But I cannot stand by while what appears to be a Russian puppet takes control of our country. He has been compromised. I feel as if my small role during the Cold War in preventing the Soviets from sweeping through western Europe was pointless. When he takes office, we will have lost the Cold War—some 20 years after it ended.
I can not and will not support the Trump administration. However as Democrats, we are the adults in the room. While we have had to deal with eight years of Obummer and other names, we must not stoop to that level. We are better than that. I personally will refer to him as Trump, or the president. I will not refer to the president-elect as a cheese doodle, an Oompa Loopa, or a myriad of other names. I will fight him, I will fight the GOP cabal in Congress, I will fight to end gerrymandering—but I am out at name calling. I am the same person I was 20-some odd years ago (well, hopefully a little wiser). I did not name-call political opposition then, and I will not do it now. This snowflake will not sully himself by sinking to the level of our opponents.
But I will gather with other snowflakes to create a blizzard of opposition.