I’ve seen a lot of outrage after Trump mocked Dr. Ford at his Mississippi rally. I’ve also seen a lot of discouragement, bewilderment, sadness, and even some despair.
Tuck away the outrage. Let it be the battery that powers you for the next 5 weeks.
As for the rest…
Let it go. Not easy, I know. But however you can do it (safely), get it out of you.
This is what losers do.
We all know that Trump is a con man and a bully, which inherently makes him a loser. No matter how much money he has, or how many buildings, or whatever else he has or does that he thinks makes him Mr. Big.
This isn’t about him. This is about the people enabling this. Supporting this. Cheering for it.
Losers.
In better times, in a better mood, I wouldn’t be so churlish. I’d say “well, they just have a different opinion.” “We have different world views, life experiences. “I’m sure most of them are nice people otherwise.”
Except, as a straight white American who is related to some Trump supporters (aren’t we all), I know better. They can peddle their rationalizations and their bullshit all day and all night, but I know better. We know better.
These people are scared. Not in any legitimate way, like a young African American male might be when confronted by the police. Not in the way a woman would be go to her car at night. Not even in the way citizens might be in the way their nation was being run.
They’re scared because they’re losing. They’re scared because they only know an America where people like them are in charge. An America where in all the places you want to be, people look like them. Are like them.
That’s because the future is not going to look like them. And we all know that, already.
And if you’re on this site, you know already know that they’re scared. You may assume that all of this is out of fear, or simply ignorance. I’d say no.
If all of this is getting you down, I want you to think of Van Halen and their contract rider about brown M&Ms.
Rock band Van Halen had one of the most oddly specific requests of all: a bowl of M&M candies, with all the brown ones removed. For years, it was seen as complete folly — the band was making a ridiculous demand of concert organizers simply because they could get away with it.
(And yes, it was a mechanism to test if their contracts were really read)
That last part is the key to everything- “because they could get away with it.”
What better way to know that you have an out-sized hold on power when you can get away with things that others can not.
That is the whole reason for Donald Trump. Could Obama go and insult anyone and everyone, especially those against him? Could Hillary Clinton be sexist towards men, belittle those running against her, or do ANY of the things that Trump has?
Could any non-white, any progressive female, any gay person...basically any liberal behave like Trump has? Of course not. It’s not a matter of whether we would want it. It’s not even a choice.
Trump can because 25%-30% or so of Americans are letting him. His mere existence in the political sphere demonstrates that the worst, most vile, most corrupt, most offensive person can “succeed” if this core of Americans decides that they want it.
They can allow it. And, at the same time, they can dis-allow the merest transgressions from everyone else.
Trump is not the source of any power: he is the vehicle representing it for the Trump base.
Which is why every reason that people should not support him is only more proof for the base that he’s their guy. Clinton was sandbagged by an email server. Obama was so perfect that the color of his suits and choice of mustard were targets of criticism. And then they had to make stuff up.
But after over three years of this, the ante has to be raised. Behave like a spoiled child. Be even more blatant in your sexism and racism. And, to top it off, mock a sexual assault survivor.
This goes beyond “owning the libs” and drinking anyone’s tears. The whole overriding point of the past two weeks is not that women are not being listened to...or that Brett Kavanaugh is unfit to be a judge now, let alone on the Supreme Court...or that the right wing noise machine is even more offensive and demented than usual.
It’s that no one fears us.
The whole focus is really on three Republican Senators. Why not the other 48? On this site we know why, but it’s worth repeating. They have no fear of any consequences from anyone that is angry about how this is going. They can’t see women, liberals, and anyone else out-voting their base, or convincing the rest of the voters in their states to vote against them.
“You can’t touch this”. Indeed.
That sounds like a cause for despair. BUT…
How come they are in such a RUSH, like they have a plane to catch?
How come they are so AFRAID of a real investigation, if only to clear Kavanaugh?
How come they can’t or won’t pull him for the 46 year old woman that is just as conservative? (Yeah, we think we know why...but still: it’s what any other GOP White House would have done)
Why do these other 48 Senators run away when confronted by protestors? Female protestors, no less.
If we’re so pathetic and powerless...how come all of this?
If you’re reading this, you know they can’t have a straight up fight. Choose a president through the Electoral College, not just the popular vote. Gerrymander the swing states. If you lose the governor’s race, try and remove power from the office before you leave. Suppress the vote outside the base.
There are many ways that Daily Kos has documented this crap, so no real need to list it. But rather wallow in despair, bitterness, and hopelessness, turn it around and look the “enemy” in the eye.
These are scared losers that can’t win in a real democracy.
Oh, they know they still have the “power” because they can curb an FBI investigation, schedule a Senate vote as if it were heart transplant operation, and just to top it off...have El Presidente go around and mock Dr. Ford. And the rest of us.
That is a kind of “power” to have, especially when you are in the minority. But it comes only because of a bunch of circumstances- from the fact that Wyoming has the same number of Senators as California, to the fact that most progressives rather live in the same places- that aren’t a direct result of any actual power but merely enable it.
What is clearly a rigged game is their idea of “normal.” Being part of a majority- whether it’s racial, religious, or by gender- is all they know. They’ve only seen a government, a power structure, that resembles them.
They’ve never had a Congress that was more non-white than white. Or more female than not. Or, a government in any form that was more progressive than conservative. Certainly not a government or a world that had to pay heed to non-whites and women as much as white guys.
And yet all it took to create a panic was to put a half-black guy in the Oval Office. Heck, if that could happen, who knows what could follow?
Hence, Priority One- erase the Obama Legacy. No matter how stupid or self-defeating, make it as if it never happened. The one constant of the Trump Administration.
The point of all of this is, just like Trump himself, the people who do this are weak. Trump’s bluster obviously is covering up mass insecurities. The noise and bile from the right are people who have something they’ve never really lost- at worst they only lost a bit of it for a time. They’ve never been truly marginalized, they’ve never truly been under the foot of someone that looks to do them harm, they’ve never had the risk of losing something.
Unlike the rest of us. Those- the non-whites, the women, the LGBT- that primarily make up the Democratic base.
Because they are weak and sacred, they can’t really fight. They bully. They mock. They insult. And then they run.
And are willing to cheat and abandon democracy and the rule of law to hold onto power they really shouldn’t have. And keep it from the rest of us.
If you’re fighting this, you’re automatically stronger than them. They are on the clock: their time is running out. Since they can’t fight on a level playing field, they’re hoping to dispirit you. They’re hoping to make you full of despair. They are hoping that you will do what they really can’t do- allow yourself to get so “down” as to take you out of the fight. The one they really can’t win.
Don’t let them.