This is a political rant I'm hiding as a link cuz, really, I don't have a lot to say that plenty of other folks haven't said already, and better. But I feel better for getting it off my chest, anyway...
Until I went to Viet Nam on a bike trip with my mom—20 years ago now—I didn't really feel like I was an American, because I just seemed so out of the mainstream with USian attitudes, preferences, and behaviours. That trip taught me that I am indeed an American. You'd think a visit to Mai Lai would cure anyone of illusions about the overall goodness of this country (or, at the very least, its colonialism) but I really did think this country would not be stupid shortsighted enough to elect a foully incompetent criminal man over a highly qualified and effective woman, but nope, they did me again.
Clinton was widely reviled for her deplorables comment, as well as buncha other stuff, and people are starting to come up with similar mistakes Harris made this time around, but even I (who went to a Bernie Sanders rally once and said never again) could see she ran a smart effective & lively campaign with positives—down payment to buy your first house! student loan forgiveness! Etc! and negatives—Project 2025 is dire! Trump is a corrupt, incompetent felon! —whereas Trump looked (& sounded) really out of it. (Even he sounded rather surprised that he won.) Harris did fine, but didn't lose the election because people went for Trump; no, she lost the popular vote because the people who made the special effort to vote for Biden cuz Trump was so awful couldn't be bothered to do it again.
(To be sure I don't understand what the 70 million odd people ever saw in the guy—it just seems so odd to me that people who proclaim their love for freedom and this country, and of God, would be so unwelcoming to—just to take an example, immigrants, when basically all of us are immigrants, [excepting the assorted tribes, who mostly went for Harris] not to mention women and other minorities, when Jesus’ ministry was so focused on the poor and downtrodden.)
It just blows my mind that people assume because things aren't ideal that a change automatically holds out hope that the future will be better. Sometimes that's the case, but not always, and it's not as if 30 minutes—or even less—or research would make clear the differences the candidates were likely to bring. I don't know why that surprises me, when I see packaging that trumpets ‘New look!’ —that's it—not even the product is somehow improved (which typically means it's just cheapened up) but just that the packaging is changed. Wha? Who is fooled by this? (Does the fact that I'm non neurotypical and hate when they rearrange the store or change the packaging one more way I'm just not average?) Biden was just starting to get a handle on cleaning up some of the mess Trump made last time, and now the toddler's coming back to dump toys and food and mess all over again. And it's much easier and faster to break something than pick it up, as I or any other parent could tell you.
One reason Clinton's defeat was so devastating for me personally was that I was forced to look in the eye how much men hate and despise women. It was dismaying. This time, having already gone through that disappointment once, that despair was...well, familiar, at least. And, given that Harris also failed, I'm pretty much of Shirley Chisholm—remember her? she ran back in ’72! Think what our world would be like if we'd elected this woman who cared about the poor and disenfranchised had been president instead of Richard. Milhouse. Nixon. —of Chisholm's opinion that being a woman is more detrimental to your chances of being elected than being Black. (I've lived in both Black urban areas & white suburbs, and the contrast, shall we say, really drove home how much harder it is to live your life on the non-White setting.)
Besides the recriminations—Harris cozied up to Israel and people under 40 didn't understand how awful-important Gaza was (yeah. Worse than us, personally, bombing Viet Nam? Or Iraq? Or all the countries in South America we screwed over? Or Africa? Or ...you get the picture) or the price of eggs (I grew up during the ’73 oil embargo & remember double digit inflation, not to mention gas lines ’round the block, when the stations weren't completely out) or whatever...I could assume, as some other trans folks have, that there a lot of US citizens who have nothing better to do with their time than to be hateful sexist, racist, homophobic bigots, but... yeah, while they obviously don't like us, I think I'd rather believe that people just can't seem to hold onto the long view: they surely haven't been agitating to mitigate climate change, and we're absolutely lousy at saving for retirement, and obviously way too many folks seem to have forgotten how awful Trump was last time.
It's frustrating in the extreme that because the feedback for Trumpian policies isn't immediate, people forgot how bad it was. It's (frankly) terrifying how much people bury their heads in the sand about climate change. Mind you, the planet will survive—along with bacteria and cockroaches—just fine. Humanity? Mebbe not so much. Plus a lot of other species whose only crime is to share the earth with us. I guess...anxiety (& its fellow traveller, depression) may suck but one reason it may persist in the gene pool is that its powerful incentive—dread—keeps you focused on the future.
Pfffft. I will support my community, and because it's bad for my soul, try my absolute best not to feel shadenfreude when Trump and his clown car & rich billionaire vultures come swooping in the tear the carcass of the US economy apart by purchasing everything for pennies on the dollar cuz it's not enough that they already own most of the assets, but only, I suspect, because I will be hurting too.
To all those who didn't sign up for this latest disaster, my deepest sympathies. Do what you must to stay sane, cuz we all know the villains aren't gonna a give a rat's ass about your pain, suffering and death. {p}Pride is a sin, and I've always been deeply wary of the siren song of, oh, I'm speshul, but (mild) mental illness is not exactly a desirable way to stand out. Nevertheless, I'm compelled to wonder whether I really am kinda weird and outside the mainstream after all. With, it must be admitted those other millions of folks who voted for Harris.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
