America is a country in a state of bewilderment. We’re going through unprecedented times where the country I once new, and was proud to be a citizen of, is rapidly disappearing. The current administration is using the “flood the zone” strategy, floating, then implementing policies where two decades ago, the politician would have been met with a tremendous backlash and forced out of politics. Now, anything goes.
For this post, I make it a running list of things I am against – which is the majority – as well as things I’m for. It will be a ‘continuous’ post meaning I’ll continually add to it as everyday, there is some new outrage, something that further degrades the image of America I once held. It is incredible to think that simply being against the current administration, could be to my extremely to my disadvantage in the near future. I am no one important, so for now, that gives me a bit of confidence to not make this post private. Secondly, I must express myself. If the right to express ourselves is taken away, then we can no longer be true to ourselves. Free in body but not free in thought is no freedom at all, and from the way things are going it may follow that we’re soon not free in body either.
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom—and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” – Benjamin Franklin
As an American, it is not only my right, but my duty to express myself as I would. Otherwise we’re no longer America, as the founding fathers intended, but a tyrannical, authoritarian country, something the founders had a lot to say about. For all MAGA harps on being patriotic, expressing ourselves, and especially in support of what we consider good, moral and right, this is what patriotism looks like.
If you speak against MAGA they scream “You hate America!” On the contrary, I love this country and thus I put aside any fear of what MAGA may do when I express what I consider to be good for the nation. MAGA has tried to appropriate the flag, making it only a symbol of their movement which they place on their stupid baseball hats, and put up 42 flags or more when there is an address to the nation. They have partially succeeded in this, for anyone displaying a flag these days is automatically assumed to be MAGA. This cannot stand. Their evil ways cannot last forever, and eventually the movement will fade away just as McCarthyism had its moment and now is seen as a stain on the country.
Trump has always been a conman and now he is grifting the entire nation. Almost everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie and I remain completely shocked how half of the population and politicians go along with it. I’m so disappointed in all of them.
I write this post as a message to my descendants so they will know where I stood during this awful time.
Let’s get to the list:
COVID
Trump and the Republicans are directly responsible for the horrible response to the pandemic and 100,000s of deaths.
- When the pandemic came out Trump took credit for creating the vaccine. Once he understood his base was against it he became against it as well and encouraged people to not receive it. Vaccines, which have saved countless lives and eradicated many feared diseases, were now the enemy and continue to be so. What stupidity.
- Trump himself received the vaccine. He caught it anyway and almost died from the virus. He received the best care, then promptly took off his mask while struggling to breathe setting an example for his followers. By willfully not taking the simple step of wearing a mask they placed their own countrymen in danger of catching COVID. This should never be forgotten.
- Referring to COVID as “Kung-Flu.” I never thought I’d see the day when a politician resorts to schoolyard insults. There are a lot of idiots out there and by referring to the virus as such gave these followers license to harass those of Asian descent. Racism at its finest. Having ties to Asia myself, this will never be forgotten.
IMMIGRATION
The border was broken and needed fixing. This problem was ignored for too long but given that America needs workers, and illegal immigrants could be had for cheap nothing much was done about it. The old Republican guard knew this and thus President George W Bush floated the idea of amnesty which didn’t get far. So, the can was kicked down the road and now we have a truly racist administration that is kicking out hardworking people simply trying to better their lives.
Trump referred to them a ‘murders and rapists.’ He said Hatians in Springfield “eat cats and dogs.” The mask is off, this is simply racism, as neither of the above are true. In his first term he implemented the extremely cruel policy of separating parents from their children. And they call themselves “Christian?” This simply doesn’t make any sense at all? But, sense has gone completely out the window. Many people now no longer think for themselves but rely on social media and Fox news to tell them what to think. In fact, the average IQ has gone down 12 percentage points since 2012 I’ve recently read. The main message of Christianity is to “love thy neighbor” but MAGA has changed it to “hate thy neighbor.” It isn’t more complex than that.
Regardless, the border did need fixing and many are in this country illegally. There are more humane – and Christian! – ways to go about it all. Trump however, operates only in transactions and thus while greatly increasing funding for ICE tells ICE to lay off farms and hotel workers, so his followers can continue to exploit their labor and not go out of business. I understand it is a difficult affair to resolve this problem and I do not have all the answers, but deporting hardworking mothers and fathers who have committed no crimes and are going through the immigration process is not the answer. The bottom line is it is not Christian, nor American to treat people so harshly. Yes, deport those who have committed crimes, or put them in jail, but distinctions must be made. The way they are going about it is pure Steven Miller racism.
ELECTIONS
Trump caused an insurrection in the 2020 election. We’ve all seen what happened and I’m baffled at how people can still support him. Given this fact alone it seems the version of America I knew and loved has been changed forever into something grotesque. Since then he’s outright denied he lost.
With his recent election he began circulating lies about election interference and was threatening investigations into those areas where he was first seen as losing. However, when those areas turned in his favor he promptly shut down all that election interference talk. How do people live with themselves, supporting such a demagogue? It is as though they are suffering from a fever which does not allow them to think clearly? I’ve seen this before, and it is the fever of Fox news. Any day now, we’re going to find those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq right? I had known that lies have caused wars before (Gulf of Tonkin), but I believed with all the media and technology that it wasn’t possible to happen again. How can one was a tremendous war based on a lie and not be called on it? Well, I’ve learned you can not only start wars based on lies but change the entire fabric of American society as well. I’m stupefied.
ALLIES
Allies, otherwise known as friends, are good to have. Trump has alienated ALL OF THEM! I’m stupefied, baffled, befuddled, pretty much to the point of questioning reality itself on many of these points I’m listing, let alone all of them together!
Under Trump, it seems we we’ll not only not have allies, but perhaps straight up enemies if he is allowed to continue. Yes, he may get a few short term victories but the damage is done. Yes, some deals and arrangements needed change, but there are ways to go about it, smarter ways than say, making enemies of Canada. For my entire life, America was the leader on the world stage. Now that reputation has been smashed, most likely to never recover given the divisions and how technology will continue to amplify those divisions.
America has always had social problems. One need to look no further, nor for a bigger example than how it has treated African Americans since its founding. Economically, the New Deal was a cohesive force but that was traded for profits by NAFTA and sending good manufacturing jobs overseas. Given declining economic status the many white American males turns to Trump, whose demagoguery makes them feel some sort of power, some sort of control.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Ask any kindergartner if they think we should take care of the planet. What do you think their answer would be? Now ask any Republican the same question. We’re seeing the tremendous effects of climate change, we see plastic polluting our beaches and take a look at the air quality index of any city. You will not like what you see. And what is the Republican solution? It is to create MORE pollution!! Thus, I must once again, question reality as a whole. For almost the past decade, I must have slipped into an alternate form of reality where down is up, left is right and bad is good. And the absurdity continues to ratchet up each time I look at the news.
NEWS and FACTS
Anything Trump doesn’t like is “fake news.” And, just about everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. He is actively working to suppress media that does not blindly adhere to him. From kicking media outlets out of briefings, to attacking independent media sources he is the enemy of not only free speech but of facts as well.
We’ll leave it at that for now. There are different reasons to be against this regime everyday but I don’t feel like writing a novel in one go, and prefer to not strain myself. There is so much happening that we’re all bewildered and it seems impossible to comprehend it all, or where this will all lead. At the moment however, it is not leading anywhere good. One could make themselves crazy by trying to keep up with it all, which may in-fact be a goal of this administration.
