Let’s all
just take a small step back from the edge of whatever ledge we are all standing
on, and take a moment to reflect on what the hell we are doing. I know that
many of you are very passionate about who you are supporting for
President. Some of you are even more passionate about who you do not support
for President. It’s all getting a bit out of hand, really. The name calling,
the protests that are not really protests, the smear campaigns, and the
shouting (oh the shouting).
I’m not
saying it’s a bad thing to have passion for something you believe in. On the
contrary, I am fully in awe by people who are passionate enough about their
beliefs that they get up off their asses and do something to further their
cause. If you are door knocking for Trump or Clinton and trying to rally support
and votes, that’s a great thing! You are participating in the process and
focusing your passion in a productive and positive way. You keep right on
trucking up and down those streets an engaging in political conversations with
strangers. I hope they answer the door with pants on, for your sake.
It’s the people
who channel their passion, or their frustration to understand the other side,
in a more destructive way that I have the issue with. It’s not just Republicans
either; Democrats are just as guilty of this misdirected emotional rage. Our
country was founded on the basis of compromise. Our Founding Fathers understood that there were two trains of thought as
to how the country should be run, Federal Power versus State Power, and worked out an agreement that both sides
felt was a fair middle ground. There was a little shouting, a duel or two, but
overall the respect for both sides remained.
Judging by
present events, respect seems to be something that is lacking in our collective
conversation. It needs to be brought back, but we as a society seem pretty adamant
to take respect and curb-stomp the shit out of it about every four years or so.
And guess what? It’s that time of the cycle again! And it’s a heavy one this
time around and no amount of cookies, ice cream, or Friends marathons is going to make it any better.
What’s in a Name?
Donald Trump
calls Hillary Clinton “crooked,” “temperamental,” and “lyin’” during his
speeches and rallies. Hillary Clinton calls Donald Trump “temperamental,”
someone who could start a war if someone “got under his very thin skin,” and a
liar. There seems to be some overlap with the critiques, but we’ll skip that.
There will
always be mud flung across the lines, but this time it’s different. There are
some extremely vicious personal attacks perpetrated by candidates this cycle
that I have never seen before. There are always zingers and impressive
one-liners that come from every Presidential campaign, but this goes to a
higher level. Not a higher level actually, more of a cesspool of filth and
deprivation that continues to grow as it feeds off the vitriol and hate all of
us are exuding into our society. This shit-pool has always been sitting in
Washington D.C., but now it has exploded out of its controlled environment and
is rapidly corrupting every city the Presidential candidates stop.
No matter
what happens come November, whether we are swearing in President Trump or
President Clinton, I feel that we have caused irreversible harm to our national
psyche. We are all feeding into the narrative that the other candidate is this
monstrosity that is coming to destroy our lives as we know it, and if they get
in, our lives will be hell and America is doomed. DOOMED!
Just an
FYI, no matter who gets into the Oval Office, we’re not doomed. ‘Merica will
prevail, and you will continue to live your life with very little impact
other than the fact that either your candidate got into the White House or
didn’t. Maybe some different tax rates, more or less guns, a new Justice on the
Supreme Court, but nothing that is going to implode your life in on itself.
Other than your own paranoia.
What is
certain is that half of us are going to be super pissed that we have to endure
the lies, corruption, temper tantrums, and horrific hair of the person we
didn’t vote for. So what are we to do as a society? Gather around the campfire
with our friend Gary who can play Stairway
To Heaven and all hold hands and make some toasted marshies? No, that’s to
hippie for most liberals, and no conservative in their right mind would be
caught dead in anything close to resembling a drum circle. So, we need to talk.
We need to have conversations about what we can do together instead of hurling
insults and trying to smear the other side for being a bunch of idiotic dip-shits
dragging our country down?
Sticks and
stones may break your bones, but words can corrupt your thinking. When you keep
hearing the same things over and over again, you start to make them true in
your head. You start to believe. And when you believe, very bad things are
possible, like throwing haymakers at someone who has on the wrong hat.
MOM! He’s Poking Me Again!
If you have
siblings, you would have undoubtedly encountered this scenario. Your family
decides to go on a long trip. At some point, you or your sibling engages in the
“annoy the crap out of everyone in the car” activity. It’s something handed
down from generation to generation. One of you decides to take your finger and
slowly cross it over the invisible boundary between your seats. It’s a
territorial dispute that occurs in the backseat of your parents 1989 Chevy
station wagon, and shit gets real, real quick.
The first
shots incur a response of a return poke or invasion of territory by moving the
middle seatbelt over a few inches. Then the shouting, slapping, hitting, and
yelling commences until one of you cries for intervention from an already
annoyed parent, or the parents take matters into their own hands and smack you
both. This is exactly what is happening right now at Trump rallies across the
country.
First you
had anti-Trump protesters that were in the rallies and, depending on what
reports you read, either started riling up trouble, or were punched in the face
by Trump supporters first. Either way it was a very ugly scene. Right now,
however, it seems to be that the protesters are initiating a lot of this. They
seem to be the ones crossing that invisible line and poking their sibling in
the face.
If you want
to protest something, go ahead, but stay in a place that will get you noticed,
but not encourage tempers to flare. Across the street is a fine spot. You and
your group of like minded individuals are at the location, you may still chant
your “Hey, hey! Ho, ho!” thing that you practice for a week to get right, and
you will still get the recognition by the media that you want. That’s a
wonderful peaceful protest, and I highly encourage anyone that is attempting to
organize a protest to follow those simple rules for a fun and memorable
experience.
What we are
getting is vastly different. Protesters, or mobs really, are ripping shirts and
signs, spitting on Trump supporters, following them to their cars, surrounding
their cars and not letting them leave a parking ramp, and chasing down and
assaulting Trump supporters in the street. This type of behavior is what most
of us were expecting to see from those Trump supporters, but there has been no
reports on that at any Bernie or Hillary rally. Not a damn thing. It’s people
who are labeling themselves “Bernie Supporters,” or, in a broader term,
“liberals,” or “Democrats.” Which looks real shitty for those of us who
identify with those terms.
This is not
how to treat each other if we have a different name on a shirt. You don’t just
corner someone and start swinging down on them because they have a different
opinion than you.
“Who do you support this election?”
“You know, with my views on free
trade and gun control, I feel that Trump is more of my candi…”
“DIE ASS-MONKEY!” *Throwing them
‘bows*
“I thought we were talking about
this!?!”
“You said Trump! Talk is over!”
That is not
how to handle what should be a civil conversation between two people that
culminates in both sides having a greater understanding of why each person
believes what he or she believes. That’s what should happen. What’s happening
is that no one is taking the time to discuss anything, and letting emotion or
hatred get the better of them and letting their fists do the talking.
I get that
Trump has said some questionable things. I know that Hillary and Bernie would
be a continuation of President Obama, which makes a lot of people more than a
little energized about making sure another Democrat does not take over for four
more years. But, let people express their opinion and have the freedom to
assemble and support who ever they wish. Mob mentality does nothing in this
circumstance. It just makes your group, and the candidate/political party you
associate with, look like a bunch of violent, strong-arming idiots.
Some people
really believe that immigration is the biggest problem our country faces and
the Federal Government has not done enough to stop it. Trump is their guy
because of his stance on immigration. Some people think that we have an out of
control gun culture that needs to be reined in to limit the number of mass
shootings we suffer through every year. Those people are going to go with
Clinton. That’s their opinion and it isn’t wrong. If someone believes
something, and they find a candidate that goes along with their values, they
can support them!
We can have
these differences! It’s fine. We all have something that we deeply believe in,
it’s just a matter of us having the desire to understand where other people are
coming from. Why does your neighbor believe that everyone should have a gun?
Why does Gam-Gam want a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already
in the U.S. Why does your father think the top 10% of the country should pay
more in taxes than they already do, even though he makes 300K?
We have to
get back to talking to each other. We are already frayed at the seams as a
country before this election even started. In five months, if this rate of
division keeps up, we may be torn asunder and not able to mend ourselves back
together. We may have differences, we may disagree, but we are all part of the
United States of America. Start acting
like it.
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