So You Don't Like a Candidate? Start Hurling Insults And Fists!

            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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