Why Do I Do This?
I hope you have been enjoying the college football musings this season, but the most important matchup of the year is coming on November 5th. I encourage you to exercise your civic duty to vote by whatever means is available to you, be it absentee, early, or on election day in-person this year. This will likely be my last political post before the election, and I want to provide my reasoning for the vote I cast and why you should join me in voting for Kamala Harris.
Kamala first caught my attention when she was displaying her prosecutorial skills in the senate and I was a fan of her subsequent run for the democratic nomination in 2020. Then, she was competing with Bernie for my leftist heart, now she has pivoted to the center so hard as to be unrecognizable from her 2020 counterpart. I still have hope for her presidency, but if you are wary of her being a, ‘radical leftist’ my disappointment should serve as soothing menthol-eucalyptus to a centrist, stand-for-nothing throat.
Because I have women in my life that I love, and respect the women of this country, choice is the number one issue. In 2020, I would have told you that the environment was my first issue of priority, however that was before the Supreme Court tore rights away from 51% of American citizens. Project 2025 calls for a national abortion ban, and while Kamala will not have a filibuster proof majority in congress, a vote for her is preventative in this regard.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” This quote falls under: ‘Hitler Open Mic Night’ to borrow from a Bill Burr comedy bit. I have a republican friend who when I say that Trump is a racist, will ask for examples, once stating, “he never said Mexicans were rapists.” He never called Chris Christie a fat pig either, apparently. A staffer for Vance called a Springfield official to check on the validity of these claims before Trump said this at the debate, calling the allegations, “baseless” but he said it anyway.
I hate it, but I feel the need to emphasize pragmatism over idealism yet again. As we exited the polls yesterday, Emily and I were reflecting on how great it felt to have our first presidential ballots cast for Barack Obama in 2008 and how it has been a series of ‘eat your vegetables’ candidates since. Kamala saved us from a landslide Trump victory over Biden, and for that reason I am once again pleading with America to eat its vegetables. If Obama rapping Eminem’s, ‘Lose Yourself’ on stage this week wasn’t enough, I guess you might take no joy in humanity, or worse, are an evangelical.
I’m no flag-waving patriot, but the post apocalyptic portrait of America that Trump paints is just not the current state of the nation. Our economy has recovered better from Covid 19 than any other nation most Americans would consider habitable, and western democracy still means something. Vote for today, vote for yourself, vote so that you will have another chance to in 4 years.
Fascism: Noun. A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc. and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
We Believe in Nothing Lebowski
“Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism dude, at least, it’s an ethos.”
That’s a line from my favorite movie, ‘The Big Lebowski.’ One that would never be quoted in any political context, unless there was a White Russian referendum on the ballot. The character Walter in the movie is trying to explain that nihilism, caring about nothing, is worse than the Nazi party in Germany from World War Two. I’m not sure that having a carefree attitude and getting blotto all the time like the nihilists in the film is as bad as the Nazis, but the Republican Party is so hungry for that fascism that I have to write.
An ‘ethos’ is a belief. The fundamental character or spirit of a culture as the dictionary defines it, and the ‘ethos’ of MAGA is to serve, vote, spin, and dilute everything that their cult leader, Donald Trump does. That is to say there is no ‘ethos’ of MAGA, it exists only to serve the figure at the top in the world’s largest self esteem project. The smallest man in the history of New York City needs his army of reality tv fans to bend at the knee to him.
Living in the era of Trump makes me ponder about the time of Bill Clinton’s scandal, I was just becoming aware of politics at that time, and it was inescapable. The same party that made a meal out of Clinton for indiscretions with a staffer has now made the spine of their party a man with a much worse resume of scandal than whatever happened with Monica. I am not exaggerating, embellishing or doing anything other than stating facts about Donald Trump by comparison with this next part.
He has been found civilly liable for rape. Say what you want about Monica, that was clearly consensual. He has cheated on all 3 of his wives, often very publicly, with tabloid stories that he quietly promoted behind the scenes. The Stormy Daniels affair occurred while his wife was home with their newborn child, and the now criminal cover up of that story has been litigated. A jury of 12 peers has convicted him unanimously of felony charges related to the falsification of business records to hide the affair and influence the election.
That was a disgusting paragraph to type, and when you consider that evangelicals are the most consistent part of his base, it really tells you a lot about religion in this country. They create the same messiah complex that paralyzes their ability to think rationally about the world with respect to god, and apply it to Trump. As a recovering Catholic, I know that this isn’t the morality the church teaches, and the recent comparisons to Christ as another ‘unfairly convicted’ person make me sick to my stomach. Not as a person of faith, but as a fan of socialist philosophers of which Jesus Christ is the most famous.
Make no mistake, the MAGA movement is a nihilist movement. There is no cause, there is no issue, there is no platform, there is only the fake tan savior. Savior from what exactly? The United States becoming less white? It has been since its inception in 1776. Savior from corruption? Are you fucking kidding me? If nepotism in politics is a problem, it is not the ‘Biden Crime Family’ of which no family members served in the White House. Savior? Save your breath.
If You Can Keep It
December 7, 1941. September 11, 2001. January 6, 2021. Three times that the United States has been attacked. Japan, Al-Qaeda, MAGA. Make no mistake, these are trying dates in our history: an entrance to a world war, a war on terrorism, and most recently a war on our democracy. Here we are three years after the most recent attack, and in this year we may finally see a trial and conviction of Donald Trump for the attack on the capitol.
I wasn’t alive in 1941, but I was glued to a television from about 15 minutes after the towers were attacked, and I watched Trump’s speech at the ellipse that day and the ensuing attack on the capital afterward. As far as January 6th is concerned, I don’t need pundits and talking heads to tell me anything; I saw it live. I called my dad that day in absolute disbelief, and told him to turn on the news, as there was an attack taking place to stop the certification of a lawfully elected president.
This country is ripe for criticism, and thus hopefully continual growth. The feather in our cap as a country is the fact that we elect our leaders, and have a peaceful transfer of power between administrations. There is no crown, no religious figurehead descended from heaven to rule over us, we cast votes and still have a right to self-determination of our leaders. We have this beautiful, fragile democratic system, and we need to keep it.
It cannot be understated how close that system was to buckling on January 6th 2021 as thousands of MAGA supporters carried out a planned and intentional attack on the capitol. This was not a tourist visit, as is evidenced by the bashing in of bulletproof glass in the locked doors of congress and rapid evacuation of our elected officials. This was an attack with intent, and the attackers among the most despicable people in this country who were chanting to hang the vice president they voted for a few years earlier.
On a day of great importance, one should take time to reflect on who we are as a people and where we go from here. It’s now 2024 and we are unfortunately staring down the barrel of another lesser of two evils choice at the ballot box. Just keep in mind that one of those choices is a too-old, gaffing, life long politician, and the other is a narcissistic fascist who tried to overthrow the government. Donald Trump cannot be the end of this country’s democracy.
liveforthepage 
Recent Comments