A Rant

I Feel the Need….

This is not going to be a very well thought through or organized, or researched, post. I’m not feeling thoughtful, organized, or capable of research right now.

Did I think (against my best hopes) that Trump was going to win this election? Yep. I so wanted that to not be the case, but if we are going to be honest with ourselves, come on, we knew.    I’m heartbroken, scared shitless, angry as hell, all the things I felt in 2016, but more intensely, because we all know now what we didn’t know then about him and his followers. 

Here’s what we should also admit:  we knew that this wasn’t as much about Trump, or his base, as it is about the state of this country and this world at the moment.  So many people, in so many places around the world are living in strife, in poverty, in the middle of war; so many corrupt governments are doubling down on nationalist (and yes, even straight up fascist) policies; so many ultra rich (mostly men, but also their female conspirators) have bought their way into governments…It goes on and on, and I know you all know it. 

I am not smart enough to pinpoint where things went wrong, or how to fix it, but I’ve been around long enough to know that we aren’t going about it the right way at the moment.  As I said at the start, I’m not going to try to be very organized today, but I need to get my thoughts out into the world:

·      On the Democratic Party:  When will the party get itself organized?  Okay, so I’ve been asking that question for most of my voting life, and part of the answer is also why I’m a Dem.  It’s a diverse party, trying to represent a LOT of voices; it’s generally well intentioned, wanting to actually do good things for the citizens; it’s a party of (mostly) critical thinkers who try to understand and explain things.  This means it’s not monolithic in its goals, or even it’s strategies most of the time. 

      I would also argue that this has created a static structure that reacts rather than plans, that goes for the safe and known rather than risking change or new ideas.  Biden was a reaction; there was enough bad feeling about Trump at the end of his first term (oh how it galls me to have to use that word,  ‘first’) that the party reacted with a safe bet—the known entity that could scrape out a win.  I was happy enough to vote for Biden, because we had to get Trump out, and the party hadn’t given me a choice.  But in the 3-½ years of Biden’s presidency, where was the planning for going forward?  Could the Dems really do no better than prop up a clearly struggling old man until he humiliated himself on the debate stage, with so few days left until the election, that even a decent candidate (which I think Harris was/is) couldn’t possible rally enough votes to beat Trump? I know that I wasn’t the only person asking at least a year ago, why the party wasn’t getting Harris prepped for her run?  Or, if they were so unsure about her, why not someone else?  This love of Joe Biden lost us the election, in my opinion.  Or, it was one of the reasons, at any rate. 

·      On the state of this country:  Again, I don’t claim to be well-informed enough to make a grand diagnosis here, but I do live in one of the reddest, most Trumpiest state in the union, and I can tell you something about my people and why I think they so readily support his rhetoric.  It’s not because they are, as a whole, horrible people who want to rule the world with an iron fist.  Some do, don’t get me wrong, and racism in this incredibly pale state is strong right now, as is a bias against women, trans and gay people, all the low-hanging fruit in the world of hatred.  That all exists here. But what also exists is poverty, a lack of good jobs, a crumbling health care system, and a state government that has been ruled by the same mindset for too long. That’s my list; I am sure that more informed political analysts could add to it. When this is the situation, when so many people are just struggling to get through the month on a paycheck that won’t support any emergencies, it is hard to think about high flown ideals like equal rights and humanitarianism; it’s hard to hear someone tell you that you should want to pay more taxes for a new town swimming pool or even for better social services; you are trying to keep your family in one piece. Sharing and Caring are luxuries. 

Of course there are the corporations, and ultra rich, and the corrupt, the racists and misogynists, the transphobes and homophobes…all of whom will always support fascists for their own horrible reasons.  I’m not interested in them right now, actually—they are easy to figure out, and the truth is, they aren’t educatable.  They aren’t going to change.

I’m interested in regular folks who feel like their country is cheating them, ignoring them, misunderstanding them, even if this all comes from fake news, or bad/wrong information.  They feel it.  And when someone comes along, even if they’re horrible and a crook and a rapist, and a cheat, when someone comes along and says, “I can make you feel better about yourself; even better, I can make you feel powerful,” why be surprised that they go for that message?  Why be surprised when the message of the Democrats doesn’t penetrate?  I agree that most of the folks who are rabidly (or even passively) pro-Trump will never actually profit from his presidency, that they are “shooting themselves in the foot” by voting for him, that they will, like the rest of us non-billionaires, suffer through another time of strife and bad economy. But for those who aren’t just wacko, racists who have been waiting for a chance to be violent and horrible, I think this is their version of hoping for something better (like buying a lottery ticket).

Before I get accused of sticking up for Trump voters, I’m not.  I’m angry with them; I think they are taking the easy path of being a follower when times are tough; I think they aren’t thinking clearly or intelligently—all of that. But…in my lifetime, my party has found ways to reach those folks.  They can be reached. But if all the party does is keep trying the same old strategy, it’s going to keep losing to the simpletons who preach power and hatred.

There, I did say this was going to be a rant.