Not just another Republican
I’m a journalist, so this, here, is why even as a white man I am personally afraid of Trumpism. I haven’t seen this t-shirt but as part of the crowd at two Trump rallies, in Ohio and Arizona, I turned with the mob as they screamed violent wishes at the press pen — a literal metal pen into which they’d allowed themselves to be corralled. Under a Trump presidency we’d see the power of the federal govt turned against journalists like me who have annoyed Trump, and we’d see vigilantes taking more extreme measures with nothing but show investigations by federal authorities and many of the PDs that have effectively endorsed Trump through their union.
Dear fellow lefties, fellow disdainers of Clintonite corporatism, this isn’t just another Republican. Put aside your high-mindedness, your games, and even your conscience if you must; let’s stop this asshole and send a message to the millions of mini-Trumps behind him.
Picture first tweeted — with obscene pleasure — by former Red Sox star Curt Schilling, who is now a Trump supporter, far right radio host, and, he says, a potential political candidate.
Bad times.
I had to hear an acquaintance tell me they’d voted for Stein today. Yes its California and probably won’t do too much damage. But…my whole country has been taken over by neatly divided cabals of Useful Idiots.
I’m watching results and forecasts. Could this be worse?
Yup, not just another republican. This one is Mr. President.
We’ve got something fairly unique in Australia called (in international jargon) Single Round Runoff Elections. We call it Preferential Voting. You get to list candidates in order of preference. So you could cast a symbolic Vote 1 for Stein safe in the knowledge you’ll actually end up voting for Clinton (who you would list as your second preference).
Something for my American friends to consider once Trump has collapsed the place in a heap and you need to rebuild it.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Watching this unfold in disbelief. So sorry for everyone – in and out of the USA. We’re all going to have to live with this (trade, world politics, Supreme Court etc etc) together. Fucking Comey…
I’ve been doing all my yelling and gnashing of teeth on Facebook, I should have shared some here.
No it could not be any fucking worse. I’m so disgusted and enraged and in despair…as are countless other people.
The fact I’m making this comment from the UK at 5:30 am tells you all you need to know about how I feel.
Frankly not very charitable about the majority of Americans right now.
Re ‘it couldn’t be any fucking worse…’
Granted, it’s difficult to imagine…
Still…
To all who want better than this, everywhere… To all who decry scapegoating, to all who will stand with the vulnerable against the hatred they too often face… To all who still believe we can make a better, more peaceful, more just, more egalitarian, more sustainable world… To all who cannot stand by while the powerful crush the weak, the dominant exclude and silence and torment those on the margins, and the wealthy fleece and make slaves of the poor…
There will always be failures. There will always be setbacks. Even disasters. Clever and lucky villains who seize power. Division, fear, and manipulation bringing out the worst in some. Dark, cold mornings when no way forward seems imaginable, and you fear how dearly you’ll pay just for doing what your conscience demands…
Listen, just fight on, fight on. All the same. And as always.
Wise words AJ. I will probably agree at some point. It seems… raw right now.
I just read with disbelief in our local paper an American now living in NZ saying he supported Trump because his home town in Oregon was now so changed by immigrants. Apparently the fact he’s an immigrant to my country slipp d by him. I suspect when he says immigrant he really means different colour. I uncharitably wished he’d go home and fix two problems at once.
It’s a dark and cold morning indeed.
I had a similar awakening not a long time ago, when our (Polish) “Law and Justice” party* won the general election. Almost everyone in my “personal bubble” was against them. The well-educated city dwellers, the mainstream media, the ruling elite, it really seemed that everyone was against them. Everyone that counts, ok? In the campaign, voting for them was often depicted as a shameful act – backward, bigoted, stupid, harmful, and despicable. Nevertheless, they won.
“Nevertheless” or “partly because of this”? I’m not completely sure. Anyway, I received it as a lesson of how counterproductive shaming can become, especially when shaming becomes your main weapon – when your positive offer is not that attractive to the disgruntled “culturally backward” majority and when shaming your opponents is practically all that you do.
I thought of this after reading some reactions of the following type:
I also wonder whether the left will “just fight on, fight on. All the same. And as always” (see #9) – in other words, will they carry on in the usual charming style of the quote above.
*Meaning: self-serving law and a parody of justice.
The demographics seem exactly like Brexit; we are looking at a mass movement of older white conservatives who are voting to put the clock back a few decades to a time which seemed better for them, worse for everyone else.
How long before the first cries of “I voted for Trump, but I didn’t vote to lose my health insurance, what happened?”
So: the world faces at least two years of unrestrained Republican government of the US. I hope that people who voted for this get the consequences good and hard, because everybody else certainly will.
Ariel – this is not about shaming. This is a coordinated effort on the part of the Republican party that dates back at least to Nixon and was unmatched by any similar effort on the part of Democrats. This is an anti-intellectual movement that has pandered to fear and hate ever since passage of the civil rights act. This is about a group of people who believe they have a God-given right to be in charge, and think the equality of anyone who doesn’t look right or think right is a travesty. This is white male rage at its ugliest. And I am actually afraid to go to work today.
When people vote for a lying thieving cheating worker-exploiting contractor-stiffing pussy-grabbing narcissistic bully and fraud – yeah I’ll shame them for doing that. Donald Trump is shameful on just about every criterion you can think of (is he at least nice to the people close to him? Nope, not even that) and voting for him is reprehensible and shameful. He’s a bad man who plans to do bad things to people. He’s a shame-generator.
iknklast, I’m really, really sorry. It’s a bad day not just for the US.
As for “white male rage”, here you can find the exit polls. Just the polls, mind you, but if reliable, they show that Trump scored very well with white voters in general, including women. See “race and gender”, cf. also “party by gender”.
Great godalmighty the stupid.
Yes, Ariel, it is white male rage. The problem is, white male rage in this case translated into accusing minorities of being rapists, and that generates white female fear. It’s the same as the security moms under Bush. The Republicans have long been the party of rage and fear, and they play it well.
Ophelia, I just knew you would love it.
By the way: my comment didn’t concern the morality of shaming. My main worry was simply that it doesn’t work. Not in our general election, not in the American one either. I suspect that it’s even counterproductive and that’s what I said.
After writing the comment, I found this Guardian article, where the author goes much further than that. Hmm.
Rob, re it feeling raw, yeah, I know. I really, really do. Just thinking: people are going to need defending, this thing still needs critics, opposition, someone saying, right, I don’t like the look of this; you come for whichever scapegoat, it’s still over my dead body. Damn, yeah, disheartening, but gotta get your chin up, all the same
… and I dunno that this data point is gonna help anyone exactly, but:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-election/the-average-trump-supporter-is-not-an-economic-loser/article32746323/?service=mobile
… and I gotta tell ya, that’s been my personal, anecdotal experience, too. I _know_ people making excuses for this, assuring me oh, this isn’t racism, we’re just against globalization, see…
Be that as it may, they’re not exactly out of work coal miners, anyway.
For however long the climate-change denialist Trump lasts, I think he will be the most divisive and unpredictable US President ever. Any high school economics student could tell you where his protectionist trade policies will lead. (The late anti-Keynesian Milton Friedman, up there looking down on it all, must be horrified.)
But I expect his election will do wonders for real estate values here in Australia. And Patagonia; though not for properties with altitude down close to sea-level.