One Night, Four Years in the Making

Count every vote. We now have to actually demand, and make sure, that all the votes are counted. 2020 folks.

Four years ago, Donald Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes. That was when the folks who weren’t around for the 2000 fiasco got a lesson in the Electoral College. I had already had that lesson, staying up all night in November of 2000 watching the vote totals shift and the cable news anchors sweat. It was not pleasant, and the fact that the recount of the vote in Florida was never completed due to Republican shenanigans on the ground and the most ridiculously biased ruling in the history of the Supreme Court made it even more unpleasant.

No. “Unpleasant” is too mild a word for a stolen election. I don’t really have a word that can describe that one. It radicalized a lot of people, probably on both sides; the GOP saw what they could do, what they could get away with because the other side believed in ‘norms’, ‘rules’, and ‘laws’ and pushed forward into new frontiers, and the Democrats and liberals learned just because there are ‘rules about such things’ doesn’t mean the other side will follow them.

No, I take that back. The Democrats didn’t learn that, as the last four years have shown us. The GOP and Trump have mowed down the rules once more, and that there was little they could do except to point out that there are, yes, ‘rules about such things’. Ten years of the GOP pulling this crap, twenty if you start at 2000 (which I do), now maybe they’re finally learned that the GOP, as a party, are not their friends.

Now, here we are, another election night, after four years of nearly constant turmoil in this country, fueled by Donald Trump and the Trump (formerly GOP) Party. 237,000+ Americans didn’t live to see this night, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd didn’t live to see this night, and many more who should be here will not see this night. This is our mission, a sacred one, to change this country, change this government, change this world, so there will be fewer virus deaths, no more Floyds, no more Taylors. And no more demagogues like Donald Trump.

It seems silly to say we have to save democracy, but that’s exactly what we have to do. It was hurting and fractured long before Trump came on the scene.  We had taken poor care of it, allowing evil men to steal parts of it, not extending its cover to all that deserved its protection, selling off bit and pieces for money, security, and because of cowardice. If Trump and enablers are allowed to hold onto power, I fear we won’t have a country in four years’ time. At least, not with a semblance of the democracy we have left.

Why is this night like no other?

Because tonight is election night in an election like no other, a chance to change, to fix, to take back.

These past few weeks we have been voting, praying, huddling together on social media, drinking, and fretting with anxiety. Today, some of that will end, but new anxieties will come as we have to watch Donald Trump act like a firehose, spraying us all with anger, lies and bile. I believe he’s going to lose, and lose big. And, insane as this is, we all now have to see just what the hell he’s going to do about it. We have to wait, tense and with jaw clenched, while the President of the United States figures out what he will do about losing.  

We are living in a new version of the infamous Chinese curse:

May you live in unprecedented times.

Take care of yourself. We will see each other again, on the other side.

To the Trump Voters

Trump supporters. Yep.

Okay. I know, I spend a lot of time, talking to people who do not like Trump. There’s a lot of them out there. I mean, this is a president who has never cracked 50% in the polls, never. The majority of the country can’t stand the guy, but he could still be reelected. Really. If not outright, he could try and throw the election into a very friendly Supreme Court and have them basically appoint him president (happened in 2000, I remember it very well). As we’ve seen, over and over, he is not above undermining confidence in the election, in the ballots, in the counting of the ballots, or even demanding they stop counting any votes after midnight, somehow giving TV networks calling of an election the power and imprimatur of an official government agency. 

But now, let me put all that aside, ever so briefly, to talk to the Trump supporters.

No, really. 

There is around 40% of America that supports Trump. You are out there, ready and willing to give this man another four years, proud of your support and assured that another four years, just like the last four, will be a good and needed thing for this country. We don’t deserve a man as good, honest, forbearing, and true as Donald J. Trump, but you’re going to give him to us anyway.

Do me a favor.

Don’t.

I don’t mean, ‘Don’t vote’, I would never say that. Just don’t vote for him. If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Biden, write in ‘Ronald Reagan’, your grandmother (she was nice), a favorite uncle (not that one, the other one) anyone but Trump. Vote like your life depends on it, but it kinda does.

Be truthful, are things better now than they were four years ago? There are 235,000 dead people and hundreds of thousands of their families, friends, and loved ones who don’t think so. There are over one thousand parents and thousands of their relatives who had their children stolen by the Trump administration who don’t think so. I’d say most countries of the world, looking at the state of the once admired America, would not think so either.

My friend, please. What are you actually voting for? Healthcare? Trump has been promising a plan for four years, the GOP now for a decade and have never delivered, and never will. Not really in their interest to do so. This is a transactional party headed by a transactional leader; if they can’t get something out of it, they won’t do it, end of story.

Jobs? Contrary to what Trump says, ‘his’ economy was not the greatest ‘ever’, heck, Bill Clinton had him beat by a mile. Jobs are down, the actual economy has tanked because Trump doesn’t understand he has to get the virus under control before the economy can fully come back, but he’s so far in denial about this he can never admit it. You want jobs to come back you have to vote for someone who can get the virus under control. That’s not Trump.

Are you fighting for cultural issues? Because that’s what they want you to do. They want you to be distracted, vote on the cultural issues they really can’t do anything about (The LGBTQ community are people, they are here, and deserve the same rights you do, get over it, same with BLM) as they enact their tax cuts for wealthy donors, strike down regulations that affect their donors’ businesses, and destroy any controls that stand in the way of complete power. Have they enacted those promises they made you? Do you have that great new manufacturing job that Trump brought back? Has Mexico paid for the wall that isn’t built?

Friend, you need to open your eyes as to what you're supporting. Trump and the GOP are poised to go down in a huge Blue tsunami and there's only one reason for it: the embrace of Trump and 'Trumpism'. As I said, 235,000+ people are dead due to his ego and inaction, over 500 children parentless because of his policies, the economy cratered, businesses, entire industries on the brink of disaster, and all of this because Trump is too stubborn, too egotistical to admit he screwed up and too afraid of showing ‘weakness’ try to fix things. While infections have surpassed the summer rates, he's holding infection spreading rallies and denying there's a problem. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone not stamped or named ‘Trump’.

It didn’t have to be this way, it really didn’t. 

In 2012, after getting their butts handed to them a second time by Obama, the RNC did an 'autopsy' trying to outline the future of the GOP. It recommended abandoning hard Reaganism, try to open themselves up to new ideas, to appeal to People of Color, and move into the 21st Century. But no, that was too hard, sounded too much like Communism (oh dread!). Better to just double down on White grievance, use as your nominee someone who was pushing a racist 'theory' (birtherism, WTF with that?) and hope for the best. They got lucky that time with the Electoral College, it saved them when they lost of the popular vote by nearly three million votes (In over 30 years, the GOP has won the popular vote exactly once). If the movement to get rid of the EC succeeds, I bet it'll be a long time before that happens again.

This Tuesday, the Democrats are probably going to win the WH, the Senate and keep the House (and might flip a few state legislatures as well). Yes, this is my prediction. Why such a huge wave election? It’s all because of the behavior of Trump and the Trumpers. Going forward, if the Democrats are smart, they'll get rid of the filibuster, and that'll be it for the GOP. Fix a few laws and they won't be able to cheat their way back into power for a while (they'll find new ways to cheat, they always do). Minority status for the Republicans while the Democrats fix (again and again) the damage wrought by an out of control GOP, an incompetent president, and his enablers.

So, you, proud Trump voter, take a look around you. Trump talked of ‘American carnage’ at his inauguration, and then he went out and created it. America is in near ruins, gun sales up 91% over last year, so bad that Walmart took them off sale until after the election.

That’s enough.

235,000+ dead Americans, 500+ purposely created orphans. I'd say that’s legacy enough for Donny, don't you?

Trump Fatigue

Trump, putting himself to sleep.

He is exhausting.

By design.

Trump creates chaos in everything he does, in everything he says; in tweets, at his rallies, his responses to bad news. Chaos is where he lives, where he breathes, where he thrives. He lies, he struts, he frets his hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury…

…signifying nothing.

And that’s the way he likes it. He likes being a human headache, a whirlwind of contradictory ideas, saying one, and then the opposite, always ready to drop that for whatever advantage he can get. And then denying he’d ever said anything else. And his supporters constant noise cheering him, praising everything he does, egging him on and begging for more. So tiring. And what are you going to do? After a while you stop trying to figure out what to do and just throw up your hands.

It just wears you out, starts to numb you; the next insane thing tops the last insane thing which topped the one before that. It’s just… exhausting.

By design. It is in that exhaustion Trump and his enablers do their best work. To them chaos and exhaustion means people aren’t paying close attention, it their version of the magician’s distraction, the coin palm while waving the other hand in your face. But even during this slight-of-hand we need to pay attention, close attention.

But the madness brings tiredness, numbness, brings depression, anxiety, anger overload, brings Trump fatigue.

How can you fight when you’re too tired to keep caring? This is part of what Trump is after; the tired-of-it-all, giving up, screw-them-all exhaustion. How do you deal with it?

Take a break. Stop hitting refresh on the news sites, stop doom scrolling on Twitter and Facebook, stop arguing with trolls, old high friends and family members. Shut it down. Turn off the phone, close the laptop. Talk to someone about something besides the election or covid, take a walk, get out and get away. For your own sanity.

Take care of yourself, you don’t want to break down in the final days of the most important election of your life, right? If you have early voting, try to do it now, or when your ballot comes, fill it out and get it back right away. Believe me, once you had that ballot in (and track it to make sure it’s been received) you’ll feel a lot better.

Take care of yourself and your mental health, then get back into it.

Because it ain’t over.