Today I watched a brief video before the main feature at my local independent cinema. It opened on a slide that said, "This is in response to recent events that have occurred as a consequence of changes in government policy." It then showed people of all races, religions, genders, and sexual orientations stating that we are all one, that our strength comes from our diversity. It was clear that it was intended as a refutation of Trump's immigration policy and Muslim ban. It received an enthusiastic round of applause from the 60 or so patrons seated in that theater in suburban Huntington, New York. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of reception it would have gotten in Mobile or Biloxi.
Well, I wholeheartedly approve of the video's message. So is this going to be a Kumbaya moment, another olive branch shakily offered to Trump supporters, a heartfelt plea imploring, "Can't we all just get along?"
In a word: NO.
I for one am sick and tired of being told that I need to "understand" Trump voters, that I need to offer them the same compassion that so easily comes to me for the poor and for asylum seekers. I'm also sick of hearing that Democrats "abandoned" the working poor, leaving them no choice but to vote for Trump, who understood their suffering. Yes, I get that they used to have good-paying jobs that wound up being outsourced overseas. Why did employers move operations overseas? To get away with paying slave wages, to sidestep employee protection regulations, and to avoid tax bills. And minimum wage laws and employee protections were the result of Democrat-introduced legislation to help American workers. So the way to keep jobs here would have been to remove the financial incentive to outsource jobs -- by taxing corporate profits earned overseas. And that's exactly what Democrats tried to do, many times, only to have Republicans block all those efforts. The Republican approach was to slash corporate taxes, which they promised would induce employers to remain here and hire more Americans. Instead, the corporations kept right on outsourcing, and pocketed the tax savings. Who -- other than nearly every economist in America -- could have predicted this?
Democrats have also traditionally supported unions, and unions have supported workers. Yes, unions have sometimes been corrupt or greedy -- but overall, organized labor had been the savior of American workers throughout the last century. And the Republicans' response was to bust unions whenever and wherever they could, such that union membership in the U.S. is now at historic lows. So stop telling me that Democrats abandoned American workers. Republicans directly attacked American workers, yet conservative media outlets like Fox News convinced them that Republicans had their interests at heart.
Now, here's proof that this liberal Democrat has not forgotten you Trump voters, or the evil you unleashed on this country: You watched Trump throughout the campaign, both before and after he won the nomination. You heard him insulting his fellow Republicans, and then Hillary Clinton, using juvenile name-calling. You watched him mocking a disabled reporter. You heard him boasting about sexually assaulting women. You learned of his $25 million payout for deliberately running a phony "university." You watched him insulting Gold Star parents.
And yet, knowing what kind of man Trump is -- because he showed us, over and over, his complete lack of scruples and ethics -- you voted for him anyway. You men with wives and daughters you claim to respect -- and you women as well -- voted for an obvious misogynist. You Christians, who have the gall to judge others for what you see as immoral lifestyles, voted for a serial adulterer. And then you rationalized away your abandonment of every principle you had ever espoused: "Politicians are all corrupt, and I like that he's not a politician;" "He's a successful businessman, and the government should be run like a business." Or you succumbed to the politics of spite: "I hate liberals, and Trump pisses off liberals."
Do you even know what liberals stand for? Hint: It's not "open borders and free money for illegals." Do you like your Social Security and Medicare? Conservatives want both privatized so that corporations can gamble with your money, keep the profits, and pass the losses on to you; liberals are fighting to save both. But it's all about resentment for some of you, especially those of you who remember when being white, male, and Christian in America was all you needed to feel on top of the world -- before liberals forced you to accept women, nonwhites, and immigrants as equals. Well, screw that, you say! You "remember" a hazy time 50 or 60 years ago, before the social upheavals of the 1960s, when men (white men, that is) could write their own ticket, and women and nonwhites knew their place! Wasn't that when America was at its greatest? So you voted for the candidate who promised to make America great "again."
So now we have a president who has sabotaged our most treasured alliances, who lauds brutal dictators and tells us he wants to be like them, who imposes ill-conceived tariffs that place burdens on American businesses and cost American jobs. You make excuses for him because you're clinging to a pipe dream of an America that never was, sold to you by a shameless con artist and reinforced by his shills at Fox News. To admit you were wrong means to give up that dream, to admit you were wrong -- so instead you double down and defend a president who refuses to defend America.
So no, I'm not sympathetic. You have become the engineers of your own destruction, and the tragedy is that you have dragged this country, and those of us who saw the danger and tried to stop it, down into the pit with you.
Well, I wholeheartedly approve of the video's message. So is this going to be a Kumbaya moment, another olive branch shakily offered to Trump supporters, a heartfelt plea imploring, "Can't we all just get along?"
In a word: NO.
I for one am sick and tired of being told that I need to "understand" Trump voters, that I need to offer them the same compassion that so easily comes to me for the poor and for asylum seekers. I'm also sick of hearing that Democrats "abandoned" the working poor, leaving them no choice but to vote for Trump, who understood their suffering. Yes, I get that they used to have good-paying jobs that wound up being outsourced overseas. Why did employers move operations overseas? To get away with paying slave wages, to sidestep employee protection regulations, and to avoid tax bills. And minimum wage laws and employee protections were the result of Democrat-introduced legislation to help American workers. So the way to keep jobs here would have been to remove the financial incentive to outsource jobs -- by taxing corporate profits earned overseas. And that's exactly what Democrats tried to do, many times, only to have Republicans block all those efforts. The Republican approach was to slash corporate taxes, which they promised would induce employers to remain here and hire more Americans. Instead, the corporations kept right on outsourcing, and pocketed the tax savings. Who -- other than nearly every economist in America -- could have predicted this?
Democrats have also traditionally supported unions, and unions have supported workers. Yes, unions have sometimes been corrupt or greedy -- but overall, organized labor had been the savior of American workers throughout the last century. And the Republicans' response was to bust unions whenever and wherever they could, such that union membership in the U.S. is now at historic lows. So stop telling me that Democrats abandoned American workers. Republicans directly attacked American workers, yet conservative media outlets like Fox News convinced them that Republicans had their interests at heart.
Now, here's proof that this liberal Democrat has not forgotten you Trump voters, or the evil you unleashed on this country: You watched Trump throughout the campaign, both before and after he won the nomination. You heard him insulting his fellow Republicans, and then Hillary Clinton, using juvenile name-calling. You watched him mocking a disabled reporter. You heard him boasting about sexually assaulting women. You learned of his $25 million payout for deliberately running a phony "university." You watched him insulting Gold Star parents.
And yet, knowing what kind of man Trump is -- because he showed us, over and over, his complete lack of scruples and ethics -- you voted for him anyway. You men with wives and daughters you claim to respect -- and you women as well -- voted for an obvious misogynist. You Christians, who have the gall to judge others for what you see as immoral lifestyles, voted for a serial adulterer. And then you rationalized away your abandonment of every principle you had ever espoused: "Politicians are all corrupt, and I like that he's not a politician;" "He's a successful businessman, and the government should be run like a business." Or you succumbed to the politics of spite: "I hate liberals, and Trump pisses off liberals."
Do you even know what liberals stand for? Hint: It's not "open borders and free money for illegals." Do you like your Social Security and Medicare? Conservatives want both privatized so that corporations can gamble with your money, keep the profits, and pass the losses on to you; liberals are fighting to save both. But it's all about resentment for some of you, especially those of you who remember when being white, male, and Christian in America was all you needed to feel on top of the world -- before liberals forced you to accept women, nonwhites, and immigrants as equals. Well, screw that, you say! You "remember" a hazy time 50 or 60 years ago, before the social upheavals of the 1960s, when men (white men, that is) could write their own ticket, and women and nonwhites knew their place! Wasn't that when America was at its greatest? So you voted for the candidate who promised to make America great "again."
So now we have a president who has sabotaged our most treasured alliances, who lauds brutal dictators and tells us he wants to be like them, who imposes ill-conceived tariffs that place burdens on American businesses and cost American jobs. You make excuses for him because you're clinging to a pipe dream of an America that never was, sold to you by a shameless con artist and reinforced by his shills at Fox News. To admit you were wrong means to give up that dream, to admit you were wrong -- so instead you double down and defend a president who refuses to defend America.
So no, I'm not sympathetic. You have become the engineers of your own destruction, and the tragedy is that you have dragged this country, and those of us who saw the danger and tried to stop it, down into the pit with you.
Comments
Post a Comment