It is a difficult time for half of the voting country, and a Make-America-Great-Again kind of day for the other voting half. I cannot speak for the MAGA crowd, but I can certainly sum up the general feelings on my side with this quote from Justin Halpern's Dad:
"We're having fish for dinner. Fine, let's take a vote. Who wants fish for dinner? Yeah, democracy ain't so fun when it fucks you, huh?"
I still believe that as Americans, we basically all want the same things: a safe place to raise our kids. A job that pays a livable wage. Affordable health care (not interference from for-profit insurance companies). Safe schools. Reasonable gun laws. A working, humane, timely path to citizenship. We all need protections from corporate greed and avarice, as consumers, tax payers, and employees. We just disagree on which path to get to those things.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why it was the worst man in America that the MAGA crowd rallied behind. When my brothers and cousins were enlisting in the military in order to have some small choice in light of the Vietnam draft - when my classmates and the boys from my hometown were either enlisting or being drafted, Trump's father paid for a bone spurs exemption, not once but a few times. Trump then became a man who spent his entire adult life, among other things, stiffing the working contractors who built his big hotels and casinos and golf courses. Small businesses that did not have the time or money to fight him in court. It is information easily available online from scores of various sources, so it is not "biased media".
By chance or by election interference, he became President, this crass, fatuous, classless, pathological liar, cheat and confirmed lecher. Somehow, all these enormous character flaws were dismissed by his followers, and that allowed him and his family to flagrantly enrich themselves via the office of the United States Presidency. The same voting crowd tolerated the obvious, outrageous power-mongering and clearly illegal wheeling and dealing of the worst First Family in the entire history of the United States. The Trumps did not even attempt to hide their lucrative personal gains made possible by their blatant disregard of the Constitutional clauses meant to protect the Office of the President from undue influence. Not to mention the nepotism that turned the stomach of almost everyone.
So, that was the first time. This time? A man who kept classified government documents in the bathroom of his night club estate, where anyone who wanted could access them. The same crowd of voters who were almost dying of personal outrage that Hillary Clinton used the wrong hard drive for her emails apparently do not have the same concern for boxes and boxes of classified documents left out where anyone who might need a quick buck could copy and sell anything interesting. This time they knew exactly what kind of guy they were voting for. A convicted felon. An obviously guilty insurrectionist. A man on public record speaking 30,537 lies in four years. And they are okay with it.
How in the world can any thinking person believe rounding up people for wholesale deportation is going to be good for anyone? Just a quick look to our own history will remind us of the enormous tragedy and loss in the dealings with Native Americans, enslaved peoples, Japanese-Americans citizens during World War II.
Imagine if the MAGA government put the enormous resources at its disposal to actually fix immigration, to work with the entire elected House and Senate to actually fix the problems at the border, instead of opposing every single attempt anyone has made in the last 50 years? Rather than causing untold suffering, they could chose to be humane, helpful, and even kind.
I hope the mass deportations are as successful as his "build a wall" efforts were - that is, an utter failure. Trump has some very radicalized minions who are certainly capable and very willing to inflict enormous suffering on people who are as hardworking and honest as the rest of us. The immigrants pay in to a system they cannot benefit from. MAGA people are willing for this horrible act to happen while not being concerned that the same politicians are actively dismantling consumer protections, riding roughshod over civil liberties, inexorably squeezing the life from the USPS, Social Security, Education, Environmental Protections - the list is endless and tragic. It is all out there, plainly documented but somehow the MAGA people cannot see it. They overwhelmingly voted against their best interests.
It is too late now. The people have spoken. They want fish for dinner. I respectfully decline.
Quote from the book "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern, published 2010
