Lately, I’ve had to stop scrolling through Facebook so much and stop watching the news so frequently. It’s getting to me. All the hate, anger, and evil in the world. I’m not sure how much more I can take. Since Trump took office, I feel like I have been living in the twilight zone. What’s happening in our country, and around the world, is hard to comprehend. It’s difficult to believe that this is the new reality. Our reality.
At first, it was incredulity that he even got elected. We all thought it wasn’t possible, that it was a joke. It was a sure thing that Hillary Clinton would win. No need to sweat it. Well, the joke is on us.
Then it was disbelief at the Twitter rants and attacks. A President of our country would really say these things? Yep.
The President of our country really sexually assaulted those women? He said those horribly demeaning things about women and got away with it? Absolutely.
Russia hacked our elections and manipulated the outcome. Seriously? That doesn’t happen in today’s world. Apparently, it does.
45 puts well-known white supremacists in his Cabinet. We’re outraged. Shocked. But what can we do?
Build a wall is chanted far and wide, spewing hate at anyone who isn’t a white American.
Government agencies are banned from talking to the press.
“Fake News” is used against every journalist and news outlet, except Fox News and a few other extreme right-wing conspiracy sites.
Rips immigrant children from their parents at the borders, traumatizing them, claiming that this will be a deterrent for any other illegal immigrants coming into our country.
Meets with other world leaders and alienates them, berates them, abuses them, and makes America the enemy of our neighbors.
Meets with Putin and practically kisses the ground he walks on, denouncing our intelligence reports and community, that Russia is innocent. 45 may as well declare fealty to Russia. He’s already committed treason.
Need I go on? If you want a complete list of the madness, click here.
Yet, people still seem shocked that this craziness is happening. They don’t understand. They don’t get it. Even some of those who voted for him are wondering where it wrong. Well, let me tell you…it was all there in the beginning if you were willing to look at it. Willing to listen to it. Willing to open your heart and mind to understand it. Instead, you chose to be blind to the lies, to the hate, to it all. You were stuck on the party line. You were sick and tired of being the underdog in life and hoped for change. You no longer wanted to be the struggling middle class, but the man on top. You bought into the lie that we needed to “Make America Great Again.”
I get it. But was selling your soul to the devil the best way to change your circumstances? Was looking the other way worth the cost? What made you think that we stopped being great? The “Make America Great Again” slogan is a Rorschach test and Trump coasted to victory on the hope that everyone would see in it exactly what they want to see. It’s a good strategy for a campaign.
“Maybe as a country we need to focus less on “Making America Great Again” and more on making America the shining city on the hill that Ronald Reagan spoke so much about. An America where everyone has the same opportunity and access to the American dream regardless of their skin color, their gender, their sexual orientation. An America where the only thing that limits us is the size of our dreams and the intensity of our work ethic. This America doesn’t dwell on the past but looks forward to building a brighter future. It basks in the success of the past and shows an appropriate amount of shame for its errors. And it learns from its mistakes. It uses all of it as a foundation to be stronger for future generations. It’s an America that recognizes that its greatness lies not in an idealized view of the way things used to be but in adapting and adjusting to new realities.” -Ellen McGirt
In my lifetime, I have never seen Congress, and a sitting President, so blatantly mock our Constitution. It’s especially striking that it comes from the political party that’s always lecturing us about the “rule of law”. What’s worse is that they’re getting away with it. Republicans have turned these Constitutional issues into political footballs and suckered the White House, Democrats in Congress and the news media into playing the game by their rules.
I wonder what other Constitutional mandates Congress and the President could just decide to ignore. Is it possible that the White House, the opposition party in Congress and the news media could be cowardly complacent, too frozen by fear to actually do anything to stop their overreach? It’s all “politics,” they say. Sound familiar? That’s exactly what we said when Trump’s campaign was just a joke. He won once. And could win again.
-Ellen McGirt, Why ‘Make America Great Again’ Is An Offensive Slogan
-Tavis Smiley, Why I Fear America Could Enslave Black People Again