Yet.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, and figure out why I'm feeling such despair. Forgive me if I ramble a little bit.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, and figure out why I'm feeling such despair. Forgive me if I ramble a little bit.
I've always believed that after the election, you move on and make the best of it. The first item of my Fraternity's Code of Ethics says that I should elect the best men as leaders and follow their planning. Put another way, everyone needs to row, or the boat doesn't go anywhere. But everyone has to row together, and someone has to steer. Once we've decided who's going to steer, we need to row hard and trust that he's pointing us in the right direction.
We used to do that. We really did.
It used to be that hearings on Presidential appointments were mostly a formality, to check out whether or not the person was qualified to do the job. Of course there was some posturing during the hearings so that legislators could score points for their party, but when it came time to vote they were by and large unanimously accepted.
Now it's a shit show, where political parties are interested in getting their person into the appointment, or preventing the other party from getting their guy in. Legislators aren't doing their jobs, they're trying to score points.
I really believe that most people who hold public office do it out of a genuine desire to serve, and truly have their constituents best interests at heart. Or at least that used to be the case. These days it seems as if we're electing legislators so that they can go score points for our team, and not let the other team do anything. And if it looks like the other team might do something good, they have to stop them from doing anything good, because if they do something good then we look bad.
What a fucked up way to govern.
Recently I heard some pundits on NPR point to the 2000 election as the time when things started to get bad. I'll have to respectfully disagree with that assertion. I think it started to go bad in 1992, but I can see how one could make that argument.
I remember so clearly in 2000 when Dubya beat out Al Gore. That one stung.
But after the election I still believed that deep down, Dubya wanted to do what he believed was the right thing, even though I thought it was the wrong thing. Dubya was a fairly decent guy from what I saw.
Of all of the recent Presidents, Dubya is they guy I'd most like to sit down and have a few beers and bullshit about sports. I really do like the guy as a person.
I still think he was the worst President in the history of our country, but I never really thought he was a bad guy.
Another thing is that I felt as if the 2000 election wasn't won fairly. Somehow, that made it easier to shrug off. We didn't lose, they cheated.
We used to do that. We really did.
It used to be that hearings on Presidential appointments were mostly a formality, to check out whether or not the person was qualified to do the job. Of course there was some posturing during the hearings so that legislators could score points for their party, but when it came time to vote they were by and large unanimously accepted.
Now it's a shit show, where political parties are interested in getting their person into the appointment, or preventing the other party from getting their guy in. Legislators aren't doing their jobs, they're trying to score points.
I really believe that most people who hold public office do it out of a genuine desire to serve, and truly have their constituents best interests at heart. Or at least that used to be the case. These days it seems as if we're electing legislators so that they can go score points for our team, and not let the other team do anything. And if it looks like the other team might do something good, they have to stop them from doing anything good, because if they do something good then we look bad.
What a fucked up way to govern.
Recently I heard some pundits on NPR point to the 2000 election as the time when things started to get bad. I'll have to respectfully disagree with that assertion. I think it started to go bad in 1992, but I can see how one could make that argument.
I remember so clearly in 2000 when Dubya beat out Al Gore. That one stung.
But after the election I still believed that deep down, Dubya wanted to do what he believed was the right thing, even though I thought it was the wrong thing. Dubya was a fairly decent guy from what I saw.
Of all of the recent Presidents, Dubya is they guy I'd most like to sit down and have a few beers and bullshit about sports. I really do like the guy as a person.
I still think he was the worst President in the history of our country, but I never really thought he was a bad guy.
Another thing is that I felt as if the 2000 election wasn't won fairly. Somehow, that made it easier to shrug off. We didn't lose, they cheated.
Not so this time. Trump won fair and square. He did what no one thought could be done, and that leads me to despair.
Despair that I see friends who are now saying stupid shit like "I really didn't want Trump to win because he'll be awful, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for Hillary" followed by a lame 3rd party argument, or some bullshit about emails or Benghazi.
Despair that some of my friends are saying that they voted for Trump because of economic reasons, and never considered anything else.
Despair that my daughter was crying last night because she's afraid that now she and her girlfriend won't be able to marry, or even be safe out in public together.
Despair that the racist elements of our society are now emboldened because they were tacitly approved by this campaign.
Despair because we're now the punchline for every comedian in the world now.
Despair that my country would choose hate, rather than love.
This wasn't just any election, this was a referendum on the future of this country and the path we're going to choose.
And I'm not sure how to move on from here.
Despair that some of my friends are saying that they voted for Trump because of economic reasons, and never considered anything else.
Despair that my daughter was crying last night because she's afraid that now she and her girlfriend won't be able to marry, or even be safe out in public together.
Despair that the racist elements of our society are now emboldened because they were tacitly approved by this campaign.
Despair because we're now the punchline for every comedian in the world now.
Despair that my country would choose fear, rather than reason.
Despair that my country would choose hate, rather than love.
And I'm not sure how to move on from here.
~Easy
