So whattaya think? Is it okay to be optimistic, maybe relax a little bit, or are they gonna pull the rug out from under us again? MSNBC has already begun their election coverage, they're pushing Biden of course, and their anchors are trying hard to keep the smiles off their faces as they note his leads in the various battleground states and especially in the all-important Pennsylvania, where they say he's all but guaranteed to win. Without coming out and saying so, they're acting like it's in the bag. James Carville says the networks will declare Biden the winner by 7pm (pacific time) tomorrow night. And Michael Moore, who against all odds predicted a Trump win in 2016, says that the only question remaining is the size of Biden's victory. Will he eke out a win or will it be a landslide?
Me, I'm not ready to let my guard down just yet. I mean, I'm not saying Trump is gonna win, only that we've been down this road twice before, in 2016 and also in 2000 with Bush/Gore, when NBC infamously named Gore the winner on election night, only to go back and retract their proclamation later on in the wee hours. That one was a gut punch, but the shock of Trump - of all people - beating Hillary Clinton four years ago felt like a decapitation.
I remember writing, right here at this blog, something to the effect of "Get ready to wake up to our first woman President. She's also gonna be one of the best Presidents we've ever had". I wrote that on election eve 2016, then around 7pm the next evening I sat benumbed in front of the tv as the CNN anchors, who did nothing but promote Trump the previous 18 months by giving him wall-to-wall coverage, soberly announced his electoral college victories in state after state. The map was filling up with red, and I just remember turning the tv off and shutting down inside, not just thinking "here we go again", but "what in the hell has happened to America"?
By now, we all know what has happened to America. The only question is will it happen again?
I really don't think it will, but..........
If it does, we're doomed, or if not doomed, we're well on the way to being so.
But what concerns me just as much, if Biden wins, is what our response will be to the Trump presidency once it is in our rearview mirror.
I don't think we can afford to let it pass, to just allow Trump and his cronies to walk away as losers. I think they need to be indicted, and indicted for every single crime they committed while in office. This includes Trump and William Barr of course, but I think it must extend all the way down the line, to Mike Pompeo, to Jared Kushner, and to every member of the Trump administration of whom it can be proved committed criminal acts.
These people need to be held accountable, or else someone will try it again at some point in the future. We were very lucky that Trump was a buffoon, rather than a man of determination and focus like Adolph Hitler. Trump is a wannabe, and we should thank our lucky stars for that, but what if we just brush off his aberration of a Presidency? What if we just say "whew, thank God that's over", and allow him to retire to Mar-A-Lago, and allow William Barr (a criminal of the first order and committer of treason) to walk free as well?
We will be inviting a far worse right wing candidate to run at some point in the future, and to run unscathed as Trump did. Think about it : while the media lambasted Trump on a daily basis for four years (after they helped him get elected), no one, including the much-hoped-for hero Robert Mueller, was ever able to make anything stick to the man. The Mueller Report amounted to nothing, the impeachment didn't remove him. He was able to publicly insult and belittle members of his staff, which included a four star General. He publicly encouraged violence, which resulted in death and with armed militia members openly parading in the streets.
So no, if he loses tomorrow, we cannot just let him walk away. He needs to be made an example of, as a warning to anyone who would try this again. Because here's the deal : we have a democracy, right? So what would happen if a majority of the population decided that they wanted to elect a ruthless dictator? Would that result be allowed to stand, even if the guy got the majority of votes and the electoral college? What if the guy ran on a platform of total domination against people the far right hates? Would the result be accepted, just because we live in a democracy and the vote was the will of the people?
What if one day, we elected a man who made Trump look like Mr. Rodgers? I'm not talking about a dictator who rose to power through a military coup or some kind of takeover, but one who was elected by the people, like Trump was.
We've seen that impeachment doesn't work to get rid of such a man, not if he's got every Senator and Congressperson in his party under his spell.
In short, what I'm saying is that if we just shrug, and let Trump slide, we could be opening the door down the road, for a far worse candidate, one who could become an elected dictator. A real dictator, like Hitler, not just a wannabe like Trump.
So, I think we have to show America and the world that candidates like Trump will not be tolerated in the future. I know we have free speech, etc., and we need to keep that right above all, but Trump won in large part because of all the coverage CNN gave him in 2016, and the things he said during his campaign appealed to the most base instincts in the people that became his unwavering "core". Those people suddenly felt justified and vindicated in their racist, hateful views, and they came out of the shadows to strut their stuff in full view, because Trump was their President. Again, witness the openness of the militias. Those groups used to hide in the woodwork during the tenure of other administrations.
We need to go back to having an FBI that has the edge over these groups. We need to send the fringe elements in this country back into their holes, where they can be infiltrated and kept at bay. I'll get off my soapbox now, because I don't like to talk politics in the first place. I end up going off on every tangent imaginable and end up ranting. And that gets me to my final point for this blog.
I wish everyone would stop ranting, both on the Right and Left. I don't like rants. I don't like sides. As I've mentioned many times, when I was 20, up until about age 28, I thought I was a communist, or at least toyed with the idea, but even then my thoughts were not entirely devoted to politics, as seems to be the case for so many people these days. Yeah. young Me wanted to be a Commie, or as Far Left as I could go, but eventually I learned about Uncle Joe Stalin and Chairman Mao, and - "Hello Ad"! - I discovered that these guys and their systems were as bad or worse than Hitler's. Fascism, Communism, it's all the same, just located at two opposing ends of the spectrum : the Far Right and the Far Left. In reality, minus a few fine points, they are the same goddamn thing. And I don't want any part of either one, because all they want is to fight.
So the final point I wanna make is that I hope this country will move back toward the center. That's where I wound up, once Bill Clinton became President. I think he was one of the two best Presidents we've had in my lifetime, the other being John F. Kennedy. Both were centrist Democrats, and both presided over a time of prosperity and high optimism. Neither was perfect as a human being, but then who is?
The point is that they were great Presidents, and they governed from the center. Obama was pretty good too, and if we're gonna be fair, I'll include George Bush the First and Jimmah Carter. Both were decent men, and of course JC has gone on to become a great humanitarian. Even President Reagan made peace with Gorbachev and helped end the Cold War.
I hope we can get back to civility in this country, and can stop all the hate and name calling, and that goes for the Left as well as the Right. Stop hating on people, people. The Internet had been a huge part of this problem, but just let people have their views. Most folks, Republican or Democrat, aren't killers. They just wanna live their lives.
So let's hope we end the Trump era tomorrow, and may we never return to such an awful place. A price must be paid for what has happened here, but it must be paid by the man himself, and his cronies, his co-conspirators. If there is justice, they will wind up in prison, and it will send the message to Never Try This Again.
As for the American people, we must come together, stop hating, and stay away from the fringe.
That's all I know and all the politics I hope to talk for quite some time to come.
See you in the morning. May it be a wonderful day, the day we've all been hoping for.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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