Not My President

So, a friend emailed me with this subject header, saying, “So yeah, he’s not. Is he yours?”

Yes, he is.

Seriously.

Doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s crazy, but that’s how democracy works. You’re an American citizen. You don’t get to opt out. You don’t like the president? Do something about it.

Trump is our fault– all of us. We watch way, way, way too much TV and spend way too much time on stupid and wasteful narcissistic pursuits like Facebook rather than studying, reading, praying, and spending time with one another.

As a result, we’re all polarized into our little camps, everybody has their own universe inside their heads and expresses it online instead of just talking to one another.

We are a country that has fallen for the rope-a-dope of mass media marketing, most especially the powerful political tools used to shape public opinion. If we read actual books and actual facts rather than be drones listening to the talking heads on TV, there’d be no Trump.

But we don’t. And Trump is the result. It’s what we deserve.

Ignorance is not a conservative trait or a liberal one. Ignorance is simply ignorance. And ignorance is winning.

The best thing about Trump is that, hopefully, Americans of every political persuasion are now thinking the same thing: “We’ve gone too far. This thing has gotten out of hand.”

And then maybe we’ll start talking to one another again, and “compromise” won’t be a cuss word.

7 Comments

  1. Thad says:

    I think the fact that most people actually didn’t vote for him is a pretty non-trivial detail. And even a good big chunk of the people who did were pretty unhappy with their options.

    It’s still disturbing as hell that so many people voted for him, and so many continue to enthusiastically support him. But I think the events of the past couple weeks have demonstrated that there’s a strong and dedicated opposition. Massive rallies, Muslims praying publicly in an airport while people cheer for them, the ACLU raising a staggering amount of money — these are very good early signs. I hope that energy lasts.

    I also hope that the customs officials refusing to follow court orders or meet with senators isn’t an early sign of the executive branch stacking itself with armed enforcers who refuse to recognize the authority of the other two branches of government. Because as constitutional crises go, that’s about as bad as they come.

  2. Dave Van Domelen says:

    The reason I don’t consider him my President is that he shows no signs of considering himself my President. He’s President of the people who support him, I’m an Enemy and to be treated as such.

    The Presidency should be a position of public service. Trump serves naught but Trump’s ego.

  3. Sam says:

    “Ignorance is not a conservative trait or a liberal one. Ignorance is simply ignorance. And ignorance is winning.”

    Something I wished more people understood.

  4. It’s still certainly early days. “America” writ large, needs to take responsibility for the election and current tenure of Trump, regardless of whether folks may have voted for him. Of course, voter marginalization tactics are still in effect in various parts of the country- there needs to be grassroots action to press state legislatures and governors to make voting “easier” and not “harder”– the memes about “voter fraud” are drastically overblown, and even in the midst of empirical evidence, hardliners among GOP officials still want to cling to it. Meanwhile, plenty of Democrats, especially party leadership at the state level, are still in head-scratching mode and not putting together better strategies for outreach, especially for vulnerable communities.

  5. DeathSkeleton says:

    Ironically, Trump reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson, they did and said what they wanted and although weren’t very liked (Besides Jackson if I remember correctly) they made it to presidency.

    I agree with your words here though.

  6. Stephen says:

    Off-topic from this post, but congratulations on the Eisner nomination!

Leave a Reply