I awoke the other morning with memories of a frightening nightmare filling my thoughts. A familiar man's voice was uttering crude racist and belittling misogynistic words constantly ricocheting in my ears. In my nightmare, my eyes swept my surroundings filled with the blurred faces of people whose hands pressed against their ears in a fruitless attempt to block the blaring sound and noise as I was trying to do.
Nearby I could see a slightly larger crowd including children, laughing, waving their arms encouraging this obnoxious man to keep shouting his obscenities. "You love me, don't you!", he said to them. Their unified voices responded, "Oh, yes!"
"See, I can do and say anything I want", he said to his nearby cohorts who gave him smug smiles of approval they knew his ego expected, demanded.
I returned to the reality of the day -- our 2024 U.S. Presidential election results with the 45th ex-President to become the 47th President has had my mind reeling with questions about this nightmarish outcome.
We were just finishing a four-year respite with a welcomed degree of calm and sanity after the overwhelming daily chaos and noise from the 45th U.S. President. That President has been thought by many to have given coded language's "dog whistles" to some fascist-like groups which seem to have interpreted his words as sympathetic to them. Some of his own other words and actions have led many to see certain of his own ideas and behavior among those seduced by such a fascist ideology.
During the years following the end of 45's 2016 term of office he successfully mustered enough voter support to receive a winning, over 50% of the popular vote for the first time, in the recent 2024 election. as well as winning the Electoral College votes.
Almost 50% of other voters, including me, were bewildered to appreciate his supporting voters intent when they embraced the apparent fascism our recently elected 47th U.S.President seemed to be promising. They elected a man who many believe has demonstrated his racism, intolerance, and misogynism along with other undesirable moral, ethical and business practices reportedly throughout most of his life.
Did they not listen to his words or note his actions when he previously was President and when he campaigns?
Did his supporters not recognize the constitutional importance of maintaining the separation of church and state our constitution demands which he seems not to protect?
Did they not respect the right of women to control decisions about the health of their own bodies which he seems not to do?
Did they not believe he would act as he said he would which could undermine or weaken some of our constitution?
Did they not believe he would obliterate a balanced rule of law and justice despite accusations of his own violations for which he is now not likely to be held accountable if warranted, as a consequence of action by his earlier SCOTUS appointments?
Did they not believe he would be intolerant of anyone whose thinking was different from his own as some allege he has demonstrated in the past?
Do his supporters actually believe in and trust a person who makes up facts, denies and distorts truth, prevaricates incessantly based on documentation of his words?
Did they not believe he would revert to instigating violence to achieve his end as many believe he did culminating in what some consider an insurrection on January 6, 2021?
Did he really mean there would be no more elections after his second 4 years if voters elected him, and why would that be true since our constitution specifies there will be every four years -- or is this just one more of his lies?
Did voters not consider the meaning when he has reportedly demonstrated he expects everybody to have a primary allegiance to him over all else and is believed by many to have previously responded unfavorably to those who won't make such a commitment since everyone's oath, including him, is to the constitution -- not to a person or a political party?
Did they not know what it would mean in human terms when he said he would be a dictator the first day of his presidency?
Did they not understand what he is saying about women's right's when he said he would protect women whether they liked it or not?
Did they not recognize any fascist views he is expressing?
Did they not realize the dangers a fascist leader poses to everybody's freedoms, even lives, including their own?
Despite the lessons of history with fascist leaders as most recently occurred with another country's invasion of Ukraine, or before that, WWII fought to preserve many country's independence, freedoms, including our own, save lives for which many sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters died, also freeing those captive, still living, who had not been tolerated -- do they not know what fascism is?
Definition: "Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition", ... as defined in Wikipedia.
I am left to consider the state of my beloved U.S.A. with this election painfully revealing there are far more of my fellow citizens in whom I am so disappointed, saddened, but alarmed, than I thought lived in our proud country which holds high ideals for the individual citizen.
A thought-provoking lead-in to a recent Guardian opinion article resonates with me now. I believe this is a great country already, but the problem lies with the people, so I have slightly altered the wording:
"Our mistake was to believe we lived in a" ... country with more 'better people' ... "than we do".
It's going to take some time to accept what happened. Never thought we had so many people in this country who don't value the lessons we all learned in Sunday school.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they didn't go to Sunday School as they don't seem to know recent history either.
DeleteI never went to Sunday school. Neither did my sons, who are both wonderfully compassionate men who are feminists and vote Democrat. Millions of so-called christians who teach and attend Sunday school promoted and voted for this maniac. It's laughable to see how valuable the christian religion is at this point when it comes to their unqualified and ongoing support of a lying, cheating, traitorous rapist and felon.
DeletePerhaps that’s the cross Christians today must bear, those extremists — a minority in their religion who don't fully represent the ideology, those who don’t practice what they preach, and/or those who identify themselves as Christians but may not be true representatives of that religion’s beliefs, but then maybe none of these possibilities.
DeleteTrump's re-election as president was certainly a big shock. Clearly there are many people who don't care about all his outrageous misbehaviour and will support him despite everything. But the Democrats need to have a good hard think about why their vote collapsed so catastrophically (12 million votes fewer than 2020) and why so many voters turned away from them.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, the Democrats do need to seriously examine why some voters failed to support them, but such a reaction was extreme.
DeleteSabine in Germany who blogs at "Interim Arrangements" has a great quote and more I recommend everyone read that says it all about such a voting choice in my opinion:
https://interimarrangements.blogspot.com/
"You voted for fascism because cereal, eggs and gasoline have become more expensive?"
Her quote is spot on!
DeleteWhat truly boggles the mind is that people actually think he will reduce their grocery bill and are overlooking or just plain OK with all the vile stuff he's actually done/set in motion.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what they were told and they seemed to believe everything he told them unquestioningly much as people in a cult do beyond all reason.
DeleteYep!
DeleteIt's crazy making Joared and now his asinine and dangerous followers are bragging they liked about Project 2025 to hoodwink their voters.I blamce so much of this on the "sanewashing" the cowed media did to his words and rallies amd screaming about Kamala's lack of policies when she had an 88 page proposal for revitalizing the US middle class. Legacy media is dead in the water.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
I reluctantly must agree, much of the media did a poor job. The Fourth Estate has been weakened so has their work cut out for them to regain their strength against strong forces that will use any means to undermine their efforts to speak truth.
DeleteOur fellow citizens do seem to have been some strange combination of coddled, oblivious, and unkind. Above all else, Democrats need to recover a sense of optimism about our country. It's too hard to sell nothing but defense.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is the time when those in the Democratic party, those who may not be affiliated with any political party such as myself, any and all others who believe in our democratic republic’s constitution need to be positive and optimistic in our attitude and efforts to preserve our great country.
DeleteI have no optimism, I'm disgusted and angry. Not defensive, just angry that people could vote for this guy. I accepted that he might win, but I assumed it would be the electoral vote, and some shenanigans and suppressing the vote. I'm sure these things happened, but it seems like enough people voted for Trump that likely he would win anyway. What the even F. I'm so angry. I understand now why people burn their own neighborhoods down when shit goes wrong. I would like to burn down my neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI hear your anger and have felt some of my own. I realized it would be far more productive to not waste all that energy in rage, instead to find positive productive ways to work toward correcting the situation. Importantly, doing so would be best for my health and I knew I would need to stay as well as possible in the days to come.
DeleteCould the election of Trump suggest that a large slice of the US population lacks any awareness of comparatively recent world history? Before Hitler established his dictatorship he did quite well in Germany's conventional elections; beyond that it was virtually impossible to stop him.
ReplyDeleteAwareness with understanding of history's parallels has seemed to not be a strong point for many of our voting citizens. The patterns of similarity you mention, others noted began to reveal themselves soon after his 2016 election, only to increase in the subsequent
Deleteyears. A number of citizens began to note this sameness but others rejected what they cited as an abhorrent comparison. He's pressing strongly now for more power to himself for the Executive Branch of government. Also, he has casually mentioned, what if we might want his administration's gains to continue, but he has only a four year term limit. Hm-m-m ?
I think we're all living a nightmare at what's happening in the world. Certainly in Europe the Trump ascendancy has blown things apart. Europeans continued to believe America would come to its senses right up until those votes were counted. There is a war on our doorstep and a Palestinian genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. Kushner is already eyeing up prime real estate on the Gaza waterfront. The far-right is rising again in Germany, the Netherlands, and possibly here in France come the next Presidential elections in 2027. The National Front (Rassemblement national) is already the largest party in the French parliament (though thankfully they don't yet hold a majority of seats). If Trump's tariff policy succeeds then living standards throughout Europe could drop drastically, further encouraging voters towards the far-right parties. Whether you US guys like it or not, this all began back in the eighties with Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher, and their trickle-down economics that never trickled. Add to that the financial collapse of 2008 and the Covid effect on world economics and you have the reason Trump is about to re-enter the White House.
ReplyDeleteThe world seems turned inside-out in ways, especially after WWII, I thought could never happen in my lifetime. I take some solace in knowing our U.S. election outcome was NOT a mandate but an election won by a very slim majority of the popular vote. Hope is offered, if we can survive the next two years, to make some possible change leading to a more permanent one in 2028. Individual freedoms and peace seem so much more desirable than what threatens yet others seem not to want them. Trickle-down economics has never worked as repeated trials have demonstrated and yet advocates persist in pressing to try it again.
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