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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis guy says what I feel
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/11/05/half-america-supports-donald-trump-heartbreaking-column/6165245002/dTrump's huge vote total breaks my heart. I recognize this America and I wish I did not.
The most dangerous implication of this election is that millions accept a fictitious world created by an autocrat and marketed by Fox News.
Michael J. Stern
Opinion columnist
This is going to be a scorched earth column, so buckle up.
Yes, former Vice President Joe Biden may squeak out a victory. But even if he does, weve been slapped with the heartbreaking reality that nearly half our country voted for President Donald Trump after spending four years watching him spew unbridled bigotry, engage in blatant corruption, and tell so many lies youd need a magnifying glass to read the Washington Post's running list of false and misleading claims.
My best friend just called in disgust to say he did not recognize this country. Unfortunately, I do. Its the same country that built itself largely on the backs of slaves who had their most basic human rights stolen and whose descendants, more than 150 years after emancipation, still carry the weight of the chains that held them down.
Its the same country that closed its eyes to Matthew Shepard, beaten and broken and tied to a fence in rural Wyoming, where he was left to die because he was gay.
And its the same country where you can see countless cell phone videos of people telling Latino Americans to speak English or "stay in Mexico" or go back" to where they came from.
Our better and worse angels
True, slightly more than half the country voted to repudiate Trump. But thats little consolation because many of those who chose Trump did not do so out of a simple difference of political opinion on which reasonable minds can differ. We can tease out each strand of the strangle knot, but in the end this election was a contest between our better and worse angels.
We were always imperfect but America was great, in part, because of what we aspired to be: Land of the free, where hard work and equality meant everyone had a shot at earning a piece of the pie. We were born a mosaic of diversity and we celebrated it.
But thats not what some in Trumps America want to see when they look through the window of history. They want to see their own reflection. And despite Trumps success in leading a 67-million-person chorus of Make America Great Again, its just a TV jingle.
Protest in Philadelphia on Nov. 4, 2020.
None of the policies enacted under the Trump-branded theme song have done anything to actually make America great. Tax cuts for the wealthiest,fighting the promise of universal health care, lethal mismanagement of a pandemic, use of the Justice Department for political gain and a personal financial windfall these are the cornerstones of a presidency best characterized by golf and failure. While half of us were repelled, the other half voted for more.
Face up to it, Democrats: We're a center left democracy hijacked by Trump and Republicans
People need to stop acting perplexed about how the polls could be so wrong. How they could show Biden up by 7 points in Michigan and still end up with a race that is almost evenly split. I never again want to hear the phrase margin of error. Trump knows what happened and most of us do too, if were willing to say it out loud.
A lot of people are buying the bigotry and division that Trump is selling they just dont want their family, friends, and neighbors to know it, so they dont tell the pollsters. Theyre scarfing down a Big Mac in their car, in the dark corner of a McDonalds parking lot, before heading home and pretending to enjoy a plate of baked chicken and broccoli.
Fictitious world marketed by Fox News
Perhaps the most dangerous implication of this election is the willingness of millions of Americans to reject unpleasant realities and accept a fictitious world created by an autocrat and marketed by co-conspirator Fox News. They dont want to believe that almost a quarter-million people just like them could be alive one minute and body bagged the next. And so, they choose to believe Trumps rounding the corner announcement claiming hes conquered the coronavirus pandemic even as the infection rate is hitting record highs even as my partner called me two hours ago to say hes got a fever, has been vomiting, and is too sick to stay at the hospital where he works.
Hard 2020 lessons emocrats counted on money and Hispanic voters to deliver a blue wave. They didn't.
If things were not bad enough, Trump pronounced Tuesday night that hed won the election and demanded an end to vote counting in states where he is ahead, while simultaneously insisting that the count continue in states where he is trailing. Trump then threatened to take his plan to steal the election to the Supreme Court, where he appointed a third of the judges and expects a warm reception. He's already filed lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania (to stop the vote count), demanded a recount in Wisconsin and "claimed" to have won several states before they were decided.
I cant believe were here again. I cant believe that nearly half my fellow Americans have reelected a man so singularly focused on satisfying himself, hed bite his mothers breast if sweeter milk caught his eye.
When all is said and done, Trump may be defeated in a close call. But I fear Trumpism, and the ugliness it reflects, are here to stay.
Michael J. Stern, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, was a federal prosecutor for 25 years in Detroit and Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelJStern1
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/11/05/half-america-supports-donald-trump-heartbreaking-column/6165245002/d
Skittles
(152,964 posts)yes indeed
yuiyoshida
(41,762 posts)considering the state of our nation.
pazzyanne
(6,518 posts)Skittles
(152,964 posts)I read today that a police captain in Alabama said those of us who voted for Biden should be "lined up and shot for treason." It occurs to me that after witnessing Trump and his sick cult fans, I will never again wonder how the Holocaust could have happened. Nope.
bdamomma
(63,655 posts)for 4 years can be very toxic, these cult members need mental health sessions. Really
tRump's cult that is all it is.
mtnsnake
(22,236 posts)There are those cult members you refer to, and then there are all of those who simply pull the lever for Trump so they can get that extra couple of dollars come tax time. They don't realize by enabling Trump they are just as evil as he is.
pazzyanne
(6,518 posts)The sundown date is for middle and lower class and expires 2024, (after tRump's two terms are over). Middle and lower taxes go up, but not upper class cuts. We are uneducated voters for the most part. People are use to accepting what they are spoonfed. They don't take the time to look deeper at what they are being handed. The title is all they want to read.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,063 posts)Faux News.
bdamomma
(63,655 posts)I stand corrected. Many years of brainwashing, very toxic to those who don't believe in facts and truth.
For myself, I could not function like that.
Very sad.
BootinUp
(46,924 posts)BSdetect
(8,989 posts)that has been exploited by the repugs into hatred
They have been invited to blame the poorest migrants for their own financial problems.
Imaginary stuff such as "they are taking our jobs".
Then there is the religious mob who are easily aroused into suppressing others.
Bigotry and racism are never far below the surface in this society, and most others.
Voting against your own interests is what our main obstacle seems to be.
The repugs want to exploit ignorance.
EndlessWire
(6,376 posts)HILLARY offered a solution that was rejected by people out of work by the failing coal industry. RETRAINING. For hundreds of years people who can't work in one business have reinvented themselves by retraining to another line of work.
But, these people are elitist. Their people have always been coal miners, so by G-d, they will not give it up! Well, suck it up, sugar cookie, because life marches on! When someone offers you training in something that might feed your family, be brave and take it.
Life is based on change. Everything changes. And, what you are at 20 is not what you will be at 40. That's a fact!
BSdetect
(8,989 posts)I mostly agree with you re training etc
There has to be a desire to learn for people to keep up.
There is no lifetime career anymore.
When individuals or families living paycheck to paycheck have to make a move to another state etc, that is not easy.
Easy to fall into serious debt. Just a parking ticket can tip people over.
We need to do a deep dive into actual cultists and determine what drives them precisely.
Simple phone calls will not suffice.
They need to grow up. They will not get special handling. They were offered solutions that they didn't want to take. That's because the ratfucks told them they could vegetate.
Change isn't easy. But, get in the game! If you want to provide them with psychiatric care because they might have to change, well, more work for psychiatrists. But, don't expect me to cry for them! I spent four years crying for those citizens that got pushed away because of their human differences.
LaMouffette
(2,013 posts)You have nailed it, EndlessWire. These Trumpies believe if someone is unsuccessful, it's because he or she is lazy. But they don't see themselves in that light. They stubbornly cling to the idea that manufacturing jobs will magically come back, if only they keep an aggressive, cutthroat thug/businessman like Trump in office. They refuse to adapt to the times. And you're right: they are the true elites. They are the ones with a misplaced sense of entitlement.
bdamomma
(63,655 posts)precisely.
And when you exploit ignorance you have better control of the masses.
Repigs are stoking the division in this country. Vile cretins.
Fyrefox
(300 posts)There's a darkness in America. It's an inch or two below the surface, but it runs deep, and it runs wide. We must be sobered by the fact that this election was not the blowout for Biden, and the utter repudiation of Trump that we expected and needed. Lots of people like what Trump is saying, but they just don't want to be called racists, fascists, or Nazis...
gab13by13
(20,864 posts)but to do that work it takes a 1st step. What happened is a great 1st step.
Jesus, Biden/Harris just got the most votes ever in an election.
Biden/Harris are only the 4th candidates to beat an incumbent president.
It is so close to turning N. Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona blue and with the changing demographics those states look solid in the near future if not right now for some of them.
I see today as a day of celebration, a day we took a huge step to Make America America Again.
I agree with what a guest said on cable news yesterday. He said Joe Biden was wrong when he said that Republicans are not the enemy, they are the enemy and they will never change. We need to treat them like an enemy, we need to bring a canon to a gun fight.
Hey, but today I am going to relax and enjoy the scenery. later on I will go over to my local right wing web site and offer them some condolences, it will be soothing for my soul.
C'mon Pa. count my and my wife's mail in vote and let's get on with our mandate.
bdamomma
(63,655 posts)Normal Again, (possibly).
madaboutharry
(40,152 posts)Trump gave these people the permission to say what they were thinking out loud.
gab13by13
(20,864 posts)Losing the Fairness Doctrine hurt a lot. Kids aren't born racist, misogynist, etc, they have to be taught to hate.
gab13by13
(20,864 posts)Losing the Fairness Doctrine hurt a lot. Kids aren't born racist, misogynist, etc, they have to be taught to hate.
Jetheels
(991 posts)maybe its not really these people following tRump, its tRump following them. I mean, his bedside reading was Mein Kampf, and he was tutored by Roy Cohn. He is highly skilled in taking advantage when he sees an opening. Theres even an article in the NYT about how the misspellings in tweets are intentional.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,647 posts)dss
(2 posts)Biden may have won, but it's just wallpaper over the abyss. He had no coat tails. We actually LOST seats in the House. McConnell will assure 4 years of a do-nothing obstructionist Senate. The judiciary is lost to us. Republicans strengthened their stranglehold at the state level. I live in NC. Even though our Democratic governor was re-elected, virtually every other elected position went Republican. As long as the Republicans control state legislatures and can gerrymander at will, confident that the courts will back them up, I don't see a path out of this.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... wake up call to democrats that we need culturally woke consultants for EVERY spectrum including rural white folk.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)Can we please put aside concern for the next few days and appreciate that we're finally getting rid of Trump? Right now all I feel is enormous relief.
Welcome to DU.
lapucelle
(18,039 posts)uponit7771
(90,225 posts)LeftishBrit
(41,192 posts)Even with the biggest turnout in many years, it would be about a third. Bad enough, I know.
And not all of them would have believed in Trump: some may just always vote Republican; some would have been duped by economic promises; some would have believed certain evangelists that you'll go to hell if you vote for a Democrat. Inattentive, gullible, selfish perhaps - but we're all these things at times when we vote. The actual neo-Confederates, fans of bullying and greed, bigots, authoritarians. etc - they exist; too many of them; but it's not all voters, or half the voters, or even all who voted for American Psycho.
I am not disappointed, because the weird thing is: it's almost EXACTLY what I predicted (and I'm 3000 miles away). I was so sure that it would be too close to call, that I chose not to stay up on election night because I would just be losing my sleep without learning the results. I don't know why I predicted this - maybe I'm just a natural pessimist.
I still have my fingers tightly crossed that Biden may prevail.
UCmeNdc
(9,589 posts)It has to do with the vote counting within the electronic vote counting systems.
Go back to the paper ballots with hand recounts and see the difference. We are being played .
IMHO
wendyb-NC
(3,250 posts)Thank you, for posting this poignant article, it sums it up well.
Unfortunately, the Rupert Murdoch's media empire has been the biggest repukes machine (TV & print media) to dispense a world that ones in power want their sycophants' to believe. Along with RW radio. And the Senate repukes, other repukes do everything in their power to destroy Dems powers when we win.
Link: [link:https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/05/media/australia-murdoch-media-inquiry-intl-hnk/index.html]
The petition to parliament was launched by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a little over three weeks ago and closed on Wednesday. It calls for a Royal Commission Australia's highest form of public inquiry to "investigate threats to media diversity." It also accused media businesses of encouraging "deliberately polarizing and politically manipulated news."
While the petition raised several points of concern, including Google (GOOGL) and Facebook's (FB) relationship with the news media, it singled out Murdoch's News Corp (NWS) as a potential threat to free speech and public debate.
"We are especially concerned that Australia's print media is overwhelmingly controlled by News Corporation, founded by Fox News billionaire Rupert Murdoch, with around two-thirds of daily newspaper readership," the petition said. "This power is routinely used to attack opponents in business and politics by blending editorial opinion with news reporting."
We need to do that here!!!
NJCher
(35,427 posts)And many good comments on this thread.
I will add that I think we need to work more on how to handle sociopaths. Trump is one. There are many others in business, affecting our economic well being.
How do we distinguish sociopaths? It goes against our goal of no discrimination.
Pacifist Patriot
(24,647 posts)A lot about high conflict personality disorders as well.
There are WAY more of them operating in our society than most people imagine. Unfortunately, sociopathy is most often associated with serial killers when that group represents a teeny tiny minority. It's the powerful ones in business and government that leave far more devastation in their wake than a Ted Bundy.
Distinguishing sociopaths can be really difficult. They are usually spotted by the problems they have already caused. HCPs can be predicted if you know what to look for.
ETA: This is a decent article about HCPs. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/5-types-people-who-can-ruin-your-life/201711/how-quickly-spot-high-conflict-people
Malmsy
(296 posts)She's a self identified sociopath who grew up in the Mormon Church which gave her the tools to 'pass' and behave as a neurotypical person.
She wrote a book:
https://www.npr.org/2013/06/19/193099258/inside-the-mind-of-a-sociopath