Welcome to The American Paradigm Shift — Day Whatever This Is. The ground beneath our feet has shifted — is still shifting — may continue to shift well into the future.
That’s political, interpersonal & business — and it’s all either shifting or suddenly morphing into quicksand one second, concrete the next — then back into quicksand. The rude but gotten away with joke of five minutes ago is now the career-ending act of foolish self-destruction. Sounds easy enough to fix though — read the room and do what it says (it’s one of the basic rules of comedy). But this room? Un-knowable.
American women didn’t so much take control of this conversation — and our politics — as they did ‘reach across the driver (men), throw the door open, shove the man out of the moving vehicle and grab the steering wheel — all in one quick motion. Al Franken had no choice BUT to quit — because the Democratic Women told him to.
But that’s where Al Franken was smart. He read the room — and did what women want most every man they know to do: LISTEN. HEAR THEM. And RESPOND ACCORDINGLY (as if you really DID hear them). They really don’t want to be ‘boss’ (in the male sense of the word) but they want the authority of The Boss — because The Boss gets listened to.
And that’s why Al Franken’s political career WILL have a Second Act — because he LISTENED. He stepped aside for the reasons that the Democratic Women gave him. And now? The people MOST wanting to resurrect Al Franken’s political career? It’s the very women who insisted he quit. THEY’RE the ones ‘writing Al’s hagiography’, singing his praises and wishing more men could be like Al.
As male-related Brands are going forward? THAT’S the one to have.. Because that’s the one women will take seriously. Because IT TAKES THEM SERIOUSLY first.
Welcome to THE NEW PARADIGM.
But why now? What pushed the button that made now explode the way it did… the way it still is exploding? Was it really the Harvey Weinstein story? Could be. But this wasn’t just women reacting to Harvey Weinstein’s accusers… #MeToo tapped into something deep — almost primal. Maybe completely primal… In which case, Harvey Weinstein wasn’t the bomb going off, it was THE BEGINNING of a MUCH LARGER BOMB at the instant it achieves critical mass — and the real ‘exploding’ punches its time card and gets to work.
The detonation we’re getting sucked up into started over the course of days it took us — as a culture — to go from ‘Donald Trump pussy-grabs women!’ to ‘Yeah, he grabs women’s pussies — so what?’ That ACCEPTANCE of an absolute confession to flat out CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR — toward WOMEN sparked something: A slowly simmering outrage — like a gumbo made up of all the slights and indignities and false accusations and brutalities — chunks of Witch Trial here and there, unmelting gobs of Power Politics In The Workplace bobbing toward the center. Donald Trump called every woman who ever accused him of ANIYTHING (and that’s a lot of anything) a liar.
That did not sit well…
WHY NOW?
Why now… Why not BEFORE the campaign? Because BEFORE the campaign we were still headed — as a country — down one particular road: Toward having our first FEMALE PRESIDENT. It was a done deal.
And it was. Don’t let the results of Election 2016 fool you. Those results do not reflect reality. And we all know it. Even Donald Trump (legitimacy issues much, Don?)
That the Republicans moved so swiftly — making it a point to do so — to overturn everything Obama, to IMPOSE THEIR CULTURAL WILL upon America and its Body Politic — despite the fact that we were VOCALLY UNWILLING. That disconnect we all feel? It’s a 3,00,000+ voter MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION that feels not just fucked over but flat out cheated. It’s gerrymandering finally delivering a big, steaming helping of Voter Disenfranchisement (because isn’t that the point of gerrymandering — to CIRCUMVENT the Will of the People?)
And, as the republican tax fiasco scam proves page after page after page, this ain’t about servicing the American People — it’s about servicing the republican Voter Class: the Kochs & The Mercers. All the rest of us? We can go fuck ourselves. To death, preferably, right, republicans?
Donald Trump isn’t an aberration. He isn’t a monster that suddenly got beyond the control of republican leadership. He IS republican leadership. He EPITOMIZES republican leadership. He EPITOMIZES everything that republicans stand for: Greed, Self Interest & Money.
Not a conservative? Neither are the republicans. That’s just a word they use. Marketing, I think they call it. In fact, I’m not sure real conservatives exist any more but — that’s a whole other ugly conversation. Donald Trump was a registered Democrat most of his adult life. Not that that means or meant anything — Donald Trump operated in New York where being registered as a republican would have set him apart in ways bad for his business.
Donald Trump has always been craven and soul-less and opportunistic and relentlessly contemptible.
Just like the republican party after Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove and Tom Delay…
Oh — and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. But especially Mitch McConnell…
If ever Mitch McConnell got what he deserved in this life — it was Donald Trump. And that it will be Donald Trump who brings Mitch down from his corrupt loft will be delicious. Because Donald Trump was everything Mitch McConnell expected Trump to be. Everything he KNEW Trump WOULD be.
Donald Trump’s corruption is republican corruption written on a billboard as big as a solar system.
It’s republican BIGOTRY, republican RACISM, republican KNOW-NOTHINGISM, republican WHITE-CHRISTIAN-MALE PRIVILEGE — in a font so large it can’t even FIT on that damned billboard. And that doesn’t include the thing we’ve been talking about all along here — DONALD TRUMPS BEING A SEXUAL PREDATOR.
And we should — because that’s the indignity whose denial has been simmering down deep at the very BOTTOM of this gumbo.
DONALD TRUMP IS A RAPIST.
Yeah, yeah — sexual harassment (for sure — he’s done that and done that and done that), sexual predation (got witnesses galore), sexual intimidation (witnesses galore squared), sexual assault (witnesses galore CUBED) and sexual assault in general — witnesses squared, cubed and raised to a power of a kajillion PLUS a taped confession. We don’t know how many NDAs he’s forced victims to sign.
And yet… he’s POTUS.
This time bomb has been ticking away the whole time. #MeToo was the flash of the detonator going off. The initial bomb burst is still ongoing (early stages I fear). Much shrapnel will carve through innocent flesh.
But we’re all big boys. We can take it.
As I’m bleeding, I’ll think of Donald — and how very much I want to pay him back for this…