Remember being a teenager? Remember how every time some lame adult told you NOT to do something, in a flash, the only thing you knew was “I HAVE TO DO THAT NOW!”? Donald Trump and the Republican Party have triggered America. That’s what 100 million early voters — 15% of them normally non-voters — says. Americans who never vote have come out in droves to vote. Trust me on this: almost none of those people is doing something this extraordinary — including standing in line for hours — in order to vote for Trump or any Republican. No one except racists and lunatics want this Trumpian nightmare to continue for two more seconds never mind four more years. Threaten to take something away from people, they will react. Threaten to repress them, they will get angry. And — take note, Republicans, America is deeply, DEEPLY angry at you.
Try to see it from our point of view. Here we are — the overwhelming majority of Americans — and there’s you: a teeny-tiny minority of rich, white, Christian men trying hard as hell to oppress us. Yo, assholes — the majority of Americans are done, done, DONE with you and that part of America’s history.
We’re moving on. Shame you won’t be joining us. Just kidding: it’s not a shame. No one’s going to miss you.
Repression, like prohibition, never seem to achieve its desired results over the long term. In the short term, it seems to, but that’s always an illusion. The ends aren’t being achieved at all. The only thing that’s really happening is repression for repression’s sake.
In the whole history of humankind, prohibition has never worked — not as intended. It may restrict and limit use of a controlled substance, but it won’t slake the thirst for it. In America, the urge to prohibit flows from two opposing sensibilities in constant dynamic tension with each other. First, there’s the Christian Moralist Sensibility. It loves judging other people. It doesn’t know from “Do unto others” because its mantra is “Do what I tell you to or else”. It’s pure, institutional, religionista judgment. Never mind whatever bad habits IT may have, we’re here to talk about YOUR bad habits because “Jesus hates them”.
The second opposing sensibility flows, ironically, from the same place. Except, it’s closer to the actual “Jesus sensibility”. It wants to help the meek to inherit the earth as quickly as possible. To that end, this progressive sensibility wants to save everyone from themselves and their own vices. Its heart is in the right place — it wants you to give up alcohol for the sake of your family — but its hands are frequently heavier than needed. Throwing people in jail for their bad habits (if those bad habits aren’t hurting anyone else) is soooooo right wing conservative. If the tables suddenly turned, they’d scream their heads off because you dared to punish them for, of all things, a “bad habit”.
Donald Trump is not going to “win” tomorrow. He did not “win” in 2016. We’ve got to get it into our heads that “cheating to win” is not “one way” to win. It’s the opposite of winning, it’s cheating. Our knee jerk reaction to cheating should be “You cheated? You CAN’T win” not “Oh, well, what can we do? They cheated!” The whole point of cheating in this election (and remember — Trump’s already been IMPEACHED for cheating in this election!) is to solidify the cheating from the 2016 election. The coup d’etat’s not finished yet.
If Trump and the GOP thought they could have cancelled this election and moved on to permanent minority rule, they’d have done it already. But they can’t. The Republicans feared the very thing rising up in front of them: the American electorate, woke and focused on them. Focused on their corruption and treachery.
People willing to stand in the cold and rain for HOURS in order to achieve their political ends will not accept having their votes denied, disenfranchised or uncounted. As triggered as they already are, they’ll get nuclear-triggered. Not just angry at the Republicans, what they’ve done and what they’re doing, LIVID. Out of our minds with rage and the desire not for revenge but justice.
To the Republicans — to Donald Trump — justice will feel like revenge. They’ll howl that we’re prosecuting them for political reasons. Bull-shit. We’ll be prosecuting every Republican because they stole political power we did not give them. That’s a crime. It won’t be Democrats investigating, prosecuting and punishing Republicans, it will be the rule of law.
It will be reason prosecuting them and throwing them in prison for life sentences.
It will be Justice.
The angry teenager that bumped on being told “turn down the music” still lives inside each and every one of us. Go one, admit it — the moment you read “turn down the music”, your first thought was “screw you, asshole — turn that music up to eleven!”
Anger’s in the air. It’s being channeled into our ballots and through the political system right to Donald Trump’s face.