I had something really long and pithy planned for this week dealing with "both sides" having problems and yelling at each other on social media, and more to say on people who attempt to stay apolitical. It was drawn out, invoked my parents, people in high school who have been disappointing to say the least-
But as a reminder, it's not you: It's literally Donald Trump.
The rot happening inside the GOP started, btw, with Newt Gingrich re-writing the playbook on dirty politics in 1995. He *hated* Bill Clinton, and as speaker of the house - the only people he had a lower opinion of than the democrats were just...people in general. He likened them to zoo animals. (I'm not shitting you) And as is customary of evil villains and plans in the making, he created a new playbook by which to reframe liberals as "enemies" and not merely opposing political idealists.
So, as another reminder: In 1992, Just after 12 years of a GOP led executive branch, during which time we talk about the Cold War ending (hint- it didn't, really) AIDS as a pandemic causing mass panic and hysteria against GLBTQ folks (which was ignored) a MAJOR GULF WAR that ended in...really nothing. Super Anti-Climatic. But at least we, as American citizens, were constitutionally free to express ourselves by being able to unironically wear and display our flag. (Well, "burning it" was protected. Old school "consitutionists" will remember it was not appropriate to "wear" items with our flag.)- The last two big issues during these 12 years were the absolute destruction of the middle class in the form of trickle down economics (and easing of corporate restrictions enabling the current dearth of hyper-wealth in major corporations and some awful destruction of natural resources. This was all facilitated by that oft bandied/little understood player "the lobbyist" which, sometimes illegally, to get what they want via Congress? Made cash "donations" to individual congresspeople in order to make sure guns and smokes and drilling were still peachy and corporations received boo-too tax breaks)...annnnnnnd? Anyone?
Gold star if you guessed the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which meant Fox News could peddle grade-A horror to the stay at home racist who believed there were armies of welfare recipients with 8 kids eating steak and lobster. Worst still, after all that goddamn beautiful Americana of 12 years and the complete ruination of the the middle class shitheads too stupid to be born earlier- A pot-smoking saxophone playing hippy philanderer with questionable economic ties was elected President. A goddamn democrat.
Besides draconian weed laws and incarceration mandates that directly impacted the Black Community and caused an increase in violent oppression against POCI communities, and a stupid AF scandal in which the sitting president power-played an intern in a gross display of manipulation before lying to the public...He didn't do much.
It was all still too much for Newt. His playbook essentially was to create new verbiage for Republican Congresspeople seeking re-election. In it, you'd use terms during campaigning and in your literature to paint your opponents as "radical", "leftists", who were trying to force change by catastrophic spending of your tax dollars. That dog-whistle terms when discussing crime, law &order (read: "Black People") was just part of the underhanded trickery. And shit's worked, because..well...look where we are now.
Anyway, I didn't mean for this history lesson to drag on- but it's the patented (maybe? Newt wrote it) and deliberate manner with which Republicans chose to manipulate you so that- barring a catastrophe like 9/11- you didn't have to worry about the changes happening around you. You just let your elected official do it for you. If you had only a smidgen of comfort you were entitled to it, by God, and they wouldn't let another nickel go to paying for someone else's education. (Which was originally meant to have a majority be state-funded so more students could afford college. Well, make it more expensive and colleges could get wealthier and itttttt would be harder for BIMPOC people to attend and there's more racism and FUCK YOU! GO TO COLLEGE FOR FREE, HA! WHO PAYS FOR IT?!!" You do, dickmunch. We all do. That was the original point.)
Well change happens with or without the consent of conservative voters, so now we're facing another election year on the heels of the last one that didn't go over like a landslide but was more or less led by a charge of previously mentioned issues (voter disenfranchisement, targeted campaigns to dissuade BIMPOC voters from voting for Democrats...the goddamn cheating Russian's who just had to say "Well Actually" or "Emails:" and they fucked over millions of American voters who were hungry for disinformation.)
And now, they're straight up stealing ballots. So, the TL/DR version is this-- don't listen to shit. Ask a friend for help who you know has already successfully voted if you haven't already. Fake ballot boxes have been set up, mailed-in votes have been detained, and people have been getting sent fake voter forms from GOP sources illegally in the hopes that if you're too confused to vote- maybe you'll sit this one out.
Seriously. If the bar was any further underground, we'd have to call Roto-Rooter to get it out of your sewer pipe. Cheating. They can't even trust the shitty system they created, and if that doesn't tell you as a "Right Leaning" voter it has nothing to do with where you sit ideologically or politically and EVERYTHING to do with controlling the narrative.
21 weeks since George Floyd was murdered by cops. We can start to do some real work toward changing the future for young BIMPOC people by helping them see they have a voice at the ballot box.
Additional Reading:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/
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