My Friends Were Upset I Wanted to “Give Trump A Chance.”
They shouldn’t have worried. I wasn’t on board for long.
I was listening to Morning Joy on Sirius XM as I was running errands this morning and some panelists were discussing that one of the reasons we seem to be so deeply divided as a country is because some of us are outraged that people claim discrimination based on Starbucks coffee cups, whether or not they believe minorities are given free access to shopping bags at Michaels, and whether or not they believe that people are accepting that they won the election. They feel discriminated against because people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Xmas.” They don’t realize that the real discrimination is having a much greater chance of being shot at by police because of the color of your skin, or being watched extra closely by store security because of the color of your skin, or being physically attacked in the subway by three drunk white men because you’re a young woman who is wearing clothing adhering to your religious beliefs.
These Trumpkins actually feel discriminated against because we won’t get on board with whatever policies and positions the White House and Republicans will take in this new administration – as if America voted for dismantling Medicare, jail time and possible loss of citizenship for expressing 1st Amendment rights, or the implementation of a Muslim registry.
They believe they won, so we should get all on board.
This, despite the fact that our currently sitting POTUS, Barack Obama, faced unprecedented resistance, obstruction, and racism his entire eight years – by the very same people who are now complaining.
Well, I’ll tell you what. I was more than willing to give this President-Elect a chance for the first few days after the election. I understand he is not even the President yet. However, although we can’t know what Trump’s guiding philosophy is on just about anything (he only seems to take the position of the last person that held his ear – which is bad enough, considering a white supremacist will be his closest adviser), we know he is appointing people who, themselves, have a long ideological history in the fields from which he is appointing them.
DeVos, Sessions, Bannon, Ross, Mnuchin – they all have records. These bad seeds are not likely to produce good fruit.
Paul Ryan has signified that House Republicans are going to basically bleed Obamacare to death if they can’t repeal it altogether. The GOP has already signified they are going to begin attacking Medicare in favor of a voucher system.
In a fact-challenged environment such as a Trump administration, any promises he made (“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid”) are null and void. According to Corey Lewandowski, we need to not take Trump literally. Indeed, Trump doesn’t even remember what he promises. He didn’t remember he promised on the campaign trail to keep the Carrier jobs in Indiana.
“I never thought I made that promise. Not with Carrier. I made it for everybody else. I didn’t make it really for Carrier,” he said this week. However, in April, he said, “we’re not going to let Carrier leave – because say what you want, Indiana. I’ve been talking about Carrier now for four months, right?”
This is a man who doesn’t remember what he has promised, which is troublesome enough, but beyond that, he’s filling his cabinet with billionaires and millionaires who have ideological positions that are dangerous to the poor and middle class in this country.
This is a man whose Vice Presidential pick has made it a point to strip certain humans of their basic rights under the Constitution – an ideology shared by many who will be in charge of the levers of government.
This is why I am part of the resistance, and this is why I will never accept Donald Trump as my President.
You don’t get to obstruct and scream and yell at one President and at the Democrats for eight years and then suddenly when you get in charge expect everyone to fall in line, ESPECIALLY when some of your very first actions reveal to everyone how hostile you are going to continue to be to those who don’t agree with you.
Donald Trump is a minority President. His supporters will continue to be “outraged” that a majority of Americans are not going to be on board with his agenda. The fact that THREE MILLION more voters checked the box for Hillary Clinton will continue to dig at them, and any time they try to implement their anti-American policies, or dismantle Medicare, or implement vouchers systems for education, we will remind them that their candidate “won” on a gerrymandering technicality known as the Electoral College. He won, make no doubt about it – but he did not get a mandate, and the majority is not with him.
And if the Trumpkins are feeling discriminated against because those who supported Hillary aren’t all OK with these FACTS? I say: Buckle up, snowflakes. If you don’t like that people aren’t accepting your candidate after he ran the most hostile, divisive, racist, misogynistic, bigoted, and xenophobic presidential campaign the United States has ever seen, and ESPECIALLY after he continues to reveal that THIS is how he is going to govern, it’s going to be a real long four years for you. Get your safe spaces ready.