This began as a post for FB, but due to its length, I am
putting it in a blog.
First of all, hate and divisiveness won, there is no getting
around that, there is no sugar-coating it.
The campaign that he ran was full of it, it was his closing argument.
His running mate said we are going to take out the trash and that trash is Kamala
Harris 48 hours before election day. It was unnecessary but they said
these things because they knew that it appeals to their supporters. Biden's comments in responding to someone at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally appealed to no one and was not embraced by the Harris campaign. Vance's use of this language is demonstrative of the campaign that they ran, and they won. Secondly, before I continue, VP Harris ran an
incredible campaign given the short time she had to campaign. She was uplifting, she put the possibilities
of this country on display, and her campaign and closing argument is what
America should have wanted to be on display.
I am crushed right now.
I am hurt right now. I often think about how African Americans felt
following Reconstruction, when they poured so much into making a country that
enslaved them better only to see hate and violence win out as politicians opted
to appeal to the worst of human behavior and instinct to win an election, I
think about how African Americans must have felt after Woodrow Wilson did the
same in appealing to segregationists, the post-Civil Rights era when the courts
pushed back on remedies such as Affirmative
Action, the beginning of an oppressive War on Drugs that focused on using law
and order rhetoric to achieve the desires of people who feared the other. I
specifically mention African American as my individual view in looking at the
US through the lens of history, with a hopeful (until now) view of the future. Donald Trump destroyed trust in institutions
and did try to actually steal an election. He sat back and took in what people
were doing for HIM while his VP’s life was being threatened. He is crude, crass, untruthful, and concerned
only about him, and had no qualms about putting all of that on display. And he
received 70 plus millions votes thus far- bad behavior rewarded. The people at
the Madison Square Garden rally are the people who will have free reign in his
White House. The rule of law that we
claim applies to everyone is questionable as he has and will continue to flaunt
it- how many awaiting sentencing who has the ability to leave the country can
say that they will if someone else wins and not be subjected to a revocation of
bail. The people like Stephen Miller will be shaping influential portions of
the bureaucracy. This is where we are and his election tells
the world that this is who we are. If I
were independently wealthy, I’d tap out, I’d fix up our house, spend my days
reading, writing, and watching my grand nieces and nephews grow up, attending
their school, events, games and so on. 2016
was one thing, he continued to show us who he is and he continued to be who he
is coupled with his actions that were juxtaposed to what this country claims it
reveres and he was rewarded. How can someone
with the mentality that our best days are still ahead of us still believe when
time and time again it is shown who we are as a nation.
There was a WWJD signs many years ago. Many who supported Trump who also shared WWJD have moved away from those principles and changed them to WWTD- Trump would call human beings illegal, so they say "the illegals" (back in the day, you know what it would have been), Trump engages in bullying, name-calling, referring to his political opponents as enemies, questions our institutions and does not know how to tell the truth. And now he has won, has Republican control of the House, Senate, and when federal judges retire, even more control over who gets on the courts and remain on the courts for decades to come. And those who believe that he will round up and deport millions of human beings, well, those corporations and others outside of your tax bracket will let him know how much their wealth depends on the people he is demonizing. So they will get their tax cuts continued and their labor force while you’re out here putting MAGA on display, with your children actually having to work the jobs that he pretended to do, at a wage that he and his children never have to experience. MAGA, though. This is no joke. It is a sad commentary on where we are as a country.
VP Harris, thank you for putting
character, decently and the possibilities of a multi-cultural democracy on
display. You made us proud, you made HU
proud. Sec. Clinton, it wasn’t you, no
amount of campaigning was going to get you PA in this era of Trump. My thinking
and approach to government and politics are changing. I used to jokingly say that one
day I will be a recovering political
junkie. That day is here. I can’t follow
daily what he is doing, what he is saying, he is a poor representation of this
country. PERIOD!
Artemesia Stanberry
These views are my views as a citizen of this country.
