Post Election Chaos Blues part 2
Friday November 11th 2016, 11:17 pmI should be happy this week because The Sandman: Overture tpb came out this week– with a pleasant round Hugo Award tag, but…
Still spinning a bit from this week’s chaos, the upheaval many are feeling from such a large idealistic change the country is going through. It’s been highly emotional, stressful even.
My shock is less potent now, but some deeper anger and cynicism is poking at my ribs inside.
I see that on the winning side of this election that many are upset over the protests taking place. Granted there are some stupid things happening during this, but to be upset that they are occurring at all mystifies me. People have the right to protest anything they wish. And I find the position of railing against the protestors a bit hypocritical when many of Trump’s supporters alluded to doing the same thing if he lost. I mean Joe Walsh even said he’d get his “musket”. The protestors are just like many of the people who voted for Trump, they want to be listened to. Like all of us do. And they have valid concerns.
I’ve heard from some people and have read some things about how this event wasn’t about the dark attitudes it appears to be. And this wasn’t about a rejection of diversity in the country, that it was really only a rejection of Hillary Clinton. I’ve had some time to reflect on that. And in some ways some of that perspective can hold true. And certainly Hillary was far from a perfect choice, but at least she wasn’t rampantly making bigoted hateful statements. Regardless of what Trump’s policies are to run the country, the fact remains a man who made hateful horrible statements was elected. And that is the thing I can’t really reconcile. The Presidency Of The United States isn’t just about making policies, it is an office of symbolism. It’s a representation that goes beyond governing a nation. It’s about saying what we are as a people.
I’m really wanting to be optimistic, I truly am. But seeing verified hate crime and hateful behavior on the national news toward people of different ethnicities or cultural backgrounds happen even in schools, connecting the apparent reasons this election went in Trump’s favor, makes optimism hard to buy into. I mean kids are now doing this stuff, this is what we are showing them, teaching them. My optimism that this can’t really be a rearing up of bigotry or corporate power falters when I see just who is on Trump’s cabinet appointee lists. Hard not to falter when I see actual interview footage of one of those possible appointees saying “everyone will have to BOW DOWN to Trump.” That really happened. It looks and feels and behaves like fascism. Yes that’s a loaded term, I understand fully what it means. And I actually feel strange saying it. But I’m familiar enough with world history to recognize the patterns. Some of these incidents I’m seeing are bold. And some not as blatant. These sort of adverse societal impacts often are not overnight. But it does take flight when boosted by some popular public figure or authority speaking in ways that incite those negative ideals. And Trump has yet to say to America that this kind of behavior isn’t acceptable. That his statements were just “talk”, trying to gain publicity any way possible (even that would be gross). But when asked if he went too far with his “rhetoric” (hate speech), he says “No, I won.” This so far tells me that a lot of the statements and attitudes he promoted are really him. I mean, what else is there to infer from it at this point.
This is the stuff that many Americans are afraid of. We don’t want hate to escalate further, and it needs to stop entirely. If Trump really doesn’t want people to be angry or bitter then he needs to speak out against the hateful stuff being slung around at this moment. It would go a long way.
But right now I don’t think we’re going to get that. It’d be admission that he lit this fire from the fuel. Would his ego allow that?
I hope I’m wrong, and he’ll tell people to knock it off. Soon. Now.
5 Comments so far
Leave a comment
I am right there with you feeling these post election chaos blues. Hoping to use all of the creativity I can to help shine a little bit of light into the dark spaces of these times. Just as the turbulent times of the past have pushed amazing artists and musicians to brand new heights that inspire today and into the future. The new tribe called quest album was a shot in the arm. just what i needed. I would like to think that metal hurl ant, ZAP, witzend, and the someday funnies were born out of similar times as well. I don’t want to come across as dismissive or that i am making light of this. just trying to understand where my place will be in all of this. Hope you are doing well, best wishes,peace. joe martin
Comment by joe martin 11.21.16 @ 3:33 pmHey Joe
Sorry for delayed reply– I had done so before but it seems it didn’t post for some reason.
No worries, you don’t sound dismissive at all. I quite agree with your view of things.
Comment by jhw3 12.12.16 @ 12:21 amAfter my shock wearing off, I’ve come to realize that this election wasn’t a rejection of diversity, or social bigotry and hate… it was a rejection of the status quo around globalization and the loss of jobs in America’s heartland.
Hillary didn’t really have a plan, so she basically ignored it.
Trump told major lies about how he could fix it… but at least he addressed the issue.
I live in one of the flyover states, and people need jobs. It’s that simple.
Comment by John 01.08.17 @ 9:44 amHey there John
To some degree what you say is true– but when looking closely at things, I see plenty of a solid plan that had been proposed by Clinton. Trump and his cohorts are definitely not going care one bit about creating real jobs. Many of them think Americans are paid too much already, thats rich coming from the rich I say. I wish it was really only about jobs, but sadly, it’s beyond this. Unfortunately jobs are going to be difficult as long as manufacturing continues to automate, and corporate greed is allowed to run rampant as it has been. Hell, when I go to the grocery store I refuse to use self check out, because I know that means someone doesn’t have a job by those things existing. We have allowed corporations to treat humanity horrendously, and now as of this election they have most of all of the power. Now that Trump is selecting his cabinet his views about our demographics becomes very clear, appointing people of extreme racial and financial bias, that have acted upon this racial and financial bias in their past behaviors, it becomes clear that support was given to corporate fascism. However unintentional, misguided, duped, or ignoring the warnings, it doesn’t matter anymore. At the very least there seems to be a willingness to look the other way on important societal moral issues that affect everyone. Not by all, don’t get me wrong, but there is a large number of people that fall into those categories. And in my view standing up for what is right in the face of adversity and tough times is what we as a people should be doing. Ignoring this stuff is going to lead to authoritarianism — and it’s already beginning. Right now our nation has very little checks and balances in place to prevent it. With discussion from the administration coming into power already claiming that they plan to remove more of them. I hope I’m very wrong about this, but it does seem like we’re about to repeat a very historical horrible perspective. But at that time the US was the compass that helped overthrow that. This doesn’t even consider the Russian thing going on, but there is something lurking there. Trump has also recently said that he is wanting to limit which press organizations he gives access to, thats a scary prospect. Degrading the press is one of the first steps. So what happens when we have become that very same thing we fought so hard against decades ago? Who stops the machine then? Anyway, I can blather on forever. I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
Leave a Comment
** Required but not displayed
You’re especially right about how the office of President is an office of symbolism. And Chump being in this office reflects badly on America.
Comment by Ralph Mathieu 11.12.16 @ 8:30 am