We were gonna hit the mountains cause there was rain which meant snow up there, but my bubble-partner convinced me we should drive through the impromptu car-parade going down the main drag. It was impressive. Miles and miles gridlocked by people in their cars all celebrating, and people on the streets all going nuts while doing a good job of not being in anyone else's air.
But yea, I felt zilch. I kept having to remember to re-plaster a smile on my face so people on the sidewalk wouldn't think I was some sourpuss trump shithead. I just don't know what we're celebrating. Everything Trump did, Biden did either first or worst, he just did it with politeness, and what's more important, he did them in the past, when no one was looking.
Biden did his dirt in the pages of the Delaware Corporate-Centrist-Tribune in 1970 arguing against Jungle Schools, on CSPAN in 1986 and 1990 and 1994 when he passed the drug abuse act, clarence thomas, and the crime bill. He did them on NO channel in 2008-16 when he set up the camps and drone bombed american children and threw anyone who talked about it in the jail from Dark Knight Rises because we were all at brunch and no one cared, you had to find that shit on lefty blogs, now almost all defunct. Trump did it on TV and twitter last week, yesterday, TODAY. Which is to say, a newspaper 25 years ago or twitter today, only the second thing ever happened as far as most people are concerned.
He literally promised nothing would change! The golden age he wants to go back to is the one where the libs started howling about a 'circular firing squad' because half the party wondered why we weren't trying to take care of the sick and the poor and the disenfranchised minorities. You know, like we always brag about having done in the past, castigate the right for working against in the present, and leave conspicuously unsaid what we are doing, here in the now, to progress the ideals.
And meanwhile the Republicans were coming out of the MAGA cocoon, completely ready to publicly shed any fig leaf of decency they used to hypocritically hide behind. Concentration camps, pedophile senators, rapist SCOTUS judges, blatant theft and corruption and lies? Fine. Better than fine. GOOD, because fuck you, do something about it.
And Joe Biden needs to be as good a president as Trump was a bad one in order to just put us back on the edge of the brink of the end of the world like we were 4 years ago. Which he isn't, so he won't.
In 2024, and if we're lucky, 2028, we're all going to be poorer, and scareder of losing what little we have left. We'll be less free, the corporations will steal more of what little protections we have (prop 22 nationwide tour, baby!) the cops will be angrier, less controlled, they'll have more weapons and surveillance the next time people protest them lynching a black person, or a GOP candidate stealing an election. No one seriously argues with any of this! No one thinks a golden age is coming, we're just glad that one of theirs got owned, but only after stealing the future.
I don't begrudge any of those people their celebrations and there's no way for me to ever prove this, but I'm certain that four years ago, if you asked anyone dancing in the street what their best possible outcome would be 'Quarter mil dead of an accelerating uncontrolled pandemic the Dems are no more enthused about helping the country out of than the Republicans, because it would cost their donors money. Also an economic depression a few months away, that we've only wile E coyoted yourself out this far without falling by printing free money for banks and corporations to pay themselves bonuses with, while everyone watches their entire neighborhood go dark one favorite bar, restaurant, concert venue, or bookshop at a time. Total loss of the supreme court and therefore what rights or regulations are 'constitutional' for the rest of our natural lives. Also horrendous mismanagement of the easiest election in history means either no senate majority or one hostage to the whims of the fillibuster and dogshit CHUD dems like Manchin.
I mean, I'm kind of a pessimist, I've had lots of people yell at me in the past four years for sounding 'defeatist' or 'negative' tones about what's possible politically, and I never guessed HALF this stuff could happen, let alone ALL of it at once. And now the same people who got furious for saying stuff like 'Just electing (D) candidates isn't going to fix things, this is a generational issue' are now dancing and booking brunch while all of the above is going on.
I just wish I could have had a time machine, and taken the me in 2017 who was so scared and angry and was literally counting down the months and days like the tunnel would definitely have some light when I got to the end. Who busted his ass and burnt himself out volunteering and giving time and money to any halfway leftist cause, just to watch them all sell out or mask off as hard as possible (Fucking SPLC had a sex harassment AND a union busting scandal in four goddamn years! UNION BUSTING, when they'd probably never in their history been so flush with cash to go around), and put *him* in my car seat, with, you know, a brief explainer of the pandemic and the attendant social mores. He needed this, he could appreciate this, not me. rant over.
Oh yea, I forgot about that write in.
We were gonna hit the mountains cause there was rain which meant snow up there, but my bubble-partner convinced me we should drive through the impromptu car-parade going down the main drag. It was impressive. Miles and miles gridlocked by people in their cars all celebrating, and people on the streets all going nuts while doing a good job of not being in anyone else's air.
But yea, I felt zilch. I kept having to remember to re-plaster a smile on my face so people on the sidewalk wouldn't think I was some sourpuss trump shithead. I just don't know what we're celebrating. Everything Trump did, Biden did either first or worst, he just did it with politeness, and what's more important, he did them in the past, when no one was looking.
Biden did his dirt in the pages of the Delaware Corporate-Centrist-Tribune in 1970 arguing against Jungle Schools, on CSPAN in 1986 and 1990 and 1994 when he passed the drug abuse act, clarence thomas, and the crime bill. He did them on NO channel in 2008-16 when he set up the camps and drone bombed american children and threw anyone who talked about it in the jail from Dark Knight Rises because we were all at brunch and no one cared, you had to find that shit on lefty blogs, now almost all defunct. Trump did it on TV and twitter last week, yesterday, TODAY. Which is to say, a newspaper 25 years ago or twitter today, only the second thing ever happened as far as most people are concerned.
He literally promised nothing would change! The golden age he wants to go back to is the one where the libs started howling about a 'circular firing squad' because half the party wondered why we weren't trying to take care of the sick and the poor and the disenfranchised minorities. You know, like we always brag about having done in the past, castigate the right for working against in the present, and leave conspicuously unsaid what we are doing, here in the now, to progress the ideals.
And meanwhile the Republicans were coming out of the MAGA cocoon, completely ready to publicly shed any fig leaf of decency they used to hypocritically hide behind. Concentration camps, pedophile senators, rapist SCOTUS judges, blatant theft and corruption and lies? Fine. Better than fine. GOOD, because fuck you, do something about it.
And Joe Biden needs to be as good a president as Trump was a bad one in order to just put us back on the edge of the brink of the end of the world like we were 4 years ago. Which he isn't, so he won't.
In 2024, and if we're lucky, 2028, we're all going to be poorer, and scareder of losing what little we have left. We'll be less free, the corporations will steal more of what little protections we have (prop 22 nationwide tour, baby!) the cops will be angrier, less controlled, they'll have more weapons and surveillance the next time people protest them lynching a black person, or a GOP candidate stealing an election. No one seriously argues with any of this! No one thinks a golden age is coming, we're just glad that one of theirs got owned, but only after stealing the future.
I don't begrudge any of those people their celebrations and there's no way for me to ever prove this, but I'm certain that four years ago, if you asked anyone dancing in the street what their best possible outcome would be 'Quarter mil dead of an accelerating uncontrolled pandemic the Dems are no more enthused about helping the country out of than the Republicans, because it would cost their donors money. Also an economic depression a few months away, that we've only wile E coyoted yourself out this far without falling by printing free money for banks and corporations to pay themselves bonuses with, while everyone watches their entire neighborhood go dark one favorite bar, restaurant, concert venue, or bookshop at a time. Total loss of the supreme court and therefore what rights or regulations are 'constitutional' for the rest of our natural lives. Also horrendous mismanagement of the easiest election in history means either no senate majority or one hostage to the whims of the fillibuster and dogshit CHUD dems like Manchin.
I mean, I'm kind of a pessimist, I've had lots of people yell at me in the past four years for sounding 'defeatist' or 'negative' tones about what's possible politically, and I never guessed HALF this stuff could happen, let alone ALL of it at once. And now the same people who got furious for saying stuff like 'Just electing (D) candidates isn't going to fix things, this is a generational issue' are now dancing and booking brunch while all of the above is going on.
I just wish I could have had a time machine, and taken the me in 2017 who was so scared and angry and was literally counting down the months and days like the tunnel would definitely have some light when I got to the end. Who busted his ass and burnt himself out volunteering and giving time and money to any halfway leftist cause, just to watch them all sell out or mask off as hard as possible (Fucking SPLC had a sex harassment AND a union busting scandal in four goddamn years! UNION BUSTING, when they'd probably never in their history been so flush with cash to go around), and put *him* in my car seat, with, you know, a brief explainer of the pandemic and the attendant social mores. He needed this, he could appreciate this, not me. rant over.
Liiiiiiinnnnnndaaaaaaaaaaa!
Killed it!