I'm sorry I haven't been posting much here lately. I've been much more vocal on Twitter and Facebook, but as we approach the Final Days of this horrible shitfest I'll try to be more present here.
It's just 11 days until the big election.
12 days from when the Alt Right starts jamming the internet with calls for Hillary's impeachment.
This has been the most exhausting and contentious election season that I can remember. Every single day there's a new controversy, a new crisis, a new sound bite that rattles the internet like a 6.0 earthquake.
Why is this election so much crazier than previous years?
Two reasons, I think.
One: the mainstream media has been working overtime to make a mountain out of EVERY SINGLE molehill this year.
Yes, bros talking about grabbing pussies without consent is always naughty and bad. Yes, the stuff in Hillary's hacked emails is embarrassing and somewhat damning.
But the MSM is trumpeting all this stuff because it's great for ratings, and therefore, great for profits. There has been precious little discussion about the actual issues that face us, because that's boring, and most people (us!) want to hear about alleged 4th degree sexual assaults rather than things that will make a huge impact in our lives.
We suck.
Two: Trump's raucous campaign has tapped into a large nerve of White America's latent racism. We, as a nation, aren't far enough removed from the 1950s era segregation and all that goes with it to ignore this fact. We've made TREMENDOUS strides in the last 60 years, but we're still basically a nation of people who dislike anyone that's different from us.
Donald Trump has given much of America permission to indulge in this ugliness, through his words and his incivility. Rudeness, discourtesy, bad manners, and boorishness are all hallmarks of Trump's speeches. And through the trickle-down effect, people are becoming more and more impolite.
The upshot of all this is that the Republicans have left the field of respectability and become a party of loud-mouthed assholes. Their embrace of Donald Trump, and all he stands for, have forever tarnished and eroded any moral high ground they believed they possessed. By nominating a vicious child with the emotional warmth of a stone baby, they've sealed their fate.
The GOP is thrashing mindlessly in its terminal agitation. The party is dying.
I can only hope that something more moderate takes its place. Jesus, I never thought I'd be longing for the casual horrendousness of the Reagan-era 1980s!
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