I would like to offer my congratulations to all those stupid, ignorant Americans who voted for Donald Trump. The arrogance and selfishness of many Americans has always stood out. I drove a school bus in Illinois for six years. I was appalled at the indoctrination of young children, some of them only five or six years old, who began school each morning with the “Star Spangled Banner,” to be sung with hand on heart. They were taught they were citizens of the finest nation on earth. The denizens of democracy. Well, democracy has truly shown what it’s capable of when in the hands of the ignorant, selfish, arrogant, gun-loving, misogynistic citizens of this “greatest nation on earth.”
The writer lived in the ‘greatest nation on earth’ for thirteen years. I met a few nice people. Frankly, the vast majority I came across were grossly obese, arrogant, and ignorant. It was impossible to walk into a supermarket or a school and not wonder if this was the day some lunatic with an AK47 was going to come calling.
When my late wife retired we lived four years in the backwaters of the Upper Peninsular of Michigan, between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. We owned forty acres of virgin forest and lived in an old farmhouse I renovated, in a clearing of the forest. It was an idyllic spot. Except on a Sunday. Black bears, deer, coyotes abounded. Birds of many hues would come to our feeders. But not on a Sunday afternoon.
Roughly a half kilometer further down the lane was a small church of Christian denomination serving the local community. About a similar distance across the lane was a neighbour’s property. It was a quiet, peaceful area all week, but not on a Sunday afternoon.
Every Sunday morning in the distance one heard the toll of the church bell calling the faithful to worship. Everyone from the local community would gather to give praise to their god. Around midday they would disgorge from their pews and head home for Sunday lunch. At 3pm they would return. In the trunk of their vehicles was enough artillery to start a small war. They would cross the lane and head into the forest just beyond our boundary. Then it would start.
For two hours or more we suffered the noise and stench of cordite from multi automatic weapons as they blazed away at only their god knows what. Across the lane the neighbour would join in on his land as he slaughtered targets with his AK47 machine gun.
This is Christian America. This is now Donald Trump’s America. American hypocrisy is alive and well and dwells throughout that land. It will get worse, much worse in the next four years. Any hope of averting the climate crisis will be shattered.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world’s leaders, who have been busy shitting their pants at the thought of a Trump presidency, are climbing over each other to pour praise and adulation on his head. The new British prime minister among them.
Isn’t it time world politicians made a stance against what we all know to be tyranny? These world leaders are supposed to represent the interests of their people. Given the choice, I think many Europeans would be very happy to say, “Fuck Trump, we believe in democracy and the rule of law, not tyranny and oppression.”
Trump is not the evil in America. The evil resides in the majority of Americans who, come January, will have put him back in the White House. It’s time for the rest of us to tell those Americans we will not be cowed by you and your criminal president. We who are human beings believe in tolerance and respect towards our fellow beings, whether they be straight, gay, black, Muslim or whatever. We respect all womanhood and their equality with their male counterparts. We believe in justice and the rule of law and denounce the Netanyahu’s, the Putin’s and all other power-crazed dictators who oppress their fellow countrymen and neighbours.
It is this that our political leaders should be telling Trump, not grovelling at his feet and whining for the crumbs off his table.
Nailed it as always, my friend. And those other countries are so reliant on his grace and favour that they cower and bend the knee as they must. To economically survive.
I am 50% of the mind that there was somehow a rigging. 15,000,000 votes missing? I’m not a conspiracist but Grandgirl posted a TikTok of Musk and his maneuvering of media prior to and during the election. I do hope there is a forensic on the ballots.
We’re on our way out but I weep for the generations to come.
XO
WWW
Came across your name on WWW’s blog. so thought I’d visit. I’ve been blogging infrequently but felt compelled to write about our recent election in followup to my earlier writing after the U.S. Jan. 6, 2021 some of us view as an insurrection.
I concur, our recent election reveals a troubling number of people supporting the candidate who was elected. I couldn’t believe there were so many people in my U.S. who could support the type person this candidate appears to be. I think it is important to recognize they are only a small percentage, but a majority 51+% of voters (not population) this year who cast a ballot for him. Last I knew 47+% of our voters voted otherwise, unfortunately, not enough.
I haven’t yet seen figures for what percentage of our population’s registered voters actually cast a ballot. For too many years that number has been low, likely the same this year, and may be lower. Important to know also, that only 50% or so of our total registered voters which is less than our total population actually voted. Their reasons for not voting would be important to know. I think you would be mistaken to lump all of us into one group who won an election but I believe likely are not the majority of our population.
I’ll withhold further speculation about these non-voters, those who registered plus those who didn’t register, except to say, perhaps the results to come from this election may be a long overdue rude awakening to at least some of them that their vote could have mattered.
I’m not ready to give up on our country or to totally discount our place in the world. Certainly the next four years will have a significant bearing on how we interact with other nations and how they come to think of us. I sometimes wondered how all those people in other nations with differing views from their leaders coped in the WWII era. but it was not fair to condemn them all. Unfortunately, they were unavoidably subjected to what others brought to their country(s) as I realize we will be, too, in the worst case scenario.
Sounds like your experience living in the U.S. left you with less than positive views of the majority of our nation’s people. I wish you had encountered more of the kind of people I know inhabit our nation.
I hope you and your wife enjoy your life in France, a nation I always thought I’d enjoy visiting. Their language was the one I chose to study in my youth. Friends who did the same were disappointed with the reception they received from citizens there when they spent time in France. I’ve never moved to live in a country different from where I was born so can only imagine the experience, the adaptations, cultural differences.
WWW ~ first I must apologise for the delay in answering you. Gremlins in WordPress causing havoc I’m afraid.
I’m sure by now you’ve ascertained that those 15,000,000 votes weren’t missing, they just hadn’t been counted at the time. In case you haven’t, Snopes explains it well:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/millions-of-missing-votes-2024-election/
Yes, like you I weep for the youngsters. The world is heating up in more ways than one.
Joared ~ thank you so much for your fine comment. As I explained to WWW, it was gremlins in the works that kept me from answering you more quickly.
Jan 6 2021 was undoubtedly an insurrection. Anyone who thinks otherwise does so as a convenience to their conscience.
I agree that a majority of US citizens probably never voted, but given what was at stake surely they must take some responsibility for the result?
Of course, there are many fine people in the US, but too many who support the gun lobby and are easily persuaded into believing immigrants are the reason for their troubles. Fascism always rises on the backs of blamed minority groups, usually immigrants, (with Hitler it was the Jews and the gypsies, of course). Now, in Europe, immigration is again a major issue that the far-right are exploiting for gain.
I believe there are good and bad everywhere in the world. I found the US to be something of a conundrum. When I first arrived there I felt I had moved back fifty years. Churches everywhere, over head cables strung from poles on every street, lethal weapons on sale in supermarkets. Of course this was small town Illinois, rather than New York or even Chicago. The treatment I got from officialdom didn’t help to improve my views. I was constantly told I was an ‘alien’, and treated as such by the immigration people. The application process for my green card was frankly demeaning.
Thank you for your good wishes. Sadly, my wife died four years ago. France has its problems. They are passionate about their language and can be scathing of foreigners who fail to speak it well. That is particularly so in and around Paris, elsewhere it’s usually better. I do not speak French well, and my gradual loss of hearing doesn’t help. Like the US there are good people and the not so good. I just hope both America and the world can weather the next four years, though if Trump gets his wish it could be a lot longer.
Once again, thank you for your comment.