Courage and Truth in the Aftermath of Our Election
November 9, 2016
- by George Knapp
Writing this piece will be one of the most difficult writing
tasks of my life. While I have a crystal
clear message that I wish to deliver, I need to deliver it in such a manner
that the reader doesn’t leave me part way through due to me hitting a painful
nerve, but at the same time still make my point in the clear way that I see it.
I will be referring to generic groupings, general populations
and behaviors and actions of collectives or non-human entities made up of
people, but NOT necessarily the individual people themselves. So when I say something offensive about
Republicans or America,
do not take it personally – I may not be talking about you specifically, but
them or us as a collective conscience.
I believe that Donald Trump was elected because of a series
of events that were and are mostly rooted in America’s lack of courage and a
disregard for the work needed to uncover the truth of matters. In short our laziness and cowardice brought
us to the point whereby we nominated two people not fit to serve as our
President and elected the one who was the least fit, who holds beliefs that are
similar to those held by fascists, has repeatedly made racist comments, is
known for bullying and has acted as a liar and hypocrite throughout much of his
private and public life.
As an Independent Progressive (identified so by my political
and philosophical beliefs in our current definition of them), I often support
politicians from the Democratic Party.
Initially, I was a strident Bernie Sanders supporter. Bernie is a man of strong conviction and
clear thinking who has a long track record of calling the right shots in
matters from the disaster that is the Iraq War to the scam that is an American
College Education and a whole host of other Civil Rights Violations,
Environmental Impacts and Government Waste problems that he quickly pointed out
to his colleagues, sometimes changing the course of our history by educating or
embarrassing them into making it right and sometimes being ignored or even
labeled a nut case.
It was an inconvenient truth for the Democratic Party when
Senator Sanders decided to enroll in the Party (he was an Independent for
decades) and make a run for President and began to upstage their darling,
former First Lady and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Prior to this unfortunate set of circumstances, she was
“ordained” by certain powers that be to be the 2016 nominee. As if it was owed to her or as if she
deserved this honor without regard to following the democratic process. To even further her chances of locking up the
nomination, the party used its magical Super Delegates (basically bought and
paid for delegates that are NOT democratically elected) to guarantee her place
on the ballot. Bernie, being gracious
and seeing that the Republican Party was about to nominate a disgusting and
horrible human being as their nominee, he “took one for the team” and tried
with all of his might to throw his personal support and more importantly the
support of his followers under the Clinton umbrella. Sadly, as polling has shown, the energy,
enthusiasm and drive that those Sanders supporters brought to the Progressive
cause faded away in just enough numbers to put key states like Florida,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina into play for the Republicans.
Now Hillary required a different approach. Well, she assumed that given the demographic
changes in the US population regarding Hispanics and how much those changes
influenced President Obama’s win over Mitt Romney, that she could easily count
on their support in numbers that would not just equal the support received by
President Obama, but possibly surpass it.
I mean after all, Mr. Trump was almost going out of his way to insult,
humiliate and alienate Hispanics of all types in all states. This was the Democrats first fatal miss
calculation.
Their second was the black vote. It is no secret that her husband the only President
Clinton was viewed very favorably among black voters and until we actually had
a legitimate black nominee in President Obama, black voter turnout and votes
for President Clinton had set new records in 1992 and 1996. However, due in part to black voter fatigue (reported
feelings that they weren’t seeing the benefits promised by previous candidates)
and more so in MY opinion to the lack of enthusiasm for Mrs. Clinton as a
candidate in general, by all voters, the African American vote did little to
help her in this election. Turn out was
low and some insiders from the Clinton camp even remarked that they and she
took the black vote for granted and should have worked much harder to “get the
vote out”, in spite of several last minute and last ditch efforts to do so in
the very key state of Pennsylvania.
Oddly, the media (including the “legitimate press”) also
played a large role in the election outcome.
While Mr. Trump made more and more outrageous comments, claims and
promises, he received more and more FREE press and since the media is now
financed and marketed as an Entertainment industry and not as an Information
industry, coverage meant revenue and “boring”, old style objective reporting,
fact checking and chasing down inside, complex or possibly eye opening stories
took a back seat to entertaining us all with the daily Donald Dump, the Goose
with the Golden Egg that it birthed with a “quality” and regularity never
before seen in a Presidential Candidate.
Now to the Republicans, the second most shameful part of
this story. Even IF the Democratic Party
rigged their own primary, ignored statistics that they didn’t like and were
hell bent on nominating a person who is vastly disliked by a majority of
Americans, this fact did not and should not ever give the other party the
excuse of allowing the nomination of an unqualified, mentally ill, corrupt,
evil person under their banner. Yet,
they did just that. They rode the wave
that was Donald Trump, they allowed his racism, greed and bigotry to permeate
their party, their platform and their brand.
President Lincoln would not be proud.
Lastly the MOST shameful part of this story lies with the
American People and it does so in many ways. Some of these things predate this
election by decades, but all of which boil down to a lack of integrity and
courage by INDIVIDUALS.
Education: Through our own greed (not passing school
funding) and laziness (not being involved in our political process and
demanding better schools for ALL) we have allowed our education system to
become the laughing stock of the world and we are now touting how DT’s primary
“base” was the “uneducated white male”. How can we be proud of that ? Is
that a slogan we would want on our flag or money or government buildings? “A country of idiots, governed by
idiots”. That is not very inspiring,
even in Latin. “A patria de amentibus
qui in amentibus”.
Simply Voting: Typically “good” voter turnout in America
is a pitiful 60% of eligible voters, with some states consistently doing better
(70% and others not so well 50%). It is
estimated that turnout in this election will be around 60% and likely 55% or
less in our State. Shameful. People have died
for your right to vote. People work
hard, mostly as volunteers to assure that you can have access to voting. Your vote matters. Shame on those who didn’t vote or who don’t
vote with regularity. There is NO
legitimate excuse with today’s fairly liberal (at least for now) voting rules
for not voting.
Demanding a Higher
Standard: As a collective, we
accepted Mr. Trump as the nominee of a major party without considering a
coordinated outcry or general strike or REAL protests in Cleveland or building
human walls around polling places in order to get it through the heads of our
leaders that he was an unacceptable nominee Yes the heads of the RNC are part
of our country’s leadership group and should be held accountable to Republicans
and Democrats and Independents alike. He’s
a proven, hate monger, hypocrite and shady business person. We deserve better and should have demanded
better. WE are supposed to run this country, not Reince Priebus and
Russian Bots on Facebook.
Defending Women,
Minorities, the Disabled and Immigrants: Did you not hear and see what I heard and
saw? Does the Statue of Liberty say
“piss off you dirty unwanted”? I don’t
think so. Do you not have compassion and
empathy for those who are physically or emotionally or economically
disadvantaged? Do you not care about how
women are objectified and patently mistreated in this country? Do you not love our wives, sisters, daughters
and grand daughters?
Voting for someone
you don’t like, but do so for the greater good: If you have stuck with me this far, you are
convinced that I am a hopeless Liberal or worse maybe even a socialist or
worse, maybe even anti-American. In my 35
years of voting (I am 53) I have been registered as a Republican, an
Independent and a Democrat over those years.
I have often voted for state and local Republicans because before I vote
I do my research and I pick the person, not the party. The last Republican that I voted for, for
President was George H. Bush (Sr) and in this current election, I voted for the
Republican running for Country Treasurer, because I felt he was a better
choice. I abstained from voting for one
particular Democrat, because even though he ran unopposed, I think he is
awful. In the race for Darlington County
Council, I wrote in my own name. So I
can unequivocally say that I do in fact vote the way I feel is best NOT for me
personally, but for the community at large.
I do not support Hillary Clinton’s Presidency in any way, but one. She was the better choice by a long
shot. More experience, more tact, more
professionalism, less embarrassing on both a national and international stage. I would have GLADLY voted for a Republican
who was more qualified than her and in fact I had a write in candidate in mind
(who is a Republican), but apparently they don’t allow write ins for that job
anymore in South Carolina. I may have
voted for John Kasich, even though he and I disagree strongly on women’s right
to choose and gay marriage, but on the whole, he may have been a better choice
than Mrs. Clinton. But there is no
actual defense for voting for Donald Trump.
None. Mrs. Clinton’s alleged
crimes are partially false, made up or exaggerated and the ones that held some
merit for investigation were investigated and she was cleared. Mr. Trump’s alleged crimes (numerous cases
sent to civil courts regarding his business as well as tax fraud and sex crimes
that could be pending in criminal court) have not been thoroughly
investigated. However, even if we set
those alleged crimes aside, he is on the surface an evil, bigot who demeans
women as a hobby. A man who speaks at a
4th grade level. A man who
can not articulate a plan for any aspect of the office he is running for. Thinned skinned and immature. Did you not see
it?
I don’t want to hear your excuses about, “I just don’t like
her” or “I’m a die hard Republican” or “He’s probably not really that bad in
real life”. Those excuses are not well
thought out. You don’t have to like her,
your duty is to pick the best option.
You are a better person for having the courage to break with the party
you most identify with and vote your conscience. You can only judge a candidate by what they
HAVE said and done, not by what you hope or think they will say and do in some
fanciful future.
So, my fellow Americans, let’s face one last sad truth. We
The People screwed up !!
