I'm sorry I haven't uploaded in awhile. What started as a passion project again got buried under a tidal wave of anxiety and despair. I couldn't focus on this because it required me to think about what was going on. That was more than I could bear.
At first, I was going to address specifically a Facebook post done by a relative that repeated so many pieces of misinformation that my head hurt. I decided not to as I know that she was not doing this maliciously, but out of fear. She really believed all of the lies spread by the current administration and now I know why so many voted for him...he is a master manipulator. So, instead of confronting the lies I'm going to just let the cards fall where they may. Let the current administration speak for itself when all of those lies don't come to fruition.
All major news outlets have now declared Biden the winner...and it's time for me to share my thoughts.
For the first time in four years, I feel able to take a breath. I still clearly remember waking up the morning after election day in 2016, checking the news, and feeling like I was living in an alternate universe. A misogynist, hate mongering, shady, reality TV show character was going to be in charge of the nuclear codes, the Executive Branch of the government, the heart and soul of this country.
I did, and I still do, find it very disheartening that people were able to put aside the indisputable evidence of his misogyny, troubling history of horrendous business practices, racism, and overall hateful rhetoric to be a single issue voter. What I mean is the “Better this than Socialism,” or “I think Roe v Wade needs to be overturned and I don’t care about anything else” comments I heard and keep hearing. And the horrible thing is that so many of those single issues are lies. Nobody wants to make this a socialist country. Nobody wants to take away your guns. Nobody wants to raise the taxes of the lower and middle class. NOBODY. You’re just believing lies instead of asking questions and checking for yourself.
The big deal seems to be the Green New Deal that the right spits out with such vitriol. However, they don’t explain what it is, they just make blanket claims based on what the overall aim of the plan is. Those who cry and moan about how it will destroy our country...have they actually read it? It is available for anyone to read online. I found a pretty good summary of it and what the new administration REALLY wants to do looking at it from a financial standpoint (which is what most of the misinformation is about) on Investopedia .
Honestly, my hatred of this administration (and you know I don’t use the H-word lightly) has less to do with politics and more to do with the tone they set for this country. The President should think of the overall well being of the country and the people before himself. It was very apparent that his first thought was always of himself, his feelings and his image, before thinking of his responsibilities as President. When there were riots, instead of calling a press conference urging for calm and unity, he came out with the threats and name-calling. He did his best to escalate the unrest instead of the opposite.
This President is a bully. I heard more than once that we need a bully in charge...which frankly scares me. Bullies are in charge of countries like Russia, China, and North Korea. We’re supposed to stand up to bullies, not become them. Not only did he not stand up to bullies, he admired and shook hands with them. He bullied our allies...the people who were standing with us against the bullies. Oh, and the First Lady, her pet project was anti-bullying. Irony much?
I don’t consider myself to be Republican or Democrat. My politics do lean left, but there are major issues that I don’t agree with that the left promotes. The point is, that I don’t blindly follow the rhetoric of the left, despite what I’ve been accused of. I do my research, make sure I understand all sides, and pick what feels right and good.
So, what is happening is something we all expected. The current administration set this up perfectly. It has been clear for quite some time that the majority of the population is fed up with the tone of this President’s administration and the handling of the current health crisis. There was always the very real chance that there would not be a second term based on the approval ratings all along. So, they started by dismantling the post office in order to try to disrupt voting by mail. They then encouraged their supporters to avoid vote by mail and claimed that it is rife with fraud (despite there being no proof). This set it up for original results to be Republican, but the slower to count mail in ballots to be Democrat. This was entirely predictable...any moron could foresee this. We were even told ahead of time that they would claim fraud. How can you claim fraud before a fraud is committed? And THIS is why he filled that empty Supreme Court seat so quickly. I'm not the only one who remembers the election of 2000.
We pride ourselves as the shining beacon of the best version of democracy. However, we are losing that claim due to what is going on with this current election. Any small time dictator in a third world country who actually fraudulently claims the win in an election will just laugh at us when we point out what they are doing is wrong and corrupt. “Look at your elections,” they will scoff, “claims of fraud everywhere and you accuse me?” What the current leader of the free world is doing is undercutting our democracy. He is tarnishing our shiny past of free and transparent elections. Now, I’m not saying they’ve always been perfect, as voter suppression is always an issue, but the votes cast have been honestly cast and fairly counted.
This country has been divided for quite some time. However, this latest administration has actually encouraged the division, and discouraged the bi-partisanship necessary to keep this country together and on course. And I’m not saying that the Democratic party is perfect, I’m not saying that Joe Biden will be the perfect president, but it does seem that he is trying to bring us together and stop the fear mongering and hate dividing us. He has his job cut out for him.
And we still have to deal with the current administration for a couple more months. I fear that lawsuits and lies are only the tip of the iceberg of the damage that he will do.
