With all the holiday buzz and business already buzzing and businessing, an anniversary of some magnitude slipped past us pretty much unnoticed.
Two weeks ago, give or take.
That would be the observance that it's been two years since November 8, 2016. And the presidential election that will always be correctly described as, if nothing else.... seismic.
It's also been two years now of debating, arguing, bickering, even fighting with each other with an intensity and continuity unprecedented in modern times. Expressed articulately, and not just a little ironically, by one of those voices we sixties kids classify as iconic.
"...there's battle lines being drawn / nobody's right / when everybody's wrong..."
And November 8, 2016 was just the uncorking of the bottle. Or vial, as the case may be.
Come January 20th in the coming year, it will be two years since the venom and vitriol began spewing with a flow that made Krakatoa, East of Java look like a dripping kitchen faucet. (Yes, generation X'ers and Millennials, another sixties reference...calm down, do the Google, no such thing as too much knowledge).
Put less linguistically....shit got real on Inauguration Day, baby.
When those thirty six million people showed up in D.C to watch the swearing in. Or eighty million or whatever number he lands on the next time somebody asks or the mood just strikes him.
Two years in the world of political discourse, discussion, debate and/or dissension, have a dog years-like quality about them. Again, put in a sound-byte friendly version...seems like we been bitching at each other about this guy forever.
At this point in the plot, I'm personally two years and a kabillion miles past being sucked into any more point by point, tit for tat, I know you are, but what am I back and forth with anyone who is facing me and not standing beside me. Because when you keep saying white only to hear "black" as the reply and you keep saying white, knowing full well that there's not a chance in hell you're going to hear anything in reply but "black", then, cue Professor Einstein and his sharply accurate, but, still somehow, underrated definition of insanity.
Doing the same thing over and over....and over. And expecting a different result each time.
Or at all. Ever.
So, in spite of whatever naively charming illusions with which we might feel inclined to indulge ourselves, the hard rock bottom of the cold, hard truth is that debate, whether civilized or savage, on the subject of Donald Trump is pretty much a waste of time, effort and stomach lining.
Because of something that genuinely qualifies as precedent setting, perhaps, even historic.
One of the more remarkable, if not mutated, uniquenesses of this particular pimple on the face of American history is that, by now, two years in, there is, for the first time in a long, long time, if ever, virtually no one left in one of the more prominent voting demographics in the American electoral process.
Because when it comes to circling the Electoral wagons, we got...
Democrats / and Socialists
Republicans / and Communists
Then there's Libertarians / A few might be Rotarians
Modern Whigs / Green Partiers
Humanes / They say do not wear fur
Objectivists / and Pacifists
And then the Constitutionists
Green Panthers stand to take a vow
with Legal Marijuana Now
....but one traditionally sizeable voting block is, essentially, extinct.
Undecideds.
Because, two years through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole of the World According To Trump, there are, arguably, zip, zero, nada who are still making up their minds.
The less erudite political science professors amongst us would frame it this way.
The Trump support mantra continues to pretend, or, could be argued, portend, to be "Make America Great Again."
Truth is that's just code. What it translates out to is "you is either fer us.....or you is agin' us..."
So, just like trying to resist the Borg, trying to change the minds of a Trump supporter, two years in, with all we've seen and all we've heard and all we've witnessed and...all we know... is futile.
That said, it occurs to me that there's something worth pointing out to those whose name tags read "fer us".
And it's not about trying to convince anybody to change teams. Again, Borg, resistance. All of that Picard-esque perspective.
Here's a heretofore previously un-pondered point to ponder.
Recognizing, admitting and agreeing with us as to the staggering personal flaws and shortcomings of Donald Trump doesn't automatically imply that you are a Clinton supporter. Or an Obama supporter. Or a Bernie supporter.
It doesn't, in fact, imply that you are anything other than a reasonable, caring, compassionate, intelligent human being.
Now, for those whose initial, gut/knee jerk reaction is, in the classic style of the Donald, to lash back like a child at anyone who doesn't give you, or say to you, what you want or want to hear at every living breathing moment of the day, indulge me this brief bluntness.
Shut up.
Sit down.
And just listen.
Because, two years in, you're no longer being extended the courtesy, luxury, actually, no, make that privilege of being offended when somebody calls you out on your endorsement, if only by your silence, of the behavior, conduct and, worst of all, "presidential presentation" of this guy.
Two years ago, many of us who dreaded what lay ahead, extended that courtesy to you, and him, in the form of giving him, and, by association, you, the benefit of the doubt. Remember those chats we had that consisted of "well, he's a world class asshole, but maybe he'll rise to the occasion and become a president everyone can be proud of"?.
Or the good times we shared talking about how we agreed that he was dumber than soup, in addition to being as tactless as Kanye yanking Taylor Swift's moment away from her, but, come on, everybody deserves a chance and he has said over and over that he was going to surround himself with "people...terrific people....the best people...who know what they're talking about and how to do the things that need to get done to.......INSERT MANTRA/CODE HERE....."
Yeah. About that. Two years in. Not so much.
Sorry. Make that not at all. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
The staffs, senior, junior and all flavors in between on the White House roster over the last two years have made Steinbrenner's hiring and firing and hiring and firing and hiring and firing Yankee managers look like unparalleled business management genius.
He doesn't listen to anyone. He doesn't care about any other opinion. None. Zip, zero.....lather, rinse, repeat.
But let's go all Shirley Ellis and get right down to the real nitty gritty.
Two and a half years, or so, ago, I did a compare and contrast kind of thing on my weekly radio show regarding Donald and his psychology. The gist of it was basically this. I said "this man being what he is, behaving as he does, saying the things he does, acting out the way he does, if your daughter brought this man home to dinner and introduced him to you as the love of her life and her future husband, you would move heaven and Earth to end that relationship. You probably wouldn't even want someone like that at your dinner table, let alone in your daughter's home, life, bed, heart. If you wouldn't want your daughter within a hundred miles of this guy, why, on God's green Earth, would you want to elect him to the most powerful office on the planet?" Those already determined to defend him, at the time, followed the earlier mentions of "well, he'll rise to the occasion" or "terrific people...the best people"....and, in one of the more memorable moments, one caller reminded me that "well, we're not electing a Sunday School teacher, are we, now?"
Got that right, buddy. Got that right big time.
You elected a sociopath.
A narcissist.
A misogynist.
A pathological liar.
A clinically verifiable case of arrested development with the emotional maturity of an emotionally damaged two year old.
And I'll spare us the list of fumbles, faux pas and fuck ups that two years have compiled and simply give a moment's spotlight to a most recent "are you effin kidding me?" moment.
When asked, this week of family gratitudes, blessings counted and thanks given, he was asked the question that millions of Americans asked each other around countless Thanksgiving tables around the nation.
"What are you most thankful for?"
This man who was extended the benefit of the doubt two years ago replied...
"I'm thankful for having made a tremendous difference in this country."
Cue George Harrison.
All through the day / I,me, mine / I, me, mine / I, me, mine.
Yeah, okay, we all agreed to agree two plus years ago that humility was as absent in his DNA as was the ability to take a joke or any criticism of any kind at any time in any way. Ever.
But that was then.
And like I said earlier, the meter on the benefit of the doubt being extended him and the courtesy of not calling you out for your endorsement of him has run out.
Not that you care what I think. And, right back at ya. I don't care what you think. And I very much don't care what you think about what I think.
Ya see what he's got us doing?
But, again, like I said, there are no undecideds. And one is either "fer" or "agin"
The point being made is, simply, this.
Acknowledging, admitting and, more importantly, denouncing the egregiously offensive, tasteless, gutless, childish, ignorant, illiterate behavior, conduct and farcical parody of this "presidential presentation", unacceptable by any reasonable, basic lowest possible minimum of human decency, is not automatically an endorsement of Hillary or Bill or Barack or Bernie or Millard fucking Fillmore.
It's simply the right thing to do.
And you know that.
Feel free to bitch, moan, swear, curse, yell, criticize, chastise, complain, resent, scream back every cheap shot, low blow, bit of bite back bullshit your brain can process and deliver for you.
Sticks and stones don't change the fact.
It's simply the right thing to do.
And you know that.
It's kind of like that Borg thing.
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