This is a politically motivated post. Just sayin’. So if you’re sick of reading stuff, close this screen now.
`
But they’re not MY words. This is an article written by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post that was filed today. I’ve been stuck in the middle of this election not warming to either candidate and thinking of voting for a third party candidate. But when someone takes the time to spell out the emotional climate that surrounds the candidates and I read pieces like this, I have to ask myself what our country would be like a year from now if this is how everyone was thinking. And can I afford to throw my vote away like that… I find this article extremely chilling. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where this was the mindset.
`
“Donald Trump supporters may be passionate, but they’re a bit irony-challenged.
`
In the days since I wrote that Hillary Clinton wasn’t necessarily wrong to say that half of Trump’s supporters are racists and other “deplorables,” the response has been, well, deplorable. A sampling of the thousands of emails and social media replies:
`
“Please do not tell me you think we whites are just as violent, nasty, and/or Godless as the other races.”
`
“You call it racism, I call it concern that in time ‘foreign’ folks will have the voting power to make the USA another Muslim state.”
`
Another writer informed me that “blacks are the most violent population in America,” that “blacks work the least of any race in America” and that “black women have the lowest moral standards of all women in America,” concluding: “The biggest problem for blacks is blacks.”
`
Many others suggested I perform an impossible sex act on myself and another sex act on male genitals, called me a “scumbag” and far worse, and suggested I eat feces. Some took the opportunity to inform me that I and my fellow Jews are “the most racist people on the Earth,” that I worship Satan, and that my children and I will be boiled in oil.
`
Then this simple note was sent to me: “I hope you outlive your children.”
I reprint this small sample of the nastygrams not to ruin your next meal but because the half of Trump supporters who aren’t motivated by prejudice, and the few voters who remain genuinely undecided, should be aware of the bigotry that Trump has brought into the open — and that those who vote for Trump are condoning…”
(To read complete article see More bigotry from the Trump brigade.)
`
Unfortunately I kind of feel like the damage has already been done, that this kind of rhetoric has opened a Pandora’s Box of such self-centered, ill-mannered, exclusionist behavior in this country that it will never be the same. That makes me sick and sad at the same time. Whatever you do on election day, I hope you don’t waste your freedom of speech by not showing up at the polls.
`
`
Picture Credits:
Election 2016 — herviewfromhome.com
Your Voice — abc7news.com
Was going to say the same as Opher – it’s like we’ve stepped back in time. The world is on a knife-edge above a very high cliff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes… I so feel that with Trump. With him I think women will lose every foot of ground they’ve climbed on that equality mountain. He’s a misogynist, plain and simple.
LikeLike
I’ve decided to be optimistic. People who want to wallow in hate and fear are welcome to it, but I’m done. I’ve read so many anti-Clinton articles ad nauseum, debated Trump supporters on the internet and in person, and have come to the conclusion that there’s really no “there” there. The so-called evidence against Clinton is a bunch of trumped-up swill from the right wing hate machine. Those people in the right wing media have been poisoning our democracy for the past 25 years. I think it’s time to say no to Richard Mellon Scaife, the Koch Brothers, Roger Ailes and their ilk, no to what they have wrought in this country and no to what they have turned the once-grand and proud Republican party into. I’m with Hillary with a clear conscience. And I’m looking forward to having an experienced, qualified woman in the White House for the first time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for you, Karen! Optimistic. I appreciate very much what you said. Thanks for your courage!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for this, Lady Calen. There seems to be a reliance on opinion over fact, feelings over reasonable debate and intellectual discourse right now. It frightens me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Me, too. I think everyone needs to take a big breath, get still, and take the emotional temperature of this country right now. I was so excited for Blue Bloods to come back on last night (I’m TOTALLY ADDICTED to Tom Selleck), but I was disappointed in the content of the show. It was really bad timing with what’s been going on. I want to think it just happened to coincide with what’s happening. Though the writers on that show never shy away from what’s in the news. I felt like the episode sent some really mixed messages out there. I was disappointed. But I very much fear we won’t recognize this country in four years…
LikeLike
It must be very difficult to make a choice given the candidates you have to choose from. Who is the lesser of two evils? And why? Watching and listening from the other side of the world is hard enough. I hate to think what it must be like living there. You’re right Calen, it is important to have a say.
LikeLike
…..I Am Most Certainly NOT a racist or a bigot and I don’t appreciate being considered irony challened …….but I’d rather be in the ‘deplorable basket’ than see that woman in the White House. 🙃
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just make sure you vote! 😀 I’m trying to shoo everyone toward the polls with my broom. Maybe I should switch to my whompin’ stick?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I’m voting..no stick needed!!! 😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s my girl!!! 😉
LikeLike
I find it very sad to see the racism and violence that is coming out in politics on both sides of the pond. There is a lot of hatred being stirred up for political ends and it is fuelling a deeply polarised country. i find it extremely disturbing. I believe it has give a lot of unpleasant people licence to feel their extreme bigotry is acceptable.
Violence and hatred, racism and intolerance is simply not acceptable.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I totally agree with that, Opher. If this country lost its innocence on 9/11, this campaign hows how bitter we’ve become since then. And half the time we don’t even know what or who we’re bitter at.
LikeLike