A Woman on Stephanie Miller’s show (FSTV) said it well. Many of us live in bubbles. Most of our friends and family share our values and ideals. My friends have some of the same goals to make things better for one another and to improve our world and climate. We respect one another and our diversity. We want to see progress and to value one another lifting each other up. The people I listened to during election season were mostly of that ilk too and that gave me a false sense of security for the outcome. I was totally surprised at the outcome, especially with voting in a trifecta. With the Supreme Court rigged, we have little checks and balances now to rely on. I have the hope that a few GOP’ers will dissent and wake up sooner than later.
Unfortunately, half or more of our nation apparently don’t hold similar values to mine, or ignore them from their own greed and selfish interests voting for of one thing like wanting to lower taxes or thinking prices would magically come down when our economy is improving, in fact it is one of the best in the world at this time. Sadly many believed the ad lies about trans people and about socialism, while they enjoy many socialistic practices like social security, libraries and having fire and police come to your aid, they denounce the word not understanding it (or sometimes confusing it with Communism). (I think many ads came from Russia.)
Surely, there were a mixture of reasons for the way people voted, but it saddens me that some paid no attention to the facts and voted against their own best interests. And also many believed the lies said by a known liar, felon rapist, who is filling the cabinet with ‘deplorables’ in that they have no knowledge or background in the areas for which they will be in charge, and who is a racist and misogynist. Heck, Melania doesn’t even want to join him in the White House.
Perhaps this is a clue as to why we are a divided country, we no longer have shared values nor connect in community with one another. We used to meet for clubs and social activities more and connected through our faith organizations. People these days are too busy watching videos, playing games and texting rather than watching news coverage and getting the facts, much less reading a book and knowing who their elected officials are much less who their neighbors are. We’ve lost our sense of community as everyone has their head in their ‘cell phone bubble’ instead of interacting with others. We can’t connect to discuss and learn from one another if we rely only on social media and never meet up with one another.
Also, we seem to be in 80-year cycles, as one generation dies out and forgets the lessons of that time. We had the Revolutionary war, then the Civil war, then WW2 and now this period (which could end in a big war) all spanning about a generation apart. Yet in 2024, we perhaps have a new version of the ‘roaring 20’s’ in this century; many of us are roaring and many of the issues are the same with oligarchs taking over again.
I grew up thinking the President should be one of the smartest, most revered people in the nation, and a person of integrity and moral values. I think few of us would trust this President to babysit our daughter or to advise us on our finances, much less have control of our country’s welfare. This past week I have vacillated between anger, sadness and disbelief. Every day seems to get worse, not better with his choices coming to fruition and I fear the next few years with his promise of retribution and cuts to programs that many of us enjoy (yes socialist programs).
This is not the direction I wanted our country to go, nor for my golden years and my grandson’s future. It’s up to us to tow the line and preserve our democracy, our republic, if we can keep it. Hopefully the dark comes before a better dawn. We can’t sit this one out. It’s up to us! There’s a book called, I didn’t think It could happen here…I didn’t either, but now it is. It’s up to us! Will you join me?
NEW WORD TO USE: PISSTIFIED. Being pissed off and mystified at their stupidity at the same time.