NOTE: This post was written in rage, and originally published on March 12, 2017.  I deleted it within hours, not in the mood for a social media barrage from both sides of the administration’s loudest supporters and haters.  Like them though, I have strong feelings about the “swamp” (cesspool?) growing larger in DC, in both parties.  I have often regretted removing this post, so here it is.

A tweet in my timeline last week strongly inferred that those of us not participating in “The Resistance” and not availing all our free time to the news media’s political reporting, were not being good citizens.  It also stated that we’re all too comfortable in our state of “blissful ignorance”.  This got me pretty cranked up.

Ignoring the talking heads and spin doctors is not “blissful ignorance”, and neither is non-participation in street protest.  It’s one reaction to not being able to determine which news reports are credible and truthful, due to paid-for bias and the rating wars.  Add my core belief we are way past the point where any number of us in the 99% could collectively do anything to bring about change.

The two choices given to us for President of the United States of America last November shows that the ruling aristocracy in America owns the government, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.  Our children and our planet do not factor into their actions, as their only concern is keeping their power and satisfying their greed.

For a long time, my biggest problem with the Federal Government has been its inability to get any meaningful work done for the American people.  I attribute this problem to both major parties making their sole objective blocking all initiatives of the other party from ever getting off the ground.  Each leaves no room for the option of sitting around a table and working out a compromise.

The “My Way or the Highway” approach does not lend itself to constructive work being accomplished.  The reason this legislative practice became the all-encompassing objective for both parties is to position themselves for the next elections, which translates to senators and representatives keeping their seats, perks, money, and their place in the Aristocracy.  For them, these selfish concerns out-weigh what we all learned in grammar school was the real job description of their office: Serving the People.  It could not be more evident that they serve themselves, not us.

Looking at the current political environment at street level, I am saddened (and somewhat fearful) to see that We the People have seemingly accepted using the “My Way or the Highway” policy towards each other.  We’re now alt-right Trump supporters or left wing Clinton liberals – no middle ground, or room for discussion.  Street protests and rallies in favor of one side or the other are met with rowdy, sometimes violent opposition from the other side, often requiring police to be called into the fray.

We have become them.

I can offer no solution.  Those elected by generations of voters have created their machine, and are keeping themselves in ownership of the government, and also our lives.  You’ve heard me say before, I hate both sides of the aisle equally.  For me, the two presidential candidates left standing after the last party national conventions are shameful examples of what has come to be.  It would have made no difference who won, we’d still be in the same hateful state we are now.

If you got this far into this post, take a minute or 2 and view this older post.  It’s a little naive and wishful, but is a companion read to this one.

I did not vote for Donald Trump, but he is now the President-elect of the United States of America.  This was 51% of my worse case scenario for the voting outcome, the remaining 49% was ending up with Hillarmungus as the victor.  A “no win situation” for America was all I could see in this election.  Both the leading political parties need to feel shame for not delivering more acceptable candidates to the voters.

I suspect Donald Trump is experiencing surprise and anxiety as he comes to realize what it means to be President of the United States of America.  My hope is he will abandon most of the promises and proposals he arrogantly made during his campaign, but like all, I have to wait to see.  I also want to believe he will stay surrounded and reined in by the more earth bound and responsible Republican leaders, as conservative as they may be.

We were exposed all too often to Trump’s misogynistic tirades and overall failure to recognize women’s rights.  We’ve seen videos of people marching in the streets against the election results.  We’ve read reports of an immediate increase in racial, ethnic, gender, and life style bashing and actual attacks.

As to the bashing and attacks, given my feelings on the ratings driven media, we don’t know how many of these attacks actually happened as some false instances have already been reported.  No matter how many reports are genuine, President-to-be Trump needs to do more than a short exclamation of “Stop it”.  He needs to accept responsibility for this behavior by his welcoming of campaign support from the KKK leadership, and his own racial and ethnic slurs made publicly during his campaign.

Whether or not some of his disturbing proposed and actual appointments to his team add to the likelihood his promises will be acted upon is unknown, again related to the influence of Republican leadership in the houses.

All this hope and anxiety over what will happen under the Trump Presidency will last years for all of us.  If he doesn’t deliver on enough of the promises he made to his followers regarding changes he would make, the more hard core part of that bloc will also strongly take to the streets.  So regardless of what his Presidency proposes, attempts, or passes, we’re looking at a stressful four years ahead.  Voters split down the middle in this election, and the issues and fundamental beliefs contributing to this split are strong enough to make it all turn pretty ugly.  Like Viet Nam War ugly.  And like the 60’s Civil Rights Marches ugly.

This week’s top news stories included Donald Trump Jr.’s mention of the gas chamber in a speech he made supporting his father. After searching the web and reviewing the context in which it was used, I wasn’t sure it should have been immediately targeted as “Nazi” anti-Semitism referring to the Holocaust, causing the Anti-Defamation League to demand a retraction.

When I was under 10 years old in the 1950s, I can remember playing cops and robbers with my neighborhood pals and the gas chamber was a common threat or promise to the “bad guys” in this activity. We were old enough to have heard the phrase used on television, in comic books, and in our elders’ discussions in reference to criminal activity. We were thankfully too young to have any knowledge of the atrocity of the Holocaust, or grasp the concept of Anti-Semitism. The gas chamber was just an American thing.

I was almost able to accept the younger Trump’s explanation that he used it in the “American” sense – as an acceptable means of capital punishment in our country (as early as 1921). Why didn’t he reference the hangman’s noose, firing squads, the electric chair, or the gurney?

I now think my early assessment was pretty naive.  Given the rabid history of the Trump campaign, the odds strongly favor the use of “gas chamber” being intentional, to bring about the press response it received.  It was another instance of the Trump campaign’s strategy of making outrageous and inflammatory statements daily, to bolster the likelihood that the Trump name would be at or near the top of the day’s “big stories”.

Another striking example of big media’s true charter, that ratings and the profits they bring are all that matter.