The Most Giant Star Outshining Worlds of Terror

It’s been awhile since I’ve written, and this is something I’ve wanted to remark upon for a good couple months now.

Over two years ago, I wrote a quite optimistic post about Twin Cities Pride, declaring, “I absolutely and resolutely adore pride in the Twin Cities, but a part of me can’t help but think that pride month will have to rapidly transform itself very soon, mainly because so many other things are changing very quickly, from marriage rights, workplace discrimination, to bullying in schools.” I was essentially suggesting that unless Pride changed, it would quickly become obsolete and unnecessary. Keep in mind, I wrote this shortly after Minnesota legalized marriage for all, and the excitement in the air was palpable. Nothing could stop this progress. Everything we ever wanted would come true.

And, indeed, the Supreme Court would come to legalize marriage for all across all 50 states. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, idiot governors sign nonsensical bills into law declaring transgendered men and women must use specific toilets. Trigger happy police officers execute black men under circumstances that no reasonable person would find justifiable. A white male swimmer who rapes an unconscious woman merely gets his wrists slapped. An American civilian with a scary sounding name who happens to admire ISIS kills 49 people at an Orlando nightclub while a dysfunctional Senate fails to pass commonsense gun control measures. And, just to top the end of 2016 off with an event to end all events, the electoral college is going to vote for an idiot man to run the most powerful office in the world because Colin Powell advised a woman it’s fine to be a bit sloppy with emails. This is an idiot man who openly mocks people with disabilities, an idiot man who calls for a registry of Muslims as if we’re in Nazi Germany, an idiot man who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to grab women by their pussy and pass remarks like these off as everyday locker room talk, an idiot man who has filled his cabinet with the least qualified people (i.e. idiot rich men) who seem poised to actually dismantle the very programs they were hired to support. His idiot administration so far is shaping up to be the most out-of-touch administration since perhaps Warren Harding’s, but even Mr. Harding’s administration seems more adept at running a country than compared to this idiot’s administration we’re about to have for our executive branch.

And if that wasn’t enough, we now also have an idiot vice-president who is a man who has advocated for public spending on conversion therapy for LGBT people. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. He has sponsored multiple bills to defund Planned Parenthood. His policies inadvertently caused an HIV outbreak in Indiana. He opposes marriage equality. He voted against fair pay for women and minorities. He opposes raising the minimum wage. He has tried to block aid to Syrian refugees. He believes condoms are not effective in preventing STDs and pregnancy. He believes the LGBTQ community should not be protected from discrimination. He opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He opposes Obama’s transgender bathroom directive. He defied a bill combating rape in prison. He refused to call a former leader of the KKK deplorable. He sponsored a bill that would have prevented children of illegal immigrants from becoming citizens. And lastly,he believes smoking doesn’t kill. (No really. Look it up. Don’t take my word for it, but all these are true and do not come from some Onion article.)

These, among other stuff, are the idiot things happening right now. It is so very difficult to call up the hope and optimism we all felt when suddenly, in an instant, the highest court in the land said that states have no right forbidding certain people to marry (again).

It is so difficult to call up this hope because what’s most distressing about this election is that millions of people voted for a man who believes in some very deplorable things. These are things that affect me personally as well as millions of others of our fellow brothers and sisters and cousins and neighbors and friends and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters all across the nation. But, I’ve heard people comment to the effect of, “Just because I voted for that man doesn’t mean I’m a racist,” to which I must respond:

You may not think you’re a racist or a misogynist, but you do seem to think that this idiot man didn’t cross a single line to get you to change your mind to make you say, “You know what? That’s pretty upsetting, what he just did there just then. I don’t want a repulsive man like that running this country and representing us abroad.”

Let me refresh your memory what lines he did cross but that you have now validated are lines that are either acceptable to cross or are not a line crossed at all. You heard him say he wants to register Muslims, but apparently that’s not too far. You heard him say he wants to build a wall between the U.S and Mexico, yet again that’s apparently not too far. You heard him talk about how it’s fine to do to women whatever you want, including “grab ’em by the pussy,” but even that wasn’t a line too far. You saw him mock a man with a disability on national television, but, again, that seems not to have been a line crossed.

And what’s worse is that he’s given voice to some very despicable ideas and amplified them. Indeed, he’s even validated that this kind of hatred can now exist within our national dialogue. This hatred has always been lurking in the dark undersides of this country for awhile, but now this idiot man has given them reason to come out to spout their hatred as if it’s totally acceptable behavior. “Have they no decency?” Apparently not, unless what their version of decency is is some transfigured misrepresentation.