I watched as much of the first Trump/Biden debate as I could
stomach, honestly I have a headache and feel queasy. I saw a man standing at a
podium, but I FELT a man stalking the stage, raging like a drunk abuser in an a-shirt
with his kids and wife cowering at his feet after he has beaten them.
As a woman, I experienced rage, fear, sadness, & humiliation
that reminds me of those times I was bullied in high school… but mostly I am
filled with rage. I wanted to reach through my computer screen and punch Donald
in the face.
I feel white hot rage… for our entire country, but
especially for people of color, for women, for LGBTQ+ folks, frontline &
essential workers, and anyone else Trump deems “disgusting people”. Sadly this
describes many of his supporters and they hear his call to “Stand Back &
Stand By”; they will heed his call to civil war should he lose the election. White
Supremacy & Racism aren’t even being hidden anymore. Those “proud boys” back
him and will die for him, and he really couldn’t care less. We are all just the
shit his money grows in.
The Trump threat is real, this man has been telling us since
before 2015 who he is and what he wants to do. He wasn’t taken seriously until
now because he was viewed as a buffoon. But Sarah Kendzior, author of The View
from Flyover Country and Hiding in Plain Sight, as well as scholar of
authoritarian states, saw what he was and warned us. In her 2016 essay (https://thecorrespondent.com/5696/were-heading-into-dark-times-this-is-how-to-be-your-own-light-in-the-age-of-trump/1611114266432-e23ea1a6),
she quotes Trump as saying, “You know what solves it? When the economy crashes,
when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster. Then you’ll
have a [chuckles], you know, you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to
be when we were great.” In her eyes, “This is what “Make America Great Again”
means to Donald Trump.” She also posits that Trump and kleptocrat class want to
“strip our country down for parts, often using ethnic violence to do so.” And
given what we have seen in the last 4 years under Trump, she was right. She and
her counterpart, Andrea Chalupa, host the Gaslit Nation Podcast (https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/)
and have been warning of everything we have collectively been experiencing.
Tonight more of the country saw who Trump really is. He is
mean, cruel, sadistic, uncaring, and fucking unhinged. It was all about him,
what he wants and what he needs. The debate, if you can call it that, became
yet another episode of the Donald Trump show that has become a fixture we have been
unable tune out for the last 4 years. I really appreciated Joe Biden just
telling him to shut up. Trump is a bully and he hates it when someone tells him
the truth and when he can’t control the narrative. He acts like an out of
control toddler and lashes out trying to regain control. He’s the poster child
of “arrested development” and his antics communicate loud and clear to his
fellow arrestees. The large swath of men and women in this country who never
learned to deal with the emotions in a healthy way, I would say far too many… believe
only weaklings show emotions, thanks to the stew of toxic masculinity we have
all been steeped in. Our country is emotionally stunted and it’s really no
wonder we are so fucked up… Kids get ridiculed for attempting to find emotional
wellbeing. And yes, I resemble that remark.
Another important point to consider is the input of Dr.
Bandy X. Lee, the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. She and the
other contributors to the book likewise warned us that Trump’s pathology would
become a national pathology, as well as pose a danger to the country as a whole.
She makes a strong case that as a country, we need to deal with Trump’s mental
health issues, because those coupled with the immense power of the presidency,
will more than like yield deadly consequences for our fellow citizens, country,
and world. Surely they already have, as evidenced by his blasé attitude about the
205,000+ dead from coronavirus and. And conditions like his worsen over time at
an acerating pace. Do we really want him
near the nuclear codes? (https://medium.com/@bandyxlee/the-accelerated-unraveling-of-donald-trump-702dec03330e)
Biden maintained and exuded a presidential demeanor as best
he could tonight, but unfortunately, debating Trump in anything near “normal” is
nigh impossible. Biden’s connections came through when he ignored Trump and
just talked into the camera to the American people about his own life, about
our families’ lives. Biden isn’t perfect, but damnit, we have to get this jalopy
of a country back on the road if we are ever going to get to the dream country
dealership.
I’m not surprised at how the debate went tonight, not really
even shocked. Many of us knew who he was, deep in our bones, our Black sisters and
brothers were trying to tell us, as were those who knew what they were looking
at….
So really, the question before us is… **What can we do?!?!**
This is not the time to sit on the sidelines and assume everything will take
care of itself. Donate money up and down the ballot if you can. Donate time if
you can: volunteer as a poll worker, write letters, drive people to the polls,
hand out snacks and water for those waiting to vote, gather ballots in your
state and take them to drop boxes (but check your local laws first!), phone
bank, text bank, talk to friend and neighbors, do what you can where you are
and with what means you have.
Personally, I hate calling people, but I plan to start
textbanking later in the week… and I’m going to be a monitor on social media. I
have also written 20 lettesr to voters in Ohio and 200 postcards to voters in
Florida. I live in a vote by mail state and plan to grab all the ballots from
my household and walk them to the dropbox at the library. A great guide is here
at the Gaslit Nation website, https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/2020-survival-guide.
The one thing that is certain is that if we stand up as a
country and tell Donald “NO!” & “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” in numbers too big too
ignore, he will disappear like cowards & bullies do.
Stand up! Vote!
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