Hi Eleena,
Let me begin by saying I’m not sure what “privilege” you gleaned from my article. I’m getting my teeth kicked in like 99% of the other people in this country. I have the privilege of being employed with a roof over my head. Yay me. Living the American Dream.
To answers your questions: No. I absolutely do not regret NOT voting for Hillary. You think we have a wolf in the Oval Office now? I assure you, Hillary is an even bigger wolf with a much bigger appetite. She just hides it better than Trump does. And in this country, that’s all anything ever comes down to. Optics. How does this person look? How do they make me feel? Do they give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside? I don’t have time for that nonsense anymore.
Are you really going to tell me that you wanted a hypocrite in office who bleats about women’s rights and human rights, yet pimps out her husband to give “speaking engagements” around the world to the most oppressive regimes, governments that brutalize women and dissenting voices, all so this dynamic money-sucking duo can pad their Foundation’s coffers? https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/hillary-clinton-womens-rights-record-saudi-arabia-116160
Do you seriously not have a problem with a woman who threw her weight behind TPP — a so-called “treaty” that would have done to the middle and upper class what NAFTA did to the working class, completely finishing off the job that elites started in earnest decades ago?
Killing this Frankensetin-esque globalist trash may be the only good thing Trump has done, but believe it or not, it’s probably the one that mattered most (if Biden gets into office and this “treaty” is resurrected, I highly doubt you’ll remain employed at the same salary through the decade).
Do you seriously not have a problem with a woman who whores herself out to the banks that screw us daily and tells them behind-closed-doors that “they know what’s best for our economy”? Seriously?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/hillary-clinton-leaked-wall-street-speeches
Now let’s pull focus: do you seriously not have a problem with a party that feigns concern for minorities, yet lets them wallow in “blue” havens of poverty and crime, year after year, only paying attention to them during election season when they need to pander for their votes? Have you taken a close look at what’s been happening in Chi-raq, Oakland, and other major urban areas? Black people are dying in droves. Many are living in conditions that can best be described as third world.
And guess what? Trump didn’t put black people in that position. The so-called progressive leadership that controls these cities has simply forgotten about blacks and other people of color. Tossed them aside like trash. Their “politically correct” mindset convinces them they’re doing the right things and that their hearts are in the right place, even as they do absolutely NOTHING for the people they claim to care about. Ditto for the homeless epidemic. Do you you think it’s an accident this disaster is blowing up in “blue” cities? No. It’s because gross, unparalleled hypocrisy from neoliberal leadership is not only killing their party; it’s murdering those who have the misfortune of being trapped within their city limits.
Did Trump throw kids into cages? Yes. Did Obama also throw kids into cages? Yes. But Obama did it with better optics. He didn’t do it as a matter of “policy”; he did it on a “case by case” basis: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461230-biden-incorrectly-claims-obama-administration-didnt-separate-families
Do I have a problem with Trump’s federal appointments? Yes. Do I like 90% of the federal appointments that any president makes? No. Why? Because as a lawyer, knowing what I know about the “just-us” system, ALL of these judges are operating in a toxic system that favors those with real privilege (not a middle class working stiff like me with faux privilege) and screws everyone else in, a system that affords so-called progressives the luxury of pretending they’re helping the less fortunate by appointing so-called “progressive” judges who simply screw us with better optics.
Because it’s all about about optics.
Point your fingers at Trump as much as you want. Find a scapegoat and scape away. But if you pull focus and leave your partisan tent, you’ll see that this country was a complete and total train wreck before Trump got into office. Like every other president who’s preceded him, he has simply done his part to contribute to the unfolding wreck.
If you seriously think that Obama and Clinton didn’t make their own personal contributions to this wreck, then I think you’re being naive. From NAFTA (which absolutely decimated manufacturing and the working class) to the ACA (which has left average, non-indigent people like paying $1400/mo for “shitty” health insurance with catastrophic coverage), ALL of the presidents we’ve “elected” for the past 60 years have done nothing but pile more wreckage onto this pitiful wreck.
Lastly, I don’t believe that half of my fellow citizens are “shitty,” but I do think that damn near ALL of the people in our government are. See, the point of this game elites have us playing is to make us think one half of the country is shitty. To keep us divided. To keep us at each other’s throats. Because when we’re doing that, we can’t see the bigger picture. We can’t see that jackals from both parties are slowly picking the meat from our bones while pointing fingers at the other.
I think you and I both understand that Bernie would be the better choice, and I think we both agree that we’re not remotely living in the kind of country we should be living in. I think we both understand we’re living with a severely broken System. The real difference between you and me is that I think it’s pointless to waste my time splitting hairs between degrees of “shitty” leadership. The choice between Trump and Biden/Clinton is like choosing between death by fire and death by ice. One method of demise may feel better to you, but you’re still going to die. I refuse to make that choice, and if enough people had the courage to refuse, we wouldn’t be left with such shitty choices.
I’m not sure Bernie will still be on the June ballot when my state hold its primary. If he’s not, I’m not voting. I won’t talk myself into voting for the lesser of evils merely because one brand of evil has better optics.
But I actually hope Biden wins for one reason: people will apparently only come to their senses when they endure more suffering. When half the country wakes up in four years and realizes, “Hey…my life is still going to hell. What’s up with that? I thought things were so screwed up because of Trump,” it might finally occur to them that they’re being duped on an epic level with this whole election charade.
One can only hope.
Thanks for your feedback, and have a good day, Eleena.
