Photo taken in Myanmar/Burma by Pyae Sone Htun. Found via unsplash.com
Corruption, cruelty and the disappearance of accountability in U.S. politics and society
Here’s the thing. I wrote another piece last week and I still haven’t published it. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what I’m feeling so I keep writing about random things that cross my mind. Things that might explain how we’ve gotten to where we are currently. I’m grasping at any straws that are the real reasons we’ve embraced regress rather than progress. I know the topic is nuanced and there’s no one explanation that fits, and I’m aware this has been bubbling for quite some time. I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to say while offending as few people as possible because I want to have a dialogue. I want to be able to listen, be listened to, and learn from each other. But, here’s the reality. I’m angry. And sad. But, my fury is soul deep. I’m angrier than I’ve ever been.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote an op-ed in the New York Times. I cannot abide Mr. Hawley. He’s smug, arrogant, and stands for pretty much everything I abhor. He’s smart enough to know that many of his policies hurt people and seems to revel in doing them anyway. But, despite my best efforts, he made points that I have to agree with even if I don’t agree with why he wants to do them. He wrote eloquently about why the proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid were pernicious. He wrote them to further his party’s cause and to hopefully keep his job, but nonetheless he made good points. I fundamentally disagree with him about state’s rights and small federal government, but on these points I can’t help but understand what he’s saying. And that right there, that sentence, is what’s missing from our country.
We’ve embraced anti-intellectualism. We’ve turned discourse into shouting at one another through the internet void. We refuse to listen or learn. Thoughtfulness is a thing of the past. Empathy? Never heard of her. Not only have we thrown the proverbial empathy baby out with the bath water, but those who somehow retain their empathy are viewed as less than. The hypocrisy of calling yourself a Christian while doing the most unchristian things imaginable is wild to me. Celebrating the rendition of people in our country legally to a foreign prison is inconceivable to me, as a person. Celebrating while thousands of people across our country lose jobs, while national parks are in danger of being ruined by mining, drilling, and fracking, and while families are afraid to leave their homes because ICE agents wearing sheistys to cover their faces snatch parents from children is indicative of severe mental health issues. At this point, even those saying, “What if it was your family or your kids” aren’t making any headway.
This greed and selfishness cannot be sustained. The mere fact racists feel empowered by this president is enough to make me feel insane. We’d at least made most of them live under rocks for a while, now they’re out, proud, and not even bothering to hide their damn faces. For god’s sake, the president of the United States is about to take a $400 million plane from a country known for human rights abuses and plans to use it as Air Force One for the duration of his presidency because he knows no one is going to stop him. The director of the FBI is using the official plane to go to sporting events. The attorney general of the United States, the nation’s top lawyer, used to work for Qatar, the same nation giving the president a plane. All of these things are not only ethically wrong, they’re illegal. I won’t bother with the “well, if Biden had done it Republicans would be screaming forever” line because none of us can even fathom Biden doing such things.
The cognitive dissonance required to believe a man who has never done one thing that was altruistic or smart now thinking only of what’s best for the nation is epic. He says he’s saving saving us money by slashing budgets and agencies without Congressional approval (illegal) while spending $90 million on military parade for his birthday and millions on his golf trips where he overcharges the Secret Service for the hotel rooms required for his protection. He doesn’t care about U.S. citizens or about the fact that he supposedly answers to us. He wants to be a dictator and to turn us into serfs. He thinks he’s above the law. The Trump regime is actively suppressing anti-Trump thoughts and views by denying press they don’t like access to events and detaining Americans returning from abroad to check their phones and social media for anti-Trump biases.
So that’s where I am. I AM FURIOUS. I am horrified by what is happening and the fact that our leaders are unwilling to stop it. Racists and bigots revolt me. I am tired of selfishness and one issue voters who refuse to think past the end of their own noses, let alone about what might be good for others in the long run. We, at least in the United States, are in the worst era of whataboutmeism I’ve seen in a long time. We loathe the notion that our actions have consequences that exceed our tiny self-involved world. We seem to loathe anyone who doesn’t do what we want, when we want it, in the manner we want it, and quickly enough that it doesn’t inconvenience us at all. Waiting, interacting with strangers, and being accountable are rebranded as self-care.
We, as a nation, are headed for destruction unless we hold ourselves and others accountable and force the madness to end.
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