The Undertow of Stupid

Over the last month, I've had to deal with strange behavior emitting from those around me.  The behavior manifests itself in the following two ways:

1) Irrational anger
2) A sense of hopelessness

My main experience with the irrational anger came from my wife.  For the last few weeks, I could tell something was bugging her, in the way only a 25 year partner can look at a person and see something isn't right.  I'd ask about it and she'd say "it's nothing."  It was something, and I could tell my wife was only getting angrier.  Yes it did cross my mind a few times it might just be her being married to me.

Finally, after a wildly foolish argument, I made her try to put her finger on what was going on.  My wife is not like me, a person who soaks up the news for a good chunk of the day.  She gets her news daily, but in more reasonable bite sized morsels.  She listens and reads good journalism, not Fox News and anything further and gleefully right of them.  She's smart (smarter than me) and well informed.  She knew the details of the last few scandals in the Trump Administration; the fumbling of our country's trade policy, the embracing and encouragement of racism, the horrors at Trump's border concentration camps, the Kavanaugh scandal, the Mueller Report.  She's watched as scandal after scandal has rocked this White House, and she keeps asking the logical educated question, "Why hasn't Trump been removed from office?"

It's a very legitimate question.  The same politicians who impeached Clinton over lying about an extra marital affair and who conducted 8 Benghazi investigations were now intentionally placing their heads in the sand, ignoring behavior which at any other point in our country's history would've led to the removal of the President.  Instead, it's almost as if a slide whistle sound effect is all that happens and we move onto the next scandal.

For me, I didn't sleep a wink the night Trump was elected.  I stayed up staring at the ceiling asking over and over "what have these idiots done?"  And not just the idiots who voted for Trump.  I was also referring to the idiots who were convinced their vote didn't matter, that Trump and Hillary Clinton would be the same.  Those idiots sat out the election with smugness.  The one hundred and ten million registered voters who didn't vote are just as much to blame for Trump as the most rabid redneck screaming "MAGA!"  My wife on the other had was much more of a slow burn.  She was sad after Election Night 2016, but she shrugged her shoulders and hoped for the best.  I knew where Trump would end up, but she has watched as bad thing after bad thing has happened, with no repercussions for Trump's bad behavior.

Now we have Trump himself admitting quid pro quo with Ukraine; holding up approved military aid in a blackmail attempt to get the Ukraine to manufacture political dirt against his primary political rival heading into 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden. Not only has Trump admitted to it, the 'transcript' of the phone call he made to the Ukrainians admitted it, his Chief of Staff admitted it on camera, a whistleblower filed a formal complaint over the disgusting behavior, and pretty much every witness who has testified about the call has backed up the allegation.  Trump was selling access to US taxpayer dollars in return for dirt on Biden.

Most reasonable people (and patriotic Americans) would've said "that's it," but not Trump fans.  This seems to be the origins of the irrational anger.  A few weeks back, Trump rallied in Minneapolis, and with him came the undertow of stupid who show up at all of his events.  Although there were at least as many protestors outside of Target Center and were inside, it was shocking to see the Trump people, people who look at this country, and the man in charge of it, and are viewing a different reality.  They only see the unicorns and rainbows version of Trump.

This is what's causing the irrational anger in my wife and others.  People are frustrated at how such bad leadership and bad behavior could go on not only unchecked, but cheerfully encouraged.  The anger is realizing we live in a country where a shocking amount of people are willfully and intentionally ignorant (both politician and voter), refusing to stop, or even acknowledge, the train wreck happening in front of us all.

Not only are these purposeful imbeciles causing educated and intelligent people to get upset, they're also the source of the second behavior I've noticed lately, hopelessness.

It's hard when you see someone you respect and look up to breakdown and start making irrational statements.  Such was the case when a friend of mine, out of the blue, suddenly said "What's the point?  Trump is going to win next year and Republicans will win control of everything.  Why should we even try?"

This was not the first time I've heard this mentality.  I've gotten it on my radio show and on my social media pages.  I've had friends at get-togethers make similar comments.  I've no idea where it's coming from.  I wonder if this is some sort of new social media influence campaign, similar to the 2016 campaign which got Democrats screaming of how Hillary Clinton would be no better than Trump; talking points which originated in Russia.

I can understand where the hopelessness comes from.  After unforgivable Trump scandal after unforgivable Trump scandal, to see the Republican Party, in the face of undeniable evidence of wrongdoing, do nothing (EIGHT Benghazi investigations!), and to see people who's lives are FAR worse off than they were in 2016 continue to praise Trump for hurting them (thank you sir, may I have another!), the feeling of dread is understandable.  But as hopeless as it might seem, the fight is NOT over!  This is not something we should use to justify the end of Democracy.

Let me help by putting a few things in perspective.

The steering wheel driving the modern Republican Party down the road is thus:  they HATE Democrats more than they love their religion, their kids, their jobs, their health and their country.  I've often said a Republican could walk into their bedroom and find Trump sleeping with their spouse and the first words out of their mouth would be "Damn Democrats."  These people are pathological in their insistence the Democrats can never be right about anything, hence they have adopted a purposeful ignorance which allows them to re-write reality to fit their narrative.  They will never admit they were wrong.  THEY'RE NOT GOING TO CHANGE, SO STOP EXPECTING THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING!

Whether or not this country survives past 2020 comes down to one specific thing, the 110 million registered voters who did not vote in 2016.  The vast majority of those voters are Democrats.  The Republicans victory model is dependent on those people staying at home.  If you get 30 million of those people to the polls, especially in the states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada, everything changes overnight.  30 million more people voting would get the Democrats a veto proof majority in the House, and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.  And of course the White House, most state Governorships and most state legislatures.  GET REGISTERED TO VOTE!  MAKE SURE EVERYONE YOU KNOW IS REGISTERED TO VOTE! THEN COMMIT TO A GET OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN IN YOUR COMMUNITY!  COMMIT TO MAKING SURE AS MANY REGISTERED VOTERS AS POSSIBLE VOTE IN 2020!!!

Last night, 25 minutes after the cable news networks said Republican Matt Bevin lost the Kentucky Governor's race by over 5000 votes, a delusional nut bag appointee of his, Alyssa Dara McDowell went up on the stage at the Bevin headquarters and with no proof whatsoever announced Bevin had actually won the election.  She then pranced back and forth on the stage as people frantically checked their phones for news of the reversal. She was eventually pulled off the stage as the crowd booed her.

This is what we're dealing with.  Ignore them. They're not worth your time or energy, and if you start getting irrationally angry, or if you start feeling hopeless, you're allowing the undertow of stupid to drag you down.

Let's go win in 2020!