Vote him out!

On By EstherIn At the movies, In the news

I probably shouldn’t post this – this is not a political blog after all and I am not an American (nor would I ever wish to be) – but oh my goodness, I can’t keep quiet! What is happening in the US affects the world and it affects me and I just need to let it out. So, look away now if you are sick of (left wing) politics and here goes…

From my perspective the US is completely falling apart under the current ‘leadership’ and my heart breaks. It’s one drama after the other coming from the US. This past week alone it’s been voter suppression, lying speeches at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that the Trump base will just lap up as truth and now the shooting of Jacob Blake and the inadequate response to that (#BlackLivesMatter people!)… I just can’t handle it anymore.

Here at home, we already call that man in the White House a wannabe dictator and if that man isn’t checked or, best yet, thrown out (how hasn’t that happened yet?!?), he will turn into one and that will be the end of US democracy. It is so painful to watch what has become of a country that the world, and my kids, used to look up to; the admiration has gone, my kids are disillusioned and stunned at the lies and the nationalist arrogance on display. We now feel disbelief and horror when we look at the US and the way in which this president and his cronies can not show any adequate leadership and, worst of all, are unable to show human decency. Well, First Lady Melania tried in her RNC speech, but her words sounded completely hollow, knowing to what a diseased administration she belongs.

I came across this the other evening: Charlie Chaplin in 1940 from the movie The Great Dictator and his attack on Hitler and Nazism. For a while there, after the Second World War, it seemed like we as a Western society were working towards the ideals he mentioned but we seem to be sliding away again…

It’s time that man in the White House is voted out with a very clear majority in November… I fear it won’t happen (I just can’t understand that Trump still has an over 40% approval rating!) but I so very fervently hope it will. The world, and my family, will be grateful.

29 thoughts on “Vote him out!”

  1. “The Great Dictator” is a good comparison, Esther. Yes, I have learned a lot about my fellow citizens over the past few years. The only explanation I can find is that many of them care more about maintaining White Christian privilege than about maintaining democracy. It’s a very sad realization indeed. Some are his dupes, and some are cynical opportunists. Right now the polls do not predict a victory for Trump, but I’m not taking anything for granted. We have to make a blue tsunami that washes him and his whole sycophantic party out of the halls of government.

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    1. The polls also predicted a win for Hillary at this stage and look what happened there when she won the popular vote but lost the presidency, so I am still very scared for a repeat of something like that. I will only dare be hopeful after November 3rd when Biden and Harris will hopefully win by a landslide. I’m keeping everything crossed for your country, Linnet!

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      1. Servetus

        The current forecast is pretty unrosy in that regard — given current polling, Trump doesn’t even have to win all the swing states he won last time to win the electoral college. Nate Silver is giving him a 30% chance of winning at this point — which is actually a slightly better chance than he was giving him in 2016.

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  2. Servetus

    “The cruelty is the point”, as a rather notorious editorial pointed out almost two years ago now.

    I don’t recognize the US either, and now that BLM is focused on my state, I’m frazzled to the point that I can’t concentrate on work (well, it doesn’t help that I taught American government this last term). All the chickens are coming home to roost — racial segregation and discrimination, overmilitarized police, guns in the hands of people who should never have a firearm, a public that doesn’t understand either the US Constitution or what politics is supposed to be doing, an insanely dangerous level of political opportunism among state and local politicians, and a world that can react instantly and disastrously events due to social media. I don’t think the democratic state is up to coping with this, I really don’t. I felt so much despair yesterday, as the details about Kyle Rittenhouse came out.

    We ordered absentee ballots as soon as the previous election was over, and I will hand carry them to the elections office, but even I (staunch centrist that I am) am starting to wonder about the conspiracy theories. The Trump campaign also sent us an application for an absentee ballot, but fascinatingly, the address to which the request was to be sent was incorrect. We have a fascist dictator in control, supported by an enabling party-in-government that seems to see no difficulty with what he (and they) have been doing for the last three years. And the thing is that even if Trump were to lose this election, he would do everything he could to harm the US in the months between the election and the inauguration of his successor. (I’m not being overly pessimistic there; we watched the same thing happen in Wisconsin — the population elected in a slate of Democratic executives, and the gerrymandered GOP legislature did everything they could to slice up the state Constitution).

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    1. I was actually thinking of you when I heard about all this happening in your state of Wisconsin. I can understand you feeling frazzled right now!
      Trump is already casting doubt so that he can question the election result and if he should lose, I so wonder if he’ll transfer his power peacefully. This is all very scary.

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          1. Servetus

            To me it comes down to people being very focused on the surface of things because they’ve told themselves the deeper level doesn’t matter. Like saying that much of what Trump says is a joke, and then saying, well, if you don’t like it don’t vote for him. A sort of refusal to be bothered except by things that inconvenience them personally. The problem with cities being boarded up isn’t that the cities provide a livelihood for tens of thousands of people, it’s that she personally can’t go and see the shows. Well, the theaters aren’t closed because of political protests. It just enrages me that people can’t think through their own prejudices.

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  4. I share all of your thoughts and fears, Esther. November can’t come fast enough for me, even though I don’t even have any say in the US elections. But for me it is actually a time that I look forward to with hope. I really really hope that the majority of Americans will make the right decision. Otherwise I see a very bleak future – for all of us.

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  5. I’m with you Esther and all. One of the things i hate most about Trump is how easy it is to become immune to the atrocious things he says and does, because of the frequency, when he should be challenged every single time.

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    2. Jane many people especially White people live in a bubble immunizing themselves from inequality and suppression so they think whatever to all this rage and violence going on which means they are part of the problem

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  6. The fear I have is that he won leave if he is voted out of office. I keep reassuring my dad that he had to leave that there is a system in place here that prevents dictatorships from happening but like at the last three plus years
    He should have been impeached in 2017
    God knows what other backhanded desks he’s been conniving that the public doesn’t know about
    It’s depressing,demoralizing and disturbing

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    2. I too wonder what else will be revealed after he leaves office and what mess he will leave. I thought George W. Bush was as low as it could go but this is even worse as it all feels so unhinged, which to me is terrifying. Fingers crossed that if he loses he will leave peacefully. Like you I too am scared he won’t.

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      1. Yeah W was incompetent and led US into an invasion of a country that did nothing to the US to provoke an attack. But compared to Trump clown W is a pussy cat. I’m very anxious that Biden is gonna screw this up line Hillary did and not strategically attack Trump. It’s not the base that needs persuasion it’s all the disenfranchised now who voted for Trump in 2016 the ones Hillary took for granted
        US is imploding hemorrhaging from all crevices now just scary Esther very scary

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