I just need to vent a little bit.
I usually get on here and try to put together some clever analogies and break down complex issues into easy-to-digest articles, and I haven’t given up on that.
I’m just... exhausted.
We are facing multiple threats to our democracy here in America, possibly abroad too, but it feels like so much more here it’s insane.
And much of the imminent danger is coming from our own President.
I can hear you MAGA fuckers howling about TDS, and I don’t give a shit. You are a big part of the problem, so I’m going to give it to you.
DEFIANT Dispatches is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Your idiotic answers to any time we mention a stupid thing trump does is to accuse us of having TDS.
US: trump fell asleep in a major meeting in the Oval Office
MAGA: You have TDS
US: trump started a war in Iran, despite promising no new wars
MAGA: You have TDS
US: trump just insulted the Prime Minister of Japan
MAGA: You have TDS
US: trump just used dignified transfer photos for fundraising emails
MAGA: You have TDS
... and on and on it goes. You’ve replaced rational thinking with stupid catch phrases, like “the left can’t meme” or “go woke go broke.”
This tired reliance on the adolescent “own the libs” energy is exhausting, mainly because it’s coming from a lot of people whose adolescent kids are already grown, but you’re carrying on like THEY do.
You love trump because he is his absolute worst self: he disrespects people without apologizing, he’s greedy and selfish, he’s corrupt, he lies like there is no tomorrow, and you mainly love him because these things drive us crazy.
But put the shoe on your own fucking feet: What if Gavin Newsom is elected President?
What if Gavin Newsom is President, and he decides to go Blue MAGA? So, by going Blue MAGA, I mean he would immediately embark on an absurd retribution tour, looking for some payback from everyone who dissed him. Lawsuits and prosecutions galore. Petulant and spiteful, but only to Republicans.
He would announce that he’s going to penalize a bunch of red states ONLY. He would also announce that he’s changing the Gulf of Mexico (we are NEVER calling it the Gulf of America, you dummies) to the Gulf of Newsom.
During every single speech, he would be sure to mention trump’s name at least 50 times, and always finding new and creative ways to remind everyone how horrible and racist he was, yeah, we know how much you HATE being called racist, it’s like the “n” word for you.
He would declare that he’s going to erect statues of himself instead of your Confederate heroes, he’s going to rename schools and hospitals after himself. He would have an executive order making every Tuesday “Transgender Tuesday.”
He would hold press conferences and talk about how trump started 9 wars as President, but he Newsom had just ended all of them with a phone call... nobody thought it could be done, he said.
He would have his likeness put on the 5 dollar bill, replacing Lincoln. And then he’d rip down trump’s colossal new ballroom, and replace it with an even BIGGER building called “The Obama Monument,” and pass a law that it can NEVER be changed or knocked down.
And then he’d have his billionaire friends do a hostile takeover of Fox News, and they would have Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and the rest teaching woke ideology.
And you know, as ridiculous as those things sound (and they DO sound ridiculous), and as much as I know they are wrong, I kinda feel like I want some payback, to be perfectly honest.
I know it’s irrational. I know it will only succeed in driving the two sides further apart. I’m not defending how I feel, because I don’t need to. I just know that, after just now watching a replay of trump calling Democrats “sick people” and other divisive comments, I just want YOU to see how it feels.
And I would like you to experience it for 4 to 8 straight years, or for however long it would take your stubborn, self-centered asses to see “Ohhhh, THAT’S how it felt to THEM.” Yep.
I guarantee you, if Gavin Newsom did even ONE of those things, you MAGAs would lose your fucking minds and start screeching about how you need to take your country back.
But Donald trump is already doing most or all of those things, just opposite, and y’all are titillated because none of it makes any sense, it’s wrong, but it irritates US.
You guys imagine yourselves as the stereotypical cool, leather-jacket wearing hipsters, flipping the bird to us uptight boomers and blue-haired hippies, right?
But you’re not hip or cool. Many of you have lived with resentment your whole lives, resentment of the changing world just passing you by, while you’re stuck in your small, unchanging town with your small mind and intolerant attitude.
You love trump deporting all “those” people, even though you know you don’t want to do THEIR jobs, but you hate how their super hard-working ethic makes YOU feel like a lazy slacker. How dare those “illegals” bust their asses and get ahead before you?
And they came here and started a business, while you’re on a couch in your underwear, picking Cheese Doodle crumbs off your chest, wondering where it all went wrong as you watch Fox News rant about the very same thing.
You hate how Liberals act all high-and-mighty, with their defense of the less fortunate, their use of good grammar and hygiene, with their insistence on treating people with respect the way THEY want to be treated, not the way YOU prefer to treat them.
Every progressive, liberal or Democrat to you has like 17 ear and nose piercings with blue hair and pronouns, and walks around with books on Karl Marx and loves to burn the flag or watch a trans kid get surgically changed from a boy to a girl during their lunch break at school, against their parents’ wishes, of course.
You think we hate America, just because we have a problem with trump trying to literally steal the midterm elections and every election after that with his SAVE America voter suppression act.
You think we are less patriotic because we believe that when a President promises to lower prices, and release the Epstein files and ensure that rich and powerful pedophiles are held accountable, that he should keep his promises.
You think we don’t love our country because we hate how trump would rather give trillions to the wealthiest people in America instead of a few billion in extended healthcare subsidies so millions of Americans don’t die.
But you would think wrong.
We LOVE America, but we hate what trump is doing to it, and we hate that you are fine with him burning it all down and stuffing his and his pals’ pockets to overflowing just because Hunter Biden sold a painting for a million dollars, and every other whataboutism you can muster.
We love America so much that we care enough to criticize when we see shit that isn’t working properly, when we see injustice, like a masked goon wrongfully shooting someone in the face.
FUN FACT: When Obama was President, there were many, many protesters from the Tea Party yelling about taking their country back, but none of them were shot in the face.
We love America so much, we believe that cabinet members should actually be qualified for their position, not just have good TV hair and be able to project a pseudo macho, chest-beating persona for an audience of one.
I truly DO give a shit that our country is heading in the wrong direction, and the guy who’s supposed to be steering is literally only doing things to make himself wealthy.
And I’m pissed because SO many MAGA still support him, even as gas approaches $4 dollars per gallon because of his war of choice and that affects ALL of us.
I’m pissed because so many MAGA are impressed or amused by his antics, while there really is nothing to laugh about during these serious times.
I don’t expect anything to come of this.
No mass MAGA revelation. No sudden moment of clarity where you all wake up and say, “Oh man, Brooklyn Dad, I get it now. We were being juvenile assholes, laughing while the country burned because it made you mad.”
That’s not going to happen.
But here’s what I do know.
At some point, this all catches up.
Reality always does.
The prices you’re paying.
The rights being stripped away.
The chaos you keep cheering for because you think it only hurts us.
It doesn’t.
It hurts all of us.
That’s the part you still refuse to understand.
We’re in the same boat.
And you’re still drilling holes in the bottom of it.
Not because you don’t know better.
But because somewhere along the way, “owning the libs” became more important to you than staying afloat.
And yeah, I’m pissed.
But more than that?
I’m tired of watching people cheer for their own downfall just because they think it makes someone else miserable first.
If this piece hit you, if you’ve been feeling this same frustration building and needed someone to say it out loud, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
I’m here every week, breaking this stuff down, calling it out, and saying the things a lot of people are thinking but don’t always put into words.
Your support keeps this going.
When did you first realize this wasn’t just politics anymore, but something deeper?
Do you think any of this actually gets through, or are people too far gone at this point?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.