09.12.16
From Facebook
I’m on Facebook, where I have a few friends. Think low forties. They’re almost all from my tribe, the people who will be voting Democratic in November.
Except now we disagree on doing your duty for civilization and the necessity of winning the war of good vs. evil at all costs. Whereas no one is particularly fond of mulling over in detail the history that’s brought the moment. No, I don’t think George Takei is brilliant for using celebrity to make viral a meme, an easy joke about half the deplorables having to look up the word.
So, from FB, I crib myself, with a few corrections to make it look better:
I’ve been told it’s impossible to make a principled vote for anybody but Hillary Clinton. Even not voting is a signal that one wants Trump.
As for Jill Stein, the media has taken it to her. She went to Russia. She’s kooky. Stein never won anything but some dogcatcher-like position. Which is kinda like me.
Plus there’s the Original Sin of Naderism. You must do everything in your power to keep Trump out of power or be a pariah forever. The situation has been made volcanic.
Tell people long and loud enough they must eat it and do a certain thing or they are “deplorables” who brought about the end of civilization. And then we’ll wait for the roll of the dice on whether Nate Silver’s statistics will deliver us into the land of milk and honey, whether the f— you vote was missed and how much the command messages resonated.
And, you bet, I’m acutely aware that as Escape from WhiteManistan I’ve spilled quite a lot of digital ink on the deplorables. While I’m not about to recant it, I’ve come to think that decades of writing people off have come with a steep cost that’s now due. And it will dog and corrupt the country even more for some time. How long, no one can say.