What To Do With the 73 Million? Nothing.

            Seventy-three million people voted to re-elect our last president.  Before it was even clear that he was going to lose, Democrats, progressives, and liberals were stymied about the vote count for the other side.  How on earth could that many people vote for him again?  Maybe the first time, but now? Reasonable questions. Then they moved to inquire about why.  There must be a disconnect between the blue and the red, the urban and the rural, the people who live in reality and those who create their own.  Liberals needed to get to the bottom of it, I assume, because we’re just not used to winning and we forget what to do.

            We can’t demonize them, we can’t denigrate them, we can’t punish them, they say.  We have to open up a dialogue and make sure they’re heard.  I thought the same way.  Then I chewed on it.

            These were 73 million adults. Adults. Every one of them were of voting age who presumably had access to a computer or a TV for the last four years. I think one of the steps to bridging a gap between two groups of people is to respect their decisions.  We respect you made a decision as an adult, and to think that you must be so dumb as to not know what you were doing on Election Day is insulting and inherently disrespectful.

            But you did what you did.  And you fucking lost. 

            The idea that they haven’t been heard is ludicrous.  We hear them every two years when they elect ridiculous people over and over that ignore their needs again and again. They elected 45 once and tried for a repeat term.  That means they agree with him, are just spiteful of the left and want them to lose, or don’t give a shit.  For all three of those reasons, they should lose.  They should lose forever.

            The left isn’t against them, they are opposed to their ideas.  The government isn’t the end all-be all of the American experience.  It’s a system that can be used to help people.  What is your idea to fix problems?  Immigration?  Fuck ‘em.  Education?  Not my kids. Pandemic?  Fuck it. Universal healthcare?  I’m not paying for it.  Black people murdered by cops with no consequences?  Didn’t happen. Unprecedented climate change with catastrophic possibilities? Doesn’t exist. Those aren’t policies.  Those are nothing at all. 

            If I’m wrong, then what are the proposals they bring to the table?  Where are the big plans? We should all know them by heart by now, right?

            Come on.  We’ve been paying attention.  Since 1992 the Republicans have only existed to halt Democrats from instituting policies that will help the average American.  That’s it.  In a nutshell.  Why?  Because they don’t want to pay.  They’re counteroffer?  Nothing.  There was no plan to replace Obamacare. They never gave it a thought.  It’s a generalization, but it rings true every time they research this shit.  Red states are fucked up.  High unemployment, infant mortality, teen pregnancy, drug addiction, high school dropouts and they’d like to think all the crime happens in Chicago but that ain’t the case.

            Every two years with a chance to change it, they ignore it and collectively say “We don’t need your help.  We got it.”

            You don’t got it.

            One thing I’ve learned about therapy and mental illness that on an individual level, you can’t help a person who doesn’t want to be helped.  An addict or a person with depression has to reach out in some way before they can cope or recover.  You can’t ask them to change or shame them into it. Modern day Republicans stand for nothing at all.  They aren’t a political party.  They are something else entirely.  They are a cult or a religion that do not believe in using government.  They want to be isolationists, or separatists, or some unknown quantity. They are a hybrid faction that believe in symbols over substance and have a loose grasp on what is actually happening in the world.

            That is why they should lose.  It’s not that they are evil human beings.  (Although belief above reality makes a lot of them pretty shitty.)  They are people like you and me, who think differently about things.  They shouldn’t lose because they are somehow crappier people. No, they should lose and continue to lose because their ideas suck.  The world they envision sucks.  Ours is better and we should win.  Not them.

            Aren’t they the ones who pipe up about how our culture is soft and we shouldn’t give out participation trophies?  You lost. Suck it up.  No soup for you.  Good day, sir!

This is difficult for my hippie brethren to take because they’re not made of that type of stuff.  We want to reach out because we feel bad about winning.  It’s nice, it’s sweet, and I do believe it’s genuine.  But it’s unnecessary and probably insulting.  Democratic policies are inherently for everyone, including those who vote against them year after year.  If they can actually hold power for a little while and they have a chance to change things, they can let the results speak for themselves.

 Political parties exist because there are different ideas on how to run the ship.  We do want to make it better for everyone on the ship, no matter what they say, but we also know it’s not a good idea to have them at the wheel.