So, the election happened, and life is kinda moving forward.
At least, it’s moving forward for most people; there are a few million folks out there, frantically digging escape tunnels and stocking fallout shelters, because, you know, Orange Man Cometh and all that.
This display of (tongue-in-cheek) hyperbole is an example of and a reply to the idiocy that not only has been spewed by people, including professionals like the news media, business moguls and the like, that a vote for Trump was a vote for fascism, authoritarianism, Christian hegemony, oligarchy and Putin.
Throughout this election cycle (although it could credibly be said that for the last eight years) there has been a wide variety of accusation and suppositions about what a Trump re-presidency would look like. All of it was bad, of course.
Even though the Democrats’ emergency backup candidate Kamala Harris has no track record to speak of and has spent the last four years as vice president with zero accomplishments, she was the one to unite and fix the country above a man who actually had the job and did well at it.
We didn’t talk about that, though. We talked about how Trump was Hitler — yes, that term was used specifically and intentionally — and would reshape the country in a negative manner. We talked about (h/t Sunny Hostin of that execrable television program “The View”) about how children today have less rights than the children of yore (meaning 20 years ago).
We talked about the injustice of holding lawbreakers to the letter of the law by planning mass deportations. We talked about how cozy Trump was with the world’s villains. We besmirched the man in every aspect of his personal and professional life, and even tried numerous times to have criminal and civil courts end the man’s political career.
Now that he’s won, though, has the rampaging condemnations and allegations stopped? Nope. Not even a little.
Trump is said to have been creating interment camps, has been planning to shake down all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, as well as all of the other U.S. protectorates, to forcibly stop abortions through a nationwide ban, or using the Uno Reverse Card and using lawfare on his political enemies. There’s more, but you get the gist.
Sadly, pretty much all the national media outlets perpetuated this on the public (not ironically, the current administration was looking, with the media cheering it on, to stifle “misinformation”).
So with the win, has the doom crying stopped? Nope. It’s now being take as truth, and supposedly professional people are both telling the president-elect how to handle his presidency to suit their needs while telling their followers how to navigate these uncertain times by creating a secret savings account, preparing places to hide, renewing passports, etc.
Couple of things jump out here, and I’m sure everyone realizes it: the media has long been marginalized and reduced to a group of talking heads that simply read press releases and initiate “journalism” to help take down the boogeyman du jour; and that for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about “muh democracy,” those wearing metaphorical hair shirts (actually brown shirts) forget that in our “democratic” constitutional republic, Trump cannot suspend the Constitution, cannot take over the government like a dictator, and will only be in office 4 years.
Whining and crying about the travails of a conservative government while maintaining separatist viewpoints is not going to help anyone. The vote is in; let’s all — everyone of every stripe — work together to make this great nation even greater.
We can accomplish so much more united, and as Abraham Lincoln said (he was quoting scripture, by the way), a house divided cannot stand.
Tony Farkas is editor of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He wirites opinion articles and his views do not necessarily reflect those of this newspaper. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
