Thanks for Expressing What I Feel

I am very amused by the outrageousness of it all.

But mostly I am disgusted, furious, disappointed, and scared.  

It seems many people didn't notice this, but scientists have been predicting a scary worldwide pandemic for a long time.

What I didn't see predicted is that in the midst of a pandemic, the main villain wouldn't be the virus or bacteria. It would be the President of the United States AND...all his sycophants. 

Crazy stuff.  

Anyway....I haven't been blogging a lot lately, because I'm feeling more comfort expressing myself on Twitter.

When I think of blogging, it's like I feel either speechless or that I'll have way too much to say.

I'm going to try to shut up before the latter happens.

What I wanted to really do in this post is share two things.

First is this monologue by Stephen Colbert done on the evening of November 5.  I think it expresses very well what I'm feeling and probably what 73,817,490+ other Americans are feeling. 

Second, is a Washington Post editorial by Jennifer Rubin entitled Time to Confront the Right Wing Myth Makers.   

Unfortunately, The Washington Post has a paywall.

I wish they'd do like some news outlets do and give you a few free articles/editorials a month.  To be fair, though, The Washington Post does provide some election and Coronavirus coverage for free. But Jennifer's Rubin's editorial isn't included in that.

Anyway...maybe I'll just quote some of my favorite passages from the editorial.  

So, here we go.....

1. The Greatest Challenge to our democracy is not that we hold deeply polarized beliefs, but that one party refuses to operate in a fact-based world that might challenge its beliefs.

2. Acela-Corridor conservatives, many of whom have benefited from "elite" or Ivy League educations and live happily with the benefits of blue America, love nothing more than to tell red America that city dwellers look down on them.

I think the sentence could have done without the hyperbole, but I agree with what she's saying.

Oh and I had to Google Acela-Corridor.  It has something to do with trains.

3. Many in the right-wing media bubble are marooned in a weird time warp in which the "other side" is some Cold War era Marxist caricature. But there is also a jaw-dropping, willful blindness about U.S history and race that allows Trumpian media personalities to exempt anyone from the charges of white supremacy unless they don a robe and hood.  

It is HARD having conversations with family and friends who have very different views than you.  It's hard talking about guns, abortion, healthcare, LGBTQ+ rights, racism, healthcare, the economy, etc.

But it becomes close to impossible when one side scoffs at fact checking websites and thinks that any news disagreeing with their viewpoint is part of a conspiracy and/or fake news. 

It's hard to have discussions with people who think the mainstream news is consistently unreliable but that Donald Trump's Tweets can be taken as gospel.

It's close to impossible to have discussions with people who believe it's insulting to suggest that the far-right has connections to white supremacy but that it's perfectly okay to suggest Democrats have a proclivity to sex-trafficking.  

Anyway....I hope the United States survives all of this.

Well...and I want to end this post with an extra thank you to some people who are NOT American. 

I want to thank all the people outside the United States (along with foreigners inside the United States) who responded with sympathy, love, and concern for the horrible situation we are in. Thank you for understanding that we are not one giant red mass of Trump supporters. And thanks for for passionately joining in on our big blue wave.  I send all of you huge social distanced hugs, kisses, and handshakes.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online