Is This How Democracy Ends?

I wish I could write something inspiring. I wish I could write something that could bring people together. I wish I could write something that would at least make people stop and think. But I can’t. I am nobody. I’m just a speck on this earth. An organism that just happens to exist to see Democracy die.

I am not brave. I am currently sitting at my house in the suburbs. I just made salmon and asparagus for dinner. I’ve spent four days watching riots and protests on television. While it’s so easy to dismiss it because of rioting and looting that a small fraction is attempting to use to nullify the importance of the protest itself, I sit in air conditioning and watch on cable. I am nobody.

I don’t understand why people feel oppressed. I cannot even pretend to. It’s not fair to people who wake up everyday and wonder about their safety. I don’t get in my car wondering if i’m gonna get pulled over based on the color of my skin. I don’t get side eyed when I walk into a place of business. I don’t deal with any of that, so i’m not going to pretend I understand. But I know the difference between right and wrong. I was taught that racism is wrong. I was taught that treating everyone equally was right. I thought we were turning a corner as a society.

Then in 2016, America decided a racist, misogynistic failed businessman turned game show host should be president. Everyone knew he was a scumbag. Donald Trump was a pile of shit who was going to send race relations back decades. He isn’t a successful businessman, he just portrayed himself as such. So many people said “why not give him a chance?” This is why. Even in most of our wildest dreams, we could have never seen things be as bad as they have become.

I was stupid. Not vote for Trump stupid, mind you. I voted for Hillary. I saw through a lot of the bullshit that a lot of very ignorant people couldn’t see through. I was stupid because I was someone who thought to myself “there is no way we, as a society, will ever let things get that bad. I was wrong, and for that, i’m sorry. I’m not sure what else I could have done. I live in a town that voted for Hillary, in a state that voted for Hillary.

Lord knows I wasn’t going to change minds. I’m far too timid to do it. Half a dozen times a day, I write then delete a post on Facebook wanting to tell Trump supporters how I really feel. But I always delete it, going for some kind of cheap joke instead. I’m too afraid to take on my political leanings and defend them. If you want that, check out Matt Drufke or Jeremy Daniel, two people who genuinely stand for what they believe in. This goes back to me as an unpopular kid growing up, afraid to lose the few friends I had, and always chasing popularity, trying to use humor to get there.

Writing this, I feel stupid, because i’ve made this about myself, and that is not productive.

Today, America watched as Donald Trump said he was an ally of non-violent protesting. As he said that, Washington DC and Military Police attacked a non-violent protest. Why did that happen? Because Trump wanted to get a photo-op outside of a church, and the protesters were in his way. This is in no way an exaggeration. During the press conference, Trump also said that he would use military force to get rid of protesters. Let that sink in for a moment. Trump is calling in the military to wage war against the American people. Donald Trump is trying to kill democracy. He is already throwing blood in the waters so the media will do his bidding by saying that Mail in Ballots will lead to voter irregularity. He has said constantly that he might not leave the office if he loses the election. He will claim that the democrats cheated the election. He will claim that China helped interfere in the election.

And a large portion of American society will let it happen. The white people who go home at night dreaming of being able to take up arms against an over-reaching military….no wait, sorry. Wrong thing. They would only do that if a black man was president. They would never take up arms against a Donald Trump lead Army. Remember that. You already knew that these militia psychos were racist, but they also hid behind the idea that they did what they did to stop a corrupt and unjust government from overreaching their grasp. Well, Donald Trump isn’t just overreaching, he is inventing new rules he gets to apply on the fly. That is tyranny, the exact tyranny you all claim to stand against. But you won’t rise up. We know that. Those rules only applied when Barrack Obama was president.

We are standing at a critical juncture in american history. On one side is a racist, orange sociopath. The definition of a kid who never got the shit kicked out of him growing up, and it shows. On the other side are those standing on what should be considered the right side of history. Those standing for equality. Standing for change. Standing for society as a whole. We cannot let Tulsa 1921 happen again. We cannot let Birmingham in the 50’s happen again. We cannot let the riots of 1968 happen again. We cannot let LA in 92 happen again. We have to stand up for our brethren. Stand up for our fellow human beings.

I might be nobody. Maybe my words will mean nothing. More likely than anything, when I post this to Facebook, people in my mentions who voted for Trump but flat out refuse to admit it will use a bunch of words to try to make themselves sound less racist while still being on the side of a man who called Colin Kaepernick a “son of a bitch” for peacefully protesting, but said there were a lot of good nazi’s out there.

Do you want to stand with that? Stand with the Ku Klux Klan? Stand with Nazis? Stand with White Supremacists? Trump very obviously supports those groups because those are the groups that vote for him. That’s who you stand for. You don’t get the ability to pretend you aren’t racist while openly supporting the man who is dragging America back into segregation. It’s the same thing with the bible. You don’t get to believe that god hates homosexuality while also saying that some asshole putting two of every animal on a boat is just a story. Nah, you get all of it.

And if you think it isn’t fair that you are being pigeonholed and stereotyped, then congratulations. Now you know what it feels like to be a minority in America.