So many a-holes; so little time left

In the wake of what now has become the worst and saddest day in American history, displacing a similar day in 2016, I have had a few hours to reflect on just how we got here.  It’s pretty common among political pundits to talk about how the United States is divided into two camps, and that the division is the worst in history, blah blah blah…

First of all, while it’s really, really bad these days, I’d say the Civil War was probably a more divisive time.  When you endure 700,000 casualties fighting for the future of the country, that gets to the top of the divisive list.  Of course when you consider that 850,000 Americans died in the first two years from COVID-19, largely due to the trump administration’s unwillingness to act (or when they did act, calling for people to drink bleach or take horse dewormer, for chrissakes) maybe I’m wrong about which time was more divisive.

We’ll leave that semantical discussion for another day.  What I really want to address is my view that the country is not actually divided into two camps: trumpistanians and Americans.  After looking at the voting from November 5, 2024, it’s clear to me there are three groups.  And all three of them are made up of their own collection of a-holes.  Yup, all three.

Let me explain.

Group 1: The trumpistanians.  These are the people who you probably would expect me to categorize as a-holes.  They certainly are.  These people have knowingly and willingly supported a man whose character flaws, crimes, frauds, treasonous acts,  racism, and total disregard for the very things this group of a-holes claims to care about.  I guess in 2016 we could forgive them because we just didn’t know how bad trump was going to be.  In 2024, we knew for sure what he was.  Even people in the late 1860’s knew that if you try to overthrow the government, you don’t get to be in the new government.  The 14th Amendment protects us from allowing anyone who engages in insurrection or rebellion against the country from being elected.  I guess we can wonder why trump was even allowed to run for the Presidency in 2024 after clearly having supported insurrection on January 6, 2021.  But the Supreme Court was largely picked by trump, and they are certainly not capable of reigning him in.  

Group 1 a-holes are perfectly comfortable with racism.  They are fine with rape.  They are fine with a conman stealing from the treasury and funding his personal business ventures with our money.  (You know, there’s a constitutional prohibition against that too, but let’s face it, our Constitution ain’t what it used to be.)

With everything these a-holes saw from 2017-2021 and all the things trump has promised since he left office, they STILL voted for him!  World class a-holes, these folks.

Group 2: The single issue voters and those who sat out the election.  These are the people who looked at the two candidates, saw a list of 20 major flaws in 1 of them, and 1 thing they didn’t like about the other and decided that they’ll pick door number 1.  I get that Palestine is a serious issue and the American record in that region is truly abysmal when it comes to human rights.  I also get that our support for the existence of Israel is not going anywhere anytime soon, nor should it.  But if you’re the a-hole who voted for trump, or sat out the election because of that one flaw you saw in Harris…or because you are grossed out by men dressing up as women…or because the idea of a woman in power offends you, you really are an a-hole.  We knew the first group of a-holes would lead us to a darker America. (Ok, I probably need a better adjective there…trumpistanians want nothing to do with anything but a pure white America…I’ll work on that in my edits.) What we didn’t count on was Group 2 a-holes letting them get away with it. 

And if you sat out the election because it was just too much to ask you to vote (especially in these times early voting) when you could clearly see the future of the country was at stake, you’re a special kind of selfish a-hole. You get an extra star.

Finally, Group 3: The rest of us.  Yes, all of us who truly fell for the idea that the United States had the best form of government on earth.  We fell for the promise of the Declaration of Independence that we could someday really be the one place on earth where all men are created equal, despite all the bumps along the way.  We fell for the idea that if we played fair, told the truth, and cared for each other that righteousness would prevail. We helped raise over ONE BILLION DOLLARS to defeat the greatest threat to our country since 1861.  What a bunch of a-holes we are!  Our hope has actually destroyed us.

So as we sit around and analyze what went right if you’re a Group1 a-hole, or what went wrong if you’re a Group 3 a-hole, or even if you’re a Group 2 a-hole who smugly sits around proud of the chaos you brought to our country, just remember if this is ever going to get fixed, you’re going to have to rub elbows with a lot of a-holes.  And it’s going to be a very long four years, with another thirty years or so to recover from what we did to our country.  

Saddest day in our history for sure. A-holes, all.