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For several months leading up to the election, activist groups and media outlets predicted the now-soon-to-be-x-president would throw a tantrum if he didn’t win re-election. Community groups put out newsletters and held virtual trainings on how to prepare to mobilize against a tantrum-induced power-grab. Susan Page even asked about it as the second to last question of the vice presidential debate. We all know what happened next. Election night arrived. Just as predicted, several states were not able to count all their ballots because of the millions of mail-in ballots cast this year due to Covid. But one particular candidate declared themselves the winner anyway. Just as predicted. He also demanded states stop counting the votes while he was up in numbers. Just as predicted. We all know what happened after that. Demonstrations and marches occurred all over the country demanding that every vote is counted (or that the counting stop). Just as predicted. Fortunately, the judicial system required evidence and the Trump campaign and Republican ally lawsuits were rejected as baseless. Our electoral system churned on, and votes continued to be counted. A week later it became clear that Biden won the election. And we all know what has been happening since. A certain someone is refusing to accept the result. Just as predicted. And that certain someone is insisting the current reality is an impossibility. Just as predicted. But a collective shift has begun throughout the country and around the world. It appears the writing is finally on the wall. Once the election results were announced, media outlets suddenly began dealing with the Gaslighter-in-Chief in a less deferential manner. Announcing his statements have no basis in fact in the same breath the comments are reported. Abruptly calling out falsehoods. And offering colorfully articulated admonitions on his absurd behavior. Suddenly, a whole lot of people seem to be done pandering to his childish and incendiary antics. It's entertaining. It’s affirming. And it’s about time. Where was all this collective call-out during the last four years? The mainstream media should have been aggressively lie-identifying since day one of this horror show of an administration. Some organizations did, but most did not. Most media outlets bestowed upon the Whiner-in-Chief the respect appropriate for the President of the United States. Why? Because we have collectively decided the human who wins that title also gets to wield an awful lot of power along with it. We have also collectively decided all that power entitles that human to a certain level of deference, regardless of individual demeanor. It’s clear to me that was a mistake. And now the writing on the wall seems to be the permission slip everyone was waiting for to offer him a reduced volume of respect closer to what he has earned. It turns out you can only read the writing on the wall if you understand the language it's written in. Listening to the most ardent insisters of election shenanigans all I hear is: "there is no way Trump lost." According to these folks, it is impossible that the 2020 presidential election could conclude in any way other than a second term for the incumbent. There is no arguing with that mindset. Facts won’t cut it. There is an insurmountable pile of evidence that Biden won the election and zero evidence of election malfeasance depriving Trump of a second term. Before all those disbelieving humans can accept the results, they have to accept that it was always a possibility for him to lose. They have to set all the conspiracy theories aside before they can see: he simply did not win. It might take a while for those folks to come around. Some or all of them may never make it back to reality. The good news is that the rest of us don’t have to wait for them to catch up before we press-on with the important work of making the world a better place. That is one of the great fallacies of the current democratic party: I don't need the President to unite the whole country before we can get to work making progress. I need elected officials to get things done and solve some of the massive looming societal problems like poverty and climate change. This week a summit was held on making the shipping industry greener and Madeleine Rose from campaign group Pacific Environment poignantly said “We remind countries today that nature does not negotiate; that climate delay is now climate denial; and that catastrophic climate change is already here.” We don't have time to wait for everyone to get on-board. We must make some forward-thinking systemic changes immediately. We can bring the bigots and deniers into the fold once everyone is fed and clothed and sheltered and given access to education and health care. That's the writing on the wall. Our society cannot continue to operate in the ways it currently functions. The world cannot continue to operate the way it currently functions. The climate has changed and is continuing to change. Women want to be treated like human beings instead of objects. Marginalized folks want to be seen, acknowledged, and accepted as part of us. Oppressed people want the knees off their necks. There are uprisings everywhere demanding change in all these areas. I just hope enough humans in power are paying attention. I hope they can see the wall and read what we are writing on it, before it’s too late. Information and Inspiration
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AuthorJaydra is a human in-process, working to make the world a better place. Sharing thoughts, feelings, and observations about the human experience. Archives
March 2024
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