This is What You Chose
On holding people to account.
Our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors chose this.
They listened to what Trump said, saw what Trump did, and actively chose an open abuser, a liar, and a serial fraud who embraces bullying, sexism, dictatorship and insurrection. Or they passively chose it by not engaging in any way. Now America is dispatching innocent people to die in gulags based on lies, driving away our allies, threatening our neighbors, "deleting" effective social programs, weather prediction, disaster preparation, and law enforcement, and gutting public health and education. We are terminating science, attacking universities, embracing open corruption and constitutional violations, and committing economic suicide. We are giving aid and comfort to dictators, protecting sex-traffickers, cop beaters, insurrectionists, and open racists. We are empowering those who want to end Democracy and restore feudalism, we are sending national guard troops into the streets on claims that protests equal rebellion, threatening to deploy US Marines against American Citizens, and testing the waters for martial law.
Stupidity is erratic and random but sooner or later this will hit each and every one of us right where we live.
We, and they, may lose jobs, may lose social security, or be wiped out in a crypto-crash. Or perhaps we and they will look on in horror as our children get crushed by measles or start emulating the Tate brothers, or more open fascists. However it happens, whenever it comes, the pain will set in.
By the time it does of course, most of the damage will already be done. The savage destruction of our government is proceeding at lighting speed and our elected "representatives" are too addled, too servile, or too self-interested to form a united front. Meanwhile the normies among us keep their heads down and keep telling us to just "wait and see" "don't overreach" and to just go about our business while they shrug and ignore it all. The destruction will come for them, their children, and grandchildren too, and perhaps sooner or later they will change.
When the time comes, when they turn to us to lament our losses or bemoan theirs, we will have a choice. We may be tempted to tell them to go to hell, I certainly am. We may want to remind them that they *were* warned, and then to cast them out of our lives and consign them to their fates. That may be necessary for some, but it is easier said than done. And abandoning people in need, and many will be, means watching them suffer alone and knowing that in their need, they will go deeper into the hole.
Dunking on them is cruel, useless, and counterproductive. So too is cheap grace.
We can't sit silently with the people who chose this, cry together to lament our fates, and then pretend as if they had nothing to do with it, and have no role left to play. If we accept that they "didn't want this" and make no comment then we normalize the idea that they have no responsibility to clean up the mess that they made. What we need at least, is honesty.
"This is what you chose."
Without spitting, without excusing, we have to be clear that they chose this. They chose the lying, the insults, the abuse, the racism and sexism. They saw the insurrection and the self-dealing. They heard the threats, and they chose it all. Whether they chose Trump despite all of this or simply want us to believe that, they chose him and the gang of gelded thugs that surround him. Getting them to admit that, is necessary if they want our help, or our trust. If someone won't admit they “made a bad choice”, what reason do we have to think they won't do it again? What reason do we have to think they really do regret it? If they have stabbed us once, why not a second time?
"Now what are you going to *do* about it?
Honesty is the foundation of accountability, but without action, it doesn't mean a damn thing. Far too many of us get by lamenting politics while sitting on our hands waiting for it all to get better. This self-induced impotence is comfortable, especially when it is "our side" that is screwing us over, but it doesn't help anyone. All it does is free people up to make the same mistake again, and again, and again, and yet wash their hands of the consequences, much like an addict who won’t admit to a problem, or an abuser who wants to escape blame for your broken face.
So after we demand honesty, demand action. Demand that your friends call their representatives to complain about losing their job or their social security. Demand that they write a letter about the job losses. Demand that they show up to a protest, or at least help make someone’s losses whole. Demand that they in fact do something, take any tractable action which shows they care about you, the nation, or at least themselves. Any action, however small, shows they have some interest in the fight, and small things can lead to bigger ones. And, after the horrors that they have unleashed a few phone calls is, quite literally, the least they can do.
After all, this is what they chose.