I’m having a déjà
vu moment.
About two years
ago, I was going through the first of my three bouts of unemployment in the
last three years (due to the project-based nature of my industry) and I
embarked on a series of media appearances on behalf of extending unemployment
insurance. I appeared on CNN, The CBS Evening News, and WNYC (among other places) pleading my case and,
by extension, the case of millions of Americans like myself. I wrote to John
Boehner and Mitch McConnell (twice) and called their offices, and I tweeted
about 5,000 tweets in support of extending unemployment insurance. Despite my
best efforts (and those of others), Congress voted against extending
unemployment insurance five times.
Now I feel like
I’m going through the same thing with the Bernie Sanders campaign.
I produced two
benefits for his campaign, I’ve blogged about his candidacy and
have tweeted every supportive article about Sanders I’ve read.
Now I’m watching
as Democrats fail to show up to vote in primaries, and as so-called
progressives like Bill Maher and the media in general refer to Hillary Clinton
as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
What happened to
our outrage?
Meanwhile, over
on the Republican side, the three-ring circus that is Trump, Cruz and Rubio
attack each other like rabid dogs. The bully governor of New Jersey, Chris
Christie, has endorsed that other bully from New York, Donald Trump. And Trump
continues to insult every demographic in America while the media sits back and
salivates at their ratings.
I’ve basically
resigned myself to either the current status quo if Clinton wins (incremental
change at best, Republican obstruction at worst) or complete Armageddon if
Trump wins (war with Syria and/or Russia, climate catastrophe, complete
deregulation of corporations).
It’s hard to feel
sorry for the establishment Republicans who created this mess. It’s just the
end result of 35 years of trickle-down economics, starting with Reagan, so that
now we have a situation where the top 1% is doing tremendously well and
everyone else is at each others’ throats and blaming whichever scapegoat is
most convenient (Muslims, Mexicans—take your pick).
This is what
happens when wealth and power become so concentrated in the hands of a few: the
rest of us have to just sit back and hope for the best.
Meanwhile, the
latest news is that the death rate among white people is going up, particularly those without a college degree.1
They’re literally killing themselves with drugs and alcohol because they can’t
find a job. (Of course, blacks and Hispanics are doing even worse than white people
economically, but that’s been going on for so long it barely raises an eyebrow
anymore.)
I give up.
Even Bill Maher
said he was “speechless” after the last Republican debate. Donald Trump isn't
funny anymore. It’s worse than America being the world’s laughing stock.
America is about to become an even more dangerous place than it already is.
We’re already a threat to ourselves (we have the highest rate of gun violence
in the civilized world and we’re the only civilized country without universal health care). Now we’re about to become an even bigger threat to the rest of the
world, as well.
So keep watching
the Kardashians, America, and don’t forget to watch the Oscars tomorrow night.
Because if Donald
Trump gets elected president of the United States, it’s going to be lights out
for all of us.
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