Article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.
United States — Has America gone mad? Judging by the altogether hypocritical response to Donald Trump winning the election, the answer is inarguably Yes — and it needs to be addressed, post haste.
Fury that the nation elected a snidely racist, misogynist, bombast might not be misdirected — indeed, it’s understandable. But flooding the streets to burn public and private property, vandalize the same, and simultaneously bombard social media with vociferous, naked summons to assassinate an elected president — by unabashed gun-control liberals, no less — take hypocrisy to a whole other level.
well the riots have already begun on my campus they’re all chanting “fuck Donald Trump” pic.twitter.com/QyaXmTUX9X
— Joanna (@JoannaStilinski) November 9, 2016
Liberal America, you need to come to terms with the bed you’ve made — including the election to president of a gauche, cocksure misanthrope with zero qualifications for office other than his not being Hillary Clinton.
Viewing from a computer screen the sheer gall of hypocrites storming cities nationwide because their team didn’t win, is a mind-numbing mental battle between comedy and tragedy — but, unlike theater, no one triumphs. This is sore-loserism at its worst, given the object of scorn — and his failed rival — garnered the lowest approval from the electorate, possibly ever in the history of U.S. politics.
This, worsened by the exact shameless violence scaremongered by the now-enraged mere days before, is a most embarrassing rebuke of responsibility for political partisanship. Liberals, rather than berating the Democratic establishment for nominating a candidate they knew faced unlikely victory against Trump, instead decided not to acknowledge the predicted outcome — directing anger against the exact consequences recently-leaked emails warned was coming.
Had the Democratic National Committee not pledged fealty to Clinton against the screams of Bernie Sanders ‘revolutionaries’ to whom it owed an ear, perhaps a billionaire reality TV host would not be ascending to office in January. Neoliberal establishment politics-as-usual, and decades of failed economic, domestic, and foreign policy, thus bear the brunt of blame — not fed-up, if perhaps misguided, Trump voters.
Clintonite Democrats colluding with corporate media presstitutes and the DNC, years of godawful neoliberal economic policy, topheavy and bellicose government, and failure to properly remedy stratification of wealth and social ills, made Trump a reality.
Gullible voters, blindly buying a campaign amounting to at least this one isn’t that one, made Trump a reality.
Oppression through free speech-quashing political correctness did this. Entitlement did this. Lesser-evilism did this. Expensive, confusing, mandatory Obamacare did this. Bombing seven countries, and countless others unofficially, for hegemonic imperialism and theft of natural resources — and resultant refugee crisis — did this.
An expansive, invasive, privacy-robbing surveillance state did this. Facilitating the foreign outsourcing of jobs through laughably-titled free trade agreements — and ignoring the disappearance of the middle class — did this.
Continuing the drug war, refusing to fix the injustice system, unfair taxation, a defense policy permitting the U.S. government to kill its citizens, lack of congressional term limits, an appalling veterans healthcare program, a crooked and anachronistic Federal Reserve, and ignoring everyone decrying these issues, did this.
Swaths of the populace, quietly deciding they’d had their fill of all the aforementioned, did this — they voted for Trump because the system failed them, and Obama and Clinton Democrats willfully ignored their pleas.
And that’s where rampaging liberals have it all wrong.
Trump voters on the whole aren’t woman-hating racists — they’re ordinary Americans whose voice too long fell on deaf ears.
Social media and the streets of at least 25 cities are in full meltdown. Rioters, apparently incapable of seeing the mediocrity and hypocrisy of their actions, point fingers of blame at everyone but the responsible: the Democratic establishment, of course, but also themselves.
Understandably, a backlash has ensued, but tellingly not of a parallel magnitude. Trump voters, rather than gloating in a fashion Clintonites almost certainly would have, erupted in mockery at the duplicity of this madness. Had Democrats once again reigned, and Trump backers reacted this way, those rioting now would be appalled. Propaganda claiming it would happen foretold as much.
Indeed, it’s difficult not to laugh at the Second Amendment-denigrating leftists begging for the assassination of an elected official and imploring all-out revolt when three days ago they expressed terror about Trump supporters doing the same.
And the hypocrisy only darkened on Twitter. Deciding the forcibly-trended hashtag #NotMyPresident didn’t sufficiently encapsulate their wrath, sanctimonious liberals then started the brazen trend, #AssassinateTrump — and the tweeters did not bother cloaking their desire for literal murder.
Despite this inane insanity, Trump voters and others remained largely level-headed, responding in what could be best summarized as a collective Get Over Yourselves. Many, astonished there was protest at all, noted the rioting would only hinder diplomacy between Republicans and Democrats, the former appearing more than willing to hammer out differences for the good of all wherever possible.
They make a good case.
Eschewing personal responsibility for the election of Trump and refusing to come to grips with that reality won’t advance any of us further toward a better-functioning system. Rioting blows indignant hot air, proving only dissatisfaction and laggard reluctance to put in actual work to solve grievances.
Although the prospect of President Trump nauseates many, it is our reality now. It’s time to stop this misguided blaming, scrutinize the failings landing us in this position, and together ensure the nation doesn’t devolve into total chaos. Complete harmony might not be possible, but seeing one another’s common ground will go far to prevent future issues similar to those gifting us President Trump.
Before that can happen, the absurdity has to end.
Angry liberals, the entire planet understands you didn’t want this man as president, but you need to get over it. Summon the unity you claim to desire.
This shameless display of hypocritical dichotomous partisan bullshit must stop. All of us — supporters of Trump, supporters of Hillary, and those wise enough to support neither — can make lemonade of this lemon. But only when cooler heads prevail.
