A Classic Political Facebook Rant

 To be honest, I am still processing the events of the attempted coup from this past Wednesday, January 6th, and writing down my thoughts always helps me to think things through. More information is being revealed each day about this event and the people involved, and as I am taking it all in piece by piece, I am realizing just how many more layers there are to the story than I initially saw or understood. This event, like many of the events that have taken place over these past 5 years as Donald Trump ran for and became President of the United States, has left me angry, disheartened, and afraid.

Through Donald Trump’s words, actions, and social media posts, he has revealed the ugly truth about America that all white Americans so easily look past or ignore, simply because we are not the ones being oppressed, dehumanized, and killed every day. Donald Trump’s words and rhetoric have empowered, encouraged, and enabled White Americans to act on their worst whims and darkest thoughts as though they are superior and entitled to it. The ugly truth is, that this is America and this is what America has always been. Our country was built on violence and white supremacy and so many people either ignore it, support it, or fight to uphold it.

The attempted coup was not a protest, and the people involved were not “patriots”. The attempted coup was a group of domestic terrorists, mostly white and mostly men, who were being sore losers over the loss of an election, which is a completely normal and predictable part of our country’s democratic process. People run for office and lose all the time! The attempted coup was a cry of ridiculous anger because these people think their “rights” (i.e. their empowerment and entitlement to acting on their white supremacy) are being “threatened” with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning the election. White Americans have always, for as long as our history spans, seen themselves as superior, but Donald Trump’s words and rhetoric during his time in office have solidified these beliefs among his followers to the point of empowering them to build gallows, carry the confederate flag with pride, bring guns and ammo and zip ties to a “coup” in order to take potential hostages, to try an overturn the outcome of an election through violence and damage of property, and to act as though the law cannot touch them. The scariest part about all of this is, the election was very close! In a presidential election with record high voter turnout, Donald Trump almost won. That means that almost half of our voting population voted for him and support him.

If you are someone who supports and voted for Donald Trump, you really should take a step back and think about what kind of person you are or the kind of person you wish to be. This election is bigger than voting for Trump’s economic plan, military support, or political and religious views on abortion. This is about human rights and human decency. Donald Trump is someone who hungers for power above anything else and gets joy out of inciting fear and violence among his constituents.
Donald Trump’s rhetoric has been terrifying and damaging since day one. America is NOT just a white country and white Americans are NOT superior or better than anyone else. America is made up of so many people from so many different backgrounds and no matter who a person is or no matter where they come from, we all deserve to have basic human rights and we all deserve respect!

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