Take a moment for that to settle in. The United States' federal government has made it known that the member states of the US cannot just simply leave when they please. The people who want a "Calexit" are Hillary supporters. Hillary and generally her supporters support strict gun-control, so it's reasonable to say that these people aren't the people who own the guns in this state. I'd like to see them draw me a diagram of how they expect that one to happen. That just goes to show how completely unhinged and off the rails some segments of Hillary supporters have gone, since it's obvious that the ones who are serious about this, haven't exactly thought it though (Odds are there are enough gun owners in California who are loyal to the US to put down any such insurrection from these people without the need for military support, especially given that these people do not want to live in the California that these Hillary supporters want).
Now with all of this going on, I'm wondering how long until the introspection phase sets in. How long until these people take a good long look at the mirror and realize that they are partly the reason Trump was elected. This election season was a wholly toxic one, possibly the most toxic one I've personally seen. But for the Democrats, there was an added twist, they were in the same position as the Republicans were in 2008 in more ways than one. One of those ways was being the party/ideology in power, and passing down moral decrees on the people. The whole "Gamergate" thing, "3rd Wave Feminism", Politically Correct, Safe Space needing Social Justice Warriors, etc. all that culture war crap, all filled the same role that right wing Christians like John Ashcroft filled in society as the Morality Police.
This was a multi-faceted disaster of the Democrat's own making.
I'll focus on the cultural/social part of this disaster here.
From the start Hillary made her campaign about her gender. It wasn't just about her as the individual but about her being the first female president. From the start he campaign was playing the identity politics game. Memory is a bit hazy, but from what I recall of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, him being half-Black wasn't really a pillar of his campaign, it was a peripheral issue, it wasn't "vote for me so we can have our first Black president", it was vote for me and we'll change the tone in Washington. The man giving us this message just happened have a Black father.
On the surface that doesn't seem like a big deal and it wouldn't be really, but then there's the matter of her supporters, the ones carrying the message (mainly the regressive left). As I mentioned earlier, this campaign was about as toxic as Chernobyl. Whether that was something that seeped from the bottom up into Hillary's campaign, or from the top down from the campaign down to the supporters is moot point. What matters is how the message of vote for Hillary was delivered. It wasn't done in a way of "vote for Hillary because..." but rather "If you don't stand with Her you are, sexist/misogynist!" Any argument against voting for Hillary was casually swept away with a waive of the hand and an unsubstantiated claim of "you're a misogynist/sexist/hate women/support institutional" oppression with a sprinkling of "patriarchy".
But beyond what amounts to name calling, because all of this talk was tied in with identity, the whole thing became personal. And because these people, these regressive leftists, hitched their identity to a particular political candidate, when that candidate is reject, be it though people refusing to vote for them, or... losing an election... they feel that it is a rejection of them as an individual. That what they identify has been deemed invalid. So as a result, they double down on the vitriolic rhetoric, because for them, they are literally defending who they are. Because they feel they are literally defending who they are, they have no interest in dialogue with the other side. Why? Because they are the victim. Oh yes, the mythical Victim, the creature in which everyone needs to just sit down, shut up, and listen to and believe, because allegedly something damaging happened to them and what they have to say is automatically valid because of that sole fact. This gets amplified when the people seeing their identity under attack, are the coddled, overly emotional, hyper sensitive, helicopter parented, participation trophy types to the point where the vitriol gets to the level that it did. People that never learned how to cope with and move on from losing.
Everything is sexist, everything is racist, and they have to point it out. And they did just that.
And everyone got tired of it.
Everyone.
The thing was, they spread this vitriol to beyond open Trump supporters. Everyone from disgruntled Bernie supporters, to third party voters, to the apathetic and indifferent got targeted by this poison. "You don't want to vote for Hillary?! Well you MUST be sexist! You don't like her because she's a woman!" Or better yet the even more convoluted chain of thinking, "Trump speaks out against immigrants, Hillary opposes Trump, you don't support Hillary, therefore you are against immigration and therefore you are racist." Keep saying that enough and people are going to get tired of your shit. Maybe, just maybe get tired enough for vote for the other guy just out of spite.
People will especially grow tired of this, when most of the perceived sexism and racism isn't even there. It's crying wolf when there is no wolf. The people that were howling about this, were literally looking anywhere and everywhere for anything that could even remotely be considered sexist or racist by the most of fringe elements. Eventually, people will stop listening to you, and the louder you shout, the more people just want you to shut the hell up.
When you start lumping everyone into classes based on superficial identities, people will grow tired of your horse shit. You can't just group people by class, and then brow beat that class into getting them to do what you want. It blatantly ignore the individual, by doing that, don't you deny that individual's experience? While at the same time pattering on and on about the individual experiences in your preferred classes to justify your totalitarian positions.
For the most part, no one cares about identity politics. Most person are too busy taking care of their every day responsibilities to care about identity politics. Yet all of these people also got targeted by the vitriol. When you're trying to make ends meet, you don't really appreciate some young inexperienced jackass browbeating because you're not with her, when all you're trying to do is keep a roof over your head and food on your table. These people are either going to ignore you and continue to not care, or they are going to vote the other guy just to spite you, just to give you the finger.
Though, all this rioting, protesting a fair election and calls for secession should have been expected and should be no surprise to anyone considering the deplorable behavior of some of Hillary's supporters during the general election. We have people trespassing onto private property and stealing Trump campaign signs, this amounts to theft as well as silencing someone's voice by preventing them from displaying their support for someone/thing. Then we have an act of arson. Then we have destruction of public property. Even to the point of assaulting and battering a homeless person. Sure there are those on Trump's side that was guilty of the same thing, but that isn't the point. They're not the ones rioting and calling for secession right now. Secondly, I thought "love trumps hate"? Since when is destruction of property and acts of violence on another, a show of love? And all the rioting and and calls for secession just further justify's people's support for Trump in their minds, further proves their point about Hillary's supporters in their mind, as unhinged overly emotional leftists. Third, the Democrats always like to paint themselves as better than Trump's supporters, so when are they going to prove that to me with their actions?
This wasn't just a repudiation of the political establishment. This was also a repudiation of the regressive leftist Morality Police. Americans just don't like being told what to do, they didn't like it when it was conservative Christians during George W Bush's tenure, they sure as hell didn't like it when it was coming from some smug 20 year old career victim who hasn't even completed their Bachelor's. SJW's like Franchesca Ramsey, Lacey Green, Jonathan McIntosh and Arthur Chu have become literally no different than the far right Christian morality crusaders that were out in full force during W's tenure. "Same shit, different asshole" as the saying goes.
The bottom line is that the regressive leftist crybully faction of Hillary's supporters, did not make their case to vote for Hillary, but rather tried to bully and guilt trip people into voting for Hillary, and that just did not work. Not only did it not work, but it poisoned the rest of her campaign (if it wasn't already tainted by other things but that's outside the scope of this particular article).
Democrats need to take a look at themselves and realize, that they in part had a role in driving people into Trump's camp. It's easy to point the finger and blame some nebulous concept like "misogyny" or "racism" or "bigotry" or "Islamophobia" for all your problems, rather than looking into the mirror and seeing where it was that you went wrong, because to do that, is to admit you were wrong somewhere.
They have two years to figure this out and how to reform their party, which factions of the voter base need to be banished *cough*the regressive left*cough*, which platform stances need to be axed and flushed down the toilet.
That said...
Let me step out from the Salty Manx Cat persona. I'm not talking as a cranky white cat with no tail, but rather as my actual self.
I get it, some people are literally in fear of of their life. This was a thoroughly toxic election, where literally everything has been exaggerated, twisted, and taken out of context. an election so poisonous that it has literally brought out the worst that segments of society have to offer. There are multiple lessons to take away from all this. One of them is that you cannot fully entrust your own safety (be it physical or economic) to another. Because to do that gives them all the power, and then what happens when that power is turned on you?
For that reason you'll never see me wearing a safety pin. I'm not going to provide you with a safe haven, and it's not because I don't care about what happens to you, but rather because I have no desire to hold power over you. I won't provide a haven for you, but what I will do, is what ever I can, to help you make yourself safe. Be it help you to pick out a martial art to learn, to helping to pick out a gun that's a good fit for you, all you need to do is ask. You give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, you teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. You protect a man, you protect him for a day, you teach a man to protect himself and you protect him for life. While I can't do much as far as economic security, but even if we've been vehemently opposed on issues before if you're legitimately scared for your life, just ask and I'll help you.
The other thing this election has laid bare is the sheer corruption involved in both parties. On the Republicans side, it showed how out of touch it has gotten with the people. Out of touch to the point that party establishment stalwarts like Bush was just completely run over by someone like Trump.
On the Democrat side, the emails regarding the collusion between Hillary and the party higher ups, showed that this election was nothing about offering the voters their pick of who they thought would be the best candidate the Party had to offer. Instead what we was laid bare wasn't a market competition of ideas, but rather a byzantine power game.
The third point, to come full circle, is the collusion between mainstream media and the political power structure. That said, can you genuinely say that you can trust what the media has said? Personally I'd take anything said by the establishment media with a grain of salt. As the internet saying goes "pics or it didn't happen." The political establishment of both parties has a vested interest in keeping all of us divided, and it's favorite tool to accomplish that division is by leading the charge in "othering", can you really say that you can take what the media is telling you at face value?
That said, we all deserve better than behind the scene byzantine power games. We all deserve better than a political landscape where the way to win is by acting like a pro-wrestling heel from a era referred to as the "Attitude Era".
But as the saying goes, be the change you want to see. As Maslow's Hirearchy of Needs says,
One must satisfy lower level deficit needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs.Safety is one of those lower level deficit needs. Until you fill that requirement, you can't move on, move on to the point, where you can effect that change. The thing is, no one is coming to save you, you have to watch your own back and fight your own battles. Certainly not a politician, and certainly not a media manufactured faux social movement.
And like I said earlier, unlike those politicians and faux political activists who'll tell them they will make you safe, they will provide a haven for you to run to to be safe, I will tell you something those people never will. I will help you make yourself safe, I will help you to make your own safe space. I have no desier to shield you with power (because honestly I'm just too lazy to bother), but rather, I would see you have the power.
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