My last post was a bit over the top, I suppose, but "over the top" appears to be the new American norm. I would hate to be out of step with the zeitgeist. Someone might start calling me names.
And that is my clunky segue to the very recent trend of Democrats and their social media supporters calling Trump and Vance names. Weird. Odd. Strange. They are, of course, outraged.
Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants by his dazed and confused cult members and he has been a consistent playground bully for, well, his entire life. No need to tinker with success. Vance is newer to name-calling but he's doing his best to antagonize pretty much anyone not already firmly in the cult's embrace.
Yesterday's National Association of Black Journalists panel at the group's national conference has caused angst among many journalists. Should a respectable group invite someone as antagonist and dishonest as Trump to be part of a conference panel at all? Or should journalists go over and above in their duty to present all "sides," even the side of a convicted felon? These difficult questions cause people to resign leadership positions in protest and cause others to leap to the defense of free expression, with dozens of positions in between.
I honestly don't have an answer but I certainly am delighted by the spectacle of an old white man questioning the racial identification of a Black woman in a room overwhelmingly filled with Black journalists. I assume Trump had his more racist cult members in mind as his true audience yesterday and I also assume that radical social media (including FOX News) will spin his performance as brave.
For Black voters considering supporting Trump this fall... well, that consideration should be quickly discarded.
I suspect that most Republicans who have even heard of this event experienced the slightest dread... in fact, they might have thought, "How odd. Our candidate didn't even try to answer questions with any policies or facts and seemed intent on taking on anyone not white." Republican politicians, of course, raced to explain away Trump's remarks, many pretending that they would prefer to discuss issues and the history of Kamala Harris's policies.
The dirty truth is that the Republican Party is no more. It is now the Trump Party or MAGA Party, and we have a major political party that represents explicitly racist views.
My hope is that the percentage of American racists is not all that large and that reason and hope will prevail in the election, now 98 days away (though voting must start at least a month earlier than that).
In the meantime, creating silly internet memes that label Trump and Vance as weird and odd seems like a good way to make fun of the bullies. Legions of elementary teachers would object. "Turn the other cheek" is a laudable message, and Michelle Obama famously declared that "when they go low, we go high." The playground must be free of bullying.
Jesus and Michelle are right in the long run, but in the real world there is a need to win elections. Bullies hate to be ridiculed. That's what THEY depend upon in attacking others.
Trump and Vance and the cult are certainly threats to democracy and American ideals. They could do a lot damage, at least in the near term, if they were to be elected.
But they are also fundamentally silly and weird. They are laughable.
And once people start laughing at you, it's tough to fight back. It would take demonstrating a seriousness of purpose and some actions that SHOW Trump acting for the good of the nation and the world.
Ha! See how easy it is to enjoy a good laugh about Trump and Vance? Mocking terms like "odd" and "weird" are not acceptable in logical arguments. But we are not engaged in creating rhetorically sound arguments.
I would like to laugh all the way through the election results... and then continue laughing as the Trump cult noisily implodes.
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