Check Your Armbands at the Door

The Artist D

They seem surprised. They seem gobsmacked. They appear shocked that their nation is full of people who would vote for money over lifestyle, culture, and personal freedoms. As if people didn’t notice that most other people are cranky, bitter, and closed minded. These optimists seem defeated and that saddens me. They are not filled with a focused rage, but a sloppy mess of tears and vandalism.

Ever since Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential Election my wall and my world have been covered with people lining up ready for their tattoo and pink triangles. Whether you mean it or not, I see a lot of reactions that are wimpy. That goes for the angry mobs as well as the people going into solemn mourning. Strength, planning, and strategy are what wins in the world you live in. Your protests don’t work and neither does crawling under the bed.

Do you want to know why Republicans and Conservatives still win? Why businessmen screw up your hopes and dreams? Why your boss is a horse’s ass? It’s not about poverty. It’s about having a plan. There is no confusion about what they want to accomplish. In most circles that I run in people think Republicans are devils and Democrats are angels. Whether they be angels or devils, I’ve always thought that the perceived evil always wins. The evil characters are usually the most maniacal and therefore successful.

That archetype is found throughout our many super hero stories. If it weren’t for Superman saving the day “the bad guy” would have gotten away with it! The diabolical ones with the plans and the organizations are the ones that get pretty far. Evil is very well organized. Good has always been kind of all over the place. Good people get sloppy because they don’t want to become evil. If you want to win something you have to fight and stick to a plan. Planning often forces people to execute a plan. Plans often come up against opposition. Opposition is usually seen as evil. That’s when good people drop it like a hot potato.

“I see a lot of reactions that are wimpy. ” – The Artist D

Their mistake in this, and many elections, is that they fought the battle by telling people that their way was the right way. Why should I do it? Because it’s just the right thing to do. You should vote for Hilary because Donald is meaner. The do-gooders are always derailed while riding that thought train. Instead, they should have fought a dirty diabolical game of deception to get their way. To force their way down people’s throats. But they don’t want to be perceived as that. That makes them look too much like their enemy. Cliché tells us not to do that.

If you lost your election it was because you didn’t plan it well enough. You thought your ability to organize the movement was golden and it failed. So, what are you going to do about that? I would recommend improving your strategy because over the decades I’ve noticed that the progressive folks are often the worst at winning the day. You’d think by now they would have taken a different approach.

The people are lazy (no matter which side you are on) and they can’t seem to get it together long enough to make a change in anything. Every presidential election I have witnessed so far ends with a lot of people complaining about the Electoral College. Yet shortly after all is said and done I don’t hear about the Electoral College for another four years. If you don’t like it and you want to change it, then you might want to work on that before the next election. Not two days before or several days after! Work on it now. Work on it for the next four years. Work on it for the next eight years!

The people are lazy. It’s not an attack. It’s a statement. They can’t even get rid of the yearly tradition of Christmas, let alone work towards changes that would not be implemented for four years. We’re still living in a world where you haven’t figured out something better for me to do than go to work every day. Do you want to make big changes to the entire structure of this rusty system? You can’t even make little ones! Human beings usually can’t coordinate themselves out of a paper bag. (Me, you, anybody! We’re lazy fools.)

If I say let’s work with President-Elect Trump then you call me an evil person. No, I did not want to deal with a Trump government and the possibilities of some of his policies directly affecting my lifestyle. But I am a person who works with what I am given. I do not cut to the end scene of  Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston beats his fists into the sand over the defunct Lady Liberty. I work with what I’ve got.

We have always worked with what we’ve got. I’ll see what happens. I’ll do my best to take what’s there and temper it to work for me and maybe for you. The people we have often had to work with are the diabolical ones. You work with the powers that be until you figure out something better. Thus far you have not done very well at providing a winning alternative.

I witnessed the Occupy movement. A bunch of goodhearted people standing around arguing about the small stuff. They know what they want, but they can’t even decide which parking lot to meet in to discuss it. They didn’t want leaders because everyone should lead. It’s a lot like planning a banquet but never getting over the debate about what flavor Kool-Aid they should serve.

“Occ-u-pie, occ-u-pie!” – Occupier

I am not siding with evil. That’s Identity Politics at its worst. You perceive what is good and evil. Just because it sounds good or evil. It’s how people perceive a word or situation to be bad no matter what the actions or intentions are behind those words. I was in a group yesterday and someone wanted to decorate for Thanksgiving. We pulled out the box of decorations to find some old window decals of happy cartoon Pilgrims and Indians. “We can’t use these.” Someone exclaimed, “They’re racist!”

And that stands as a fantastic representation of where we’ve flung off the handle into absurdity.

Identity! Yes, everyone has one. Yes, everyone should leave you alone to portray your identity. No, they won’t ever leave you alone, no matter how hard you try to make that a bad thing.

I don’t have a problem with where you wanted to go with politics, identity, and freedoms. I have no issue with the things you hope to accomplish in our lifetimes. I’ll support it. I’ll donate to it. I’ll vote for it. I’ll bring the cookies. But I do have a problem with the fact that you can’t seem to get your stuff together in order to make it work. So, until then, I’m going to have to work with what we have.

I’m not saying it’s going to work. I do know that most evil business men have other plans and that they’re hype was far bigger than their bite. It may go good and it may go bad. It may go nowhere at all! Either way, if we do ultimately end up in camps and lead to the slaughter by this then you better have your torches ready. I just fear that even then you’d still be arguing over who’s bringing the hotdogs and who’s bringing the Kool-Aid.

Tags: donald j trump, elections, featured, opinion, politics, presidents, theartistd

Category: Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics