They were fathers who couldn’t feed their families anymore. They were mothers who couldn’t afford health care. They were workers whose jobs had been sold off to foreign countries. They were sons who didn’t see a future for themselves. They were daughters afraid of being murdered by the “unaccompanied minors” flooding into their towns. They took a deep breath and they stood.
They held up their hands and the great iron wheel stopped.
The Great Blue Wall crumbled. The impossible states fell one by one. Ohio. Wisconsin. Pennsylvania. Iowa. The white working class that had been overlooked and trampled on for so long got to its feet. It rose up against its oppressors and the rest of the nation, from coast to coast, rose up with it.
They fought back against their jobs being shipped overseas while their towns filled with migrants that got everything while they got nothing. They fought back against a system in which they could go to jail for a trifle while the elites could violate the law and still stroll through a presidential election. They fought back against being told that they had to watch what they say. They fought back against being held in contempt because they wanted to work for a living and take care of their families.
They fought and they won.
This wasn’t a vote. It was an uprising. Like the ordinary men chipping away at the Berlin Wall, they tore down an unnatural thing that had towered over them. And as they watched it fall, they marveled at how weak and fragile it had always been. And how much stronger they were than they had ever known.
Who were these people? They were leftovers and flyover country. They didn’t have bachelor degrees and had never set foot in a Starbucks. They were the white working class. They didn’t talk right or think right. They had the wrong ideas, the wrong clothes and the ridiculous idea that they still mattered.
They were wrong about everything. Illegal immigration? Everyone knew it was here to stay. Black Lives Matter? The new civil rights movement. Manufacturing? As dead as the dodo. Banning Muslims? What kind of bigot even thinks that way? Love wins. Marriage loses. The future belongs to the urban metrosexual and his dot com, not the guy who used to have a good job before it went to China or Mexico.
They couldn’t change anything. A thousand politicians and pundits had talked of getting them to adapt to the inevitable future. Instead they got in their pickup trucks and drove out to vote.
And they changed everything.
Barack Hussein Obama boasted that he had changed America. A billion regulations, a million immigrants, a hundred thousand lies and it was no longer your America. It was his.
He was JFK and FDR rolled into one. He told us that his version of history was right and inevitable.
And they voted and left him in the dust. They walked past him and they didn’t listen. He had come to campaign to where they still cling to their guns and their bibles. He came to plead for his legacy.
And America said, “No.”
Fifty millions Americans repudiated him. They repudiated the Obamas and the Clintons. They ignored the celebrities. They paid no attention to the media. They voted because they believed in the impossible. And their dedication made the impossible happen.
Americans were told that walls couldn’t be built and factories couldn’t be opened. That treaties couldn’t be unsigned and wars couldn’t be won. It was impossible to ban Muslim terrorists from coming to America or to deport the illegal aliens turning towns and cities into gangland territories.
It was all impossible. And fifty million Americans did the impossible. They turned the world upside down.
It’s midnight in America. CNN is weeping. MSNBC is wailing. ABC calls it a tantrum. NBC damns it. It wasn’t supposed to happen. The same machine that crushed the American people for two straight terms, the mass of government, corporations and non-profits that ran the country, was set to win.
Instead the people stood in front of the machine. They blocked it with their bodies. They went to vote even though the polls told them it was useless. They mailed in their absentee ballots even while Hillary Clinton was planning her fireworks victory celebration. They looked at the empty factories and barren farms. They drove through the early cold. They waited in line. They came home to their children to tell them that they had done their best for their future. They bet on America. And they won.
They won improbably. And they won amazingly.
They were tired of ObamaCare. They were tired of unemployment. They were tired of being lied to. They were tired of watching their sons come back in coffins to protect some Muslim country. They were tired of being called racists and homophobes. They were tired of seeing their America disappear.
And they stood up and fought back. This was their last hope. Their last chance to be heard.
Watch this video. See ten ways John Oliver destroyed Donald Trump. Here’s three ways Samantha Bee broke the internet by taunting Trump supporters. These three minutes of Stephen Colbert talking about how stupid Trump is owns the internet. Watch Madonna curse out Trump supporters. Watch Katy Perry. Watch Miley Cyrus. Watch Robert Downey Jr. Watch Beyonce campaign with Hillary. Watch. Click.
Watch fifty million Americans take back their country.
The media had the election wrong all along. This wasn’t about personalities. It was about the impersonal. It was about fifty million people whose names no one except a server will ever know fighting back. It was about the homeless woman guarding Trump’s star. It was about the lost Democrats searching for someone to represent them in Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was about the union men who nodded along when the organizers told them how to vote, but who refused to sell out their futures.
No one will ever interview all those men and women. We will never see all their faces. But they are us and we are them. They came to the aid of a nation in peril. They did what real Americans have always done. They did the impossible.
America is a nation of impossibilities. We exist because our forefathers did not take no for an answer. Not from kings or tyrants. Not from the elites who told them that it couldn’t be done.
The day when we stop being able to pull off the impossible is the day that America will cease to exist.
Today is not that day. Today fifty million Americans did the impossible.
Midnight has passed. A new day has come. And everything is about to change.
h/t Daniel Greenfield,
As an anarchist, Trump's authoritarian rhetoric (as evidenced by his admiration of Putin and threats to jail his political opposition) scare me far more than the status quo (as terrible as it is). Furthermore his blantant bigotry is in opposition to freedom and the princples of equality (which are the basis of anarchist philosophy). You are a pretender; one unexpected election is not a revolution; it is merely the continued propagation of the national state.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteA true anarchist would find it preposterous to make such comments. Trump's positions are SOP among collectivists and statists positions, therefore rendering your comments suspect. Why would an anarchist care or feel compelled to critique statist/collectivist matters? Conversely, why can't "one unexecpected election" not be the beginning of a revolution? Don't all movements require a Beginning? The trappings of the incoming administration may, indeed, be a continuation of "the national state".However, the only alternative (Clinton) was no alternative at all. To prefer the status quo to the potential for the beginning of change is the stuff of cowards, not pro- anarchy advocates. What would you do in the face of real change? How do you assume it will arrive (if ever)? On butterfly wings wrapped in snowflakes? The entrenched Establishment has -0- intentions of giving up w/o a big, messy, costly, bloody, upsetting fight. The current demonstrations are being bought and paid for by such entrenched interests who have no intention of "going gently into that good-nite". And, if Trump's "blatant bigotry is in opposition to freedom..", what would you call the Clinton/status quo opposition that you admittedly prefer? As for "a pretender", I will assume your snarky comment is leveled at the author of the piece, Mr. Greenfield who, I can assure you, does not read this blog. For the most dramatic effect, contact him directly. Share your thoughts. Enjoy the response (if any).
Sorry I didn't notice that a supposed anarchist reposts statist articles on his blog. I still stand by my statements, though the incongruity does make more sense now. As Greenfeld doesn't (as far as I can tell) idenentity as an anarchist, the accusation of hypocrisy wouldn't really apply.
ReplyDeleteSo "you didn't notice"...How typical of today's sub-[par "anarchist". You don't read with comprehension. In fact, you don't read at all; you "skim" at best then bloviate at worst assuming you're casting pearls of wisdom before the Unwashed. As if this site has some obligation to conform to your failure to comprehend the value of posting contrarian articles as some violation of your silly ego maniacal faith. Hint: An anarchist may post whatever one chooses for whatever purpose. While you are free to comment, you reveal your flaccid intellect fails to grasp that. Like the closet statist troll you are, you believe your "purity" requirements can be imposed through adolescent ridicule. Beyond your left-handed "apology", like too many of your ilk, you don't even have the ability engage in civil discourse. All this brilliance from a "slot car mechanic" with a Star Wars fetish. So enlightening! Please continue with your astute observations. We look forward to your next syllable with great eagerness....
ReplyDeletelevi's deleted post: Well, thanks for reminding me my Googlw Plus profile is out of date...
DeleteYou're welcome. I suggest your perspective, elitist mannerisms and rude communication "skills" are also rather Neanderthal. Anarchism is the pragmatic answer to the world's social, political and economic problems. It could use some tactful and diplomatic messengers to get the points across to the uninformed.. With some effort, you might be one of them.
ReplyDelete