Why Am I So Angry with We The People?

I worked on getting people registered and then helped them to get to the polling places to vote in 2016. In the past, 90 percent of the people who I registered were enthusiastic Democrats intending to vote for Obama, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, or Al Gore.  In 2016, I saw about 40% of the homeless and low income people I was registering were pro-Trump voters.  I should have been better prepared for the outcome with so many destitute people looking for a savior in a con man.  My world changed that November and I no longer trust America to do what is right in the end.  I do not trust the United States will allow justice to prevail or has the capacity to vote in their own interests.  I see now how bad Mayors like Mike White in Cleveland or Willie Brown in San Francisco are elected for all the wrong reasons.  I see how democracies go off the rails and end up with an Adolf Hitler, Paul Kagame, Recep Erdogan, or Hugo Chavez as authoritarian elected leaders.  Even after living through the Nixon and Bush lies and propaganda I still had faith that in the end we would end up with a Kennedy or Obama.

Things have changed so dramatically in two years I am not sure we ever get back to a struggle for social justice.  Could another FDR ever pass a New Deal for America? Do we ever hope of seeing an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution or Universal Health Care?  Do we ever see a year without a school shooting or the day when we end Veteran's homelessness? How will we confront the injustice of incarcerating a higher percentage of the population than nearly every other country on earth? I have my doubts. Every norm is busted and two branches of government have taken control while Congress shrinks into wallpaper. The new American Gangster is in charge of the Executive Branch of government including the US military and he is appointing extremist judges.

My shock in November 2016 was because in 200 years of American history this has never happened before.  There were so many things that have tripped up previous candidates for the highest office and should have tripped up this candidate, but for some reason the American public gave him a pass.  Any one of these errors, gaffes, insults, or scandals should have caused a candidate to withdraw from consideration, but this man just kept going.  I don't know if maybe he has no shame or self awareness, but he should have bowed out quietly to save his family humiliation or in the words of every scandal plagued political candidate, "to spend more time with his family." Eagleton cried and left the race while Gary Hart got caught doing Monkey Business and slinked away.  Howard Dean had a weird scream and George Romney was "brainwashed" into supporting the War in Vietnam. There are so many candidates who had one thing trip up their candidacy, but Donald Trump was immune to all of them.  Here is my list of the issues which should have disqualified this man from any elected office and should have made it impossible for any American to cast a vote for this small time mobster.

1. The Access Hollywood Tape that made women out to be objects for exploitation is disqualifying for any employment. This was an audio tape of a man confessing to sexually assaulting women.  How could someone vote for a guy who admits on tape that he has no respect for women?
2. His opening speech about Mexico and the racist stereotypes about our neighbors was disgusting and deplorable.
3. The dozen women who said Trump was a serial sexual harasser make this man eligible for host of the Friar's Club in 1950 but not a job in the federal government. One harassment charge is enough to stop a candidate, but this man had more than a dozen and then he said he would prosecute these women after the election.
4. Purchasing newspaper advertisements proclaiming that a group of underage kids should be murdered for a rape in Central Park that turned out to be wrong shows horrible judgement. Long after the wrongful conviction and years of improper incarceration, Trump still professed their guilt without any evidence except my theory is he saw the color of their skin and was convinced they were guilty.
5. His four bankruptcies in business proved that he was a bad businessman.
6. I would single out bankrupting a casino as a special case for disqualification to be a President since the house always wins in a casino.
7. Praising an espionage organization like Wikileaks is a betrayal of the United States.
8. Attacking the First Amendment by making the media an enemy of the state is contrary to the founding principles of the United States.
9. Attacking Megyn Kelly in a disgusting and derogatory manner for the sole reason that she asked tough questions makes you out to have the maturity of a child and ineligible for elected office.
10. Skipping a primary debate and claiming to instead raise money for veterans which was a lie.
11. Avoiding the draft to Viet Nam with a fake doctor's excuse makes you ineligible to lead the US military which is essential for the Office of President.
12. Making fun of a disabled reporter on stage to a cheering crowd is unforgivable.
13. Not releasing your tax returns, and then lying about the reason for the secrecy makes the candidate ineligible for city council let alone federal office.
14. Vile descriptions of fellow Republicans who were also running for the Presidency including that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the Assassination of John Kennedy make the candidate unworthy to be on the ballot.
15. The horrible performances at the Presidential debates with infantile responses and short sighted answers should disqualify a typical candidate.
16. No candidate should represent one party after living most of his life as a member of the other party. The electorate should have realized this was a con when the candidate had spent 25 years supporting abortion rights then to suddenly proclaims the exact opposite position to run for elected office.
17. A candidate who does not regularly vote is not qualified to govern.
18. An attack on a Gold Star family is disqualifying for a position in charge of the military.
19. His birtherism of Barack Obama despite all the evidence to the contrary was insane. Those with an untreated serious mental illness are unpredictable, paranoid, unstable, fits of delusion or hysteria.  None of these characteristics are good qualities for the Office of President. 
20. Criticizing an American hero for getting captured and tortured was repugnant and more evidence of deep psychological damage.
21. His cheating on his wives including rumors that he had cheated with porn stars would normally end a campaign cold in its tracks.
22. Regularly claiming to put his political opponent in jail and encouraging crowds to chant "Lock Her Up" is over the line and encourages lawlessness. This makes us look like a Banana Republic to the rest of the world.
23. Allowing hateful rhetoric about fellow Americans (see General Flynn, Rudy Guiliani) at your convention is disqualifying.
24. Spreading untruths about Syria and other refugees with that hate-filled poem "The Snake" shows a hate filled personality. 
25. Your campaign manager roughs up a female reporter and is charged with battery is a show stopper in a normal world.
26. Surrounding yourself with some of the lowest most contemptuous people in politics including the known slimy Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Jeff Sessions, and Jared Kushner is a sign of desperation and should have been a clue that the candidate would hire deplorable people to govern. 
27. His behavior in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack on the United States showed his inability to react to a crisis.  Claiming without any evidence that American Muslims cheered at 9/11, and while on the subject claiming that his building was now the tallest in Manhattan after the towers fell on September 11.
28. Identifying the followers of the second most popular religion on the planet to be banned from entering the United States.
29. Faking religious beliefs as evidenced by never attending a religious service and not being able to identify the proper way to say 2 Corinthians were all evidence that his one true religion was money. 
30. Attacking the judiciary by claiming a judge to be biased because of his family's Hispanic origins is racist and stupid. 
31. Using the campaign to promote his own businesses was never contemplated and does not have a way to prevent this from happening again.
32. His treatment of Rosie O'Donnell in the most vitriolic, hate-filled and horrific language seems emblematic of a larger misogynistic behavior of the candidate.  He destroys his enemies while not realizing that in politics the victor has to govern with the supporters of the loser.  
33. Speaking to a known propagandist who is also a champion of conspiracy theories and white supremacy, Alex Jones of InfoWars was granted access to the candidate.  This fact alone that Trump felt it important to reach out to the InfoWars audience is disqualifying.  

This is why November 2016 was such a shock to the system.  Any one of the 33 issues should have ended the candidacy of Donald J. Trump.  Cumulatively, these look like a hallucinogenic list created by William S. Burroughs after a night of drugs and target shooting. How could a sane person cast a vote for a guy with this much baggage?  These do not include the issues that provide insight into Donald Trump's personality disorder, but on their own do not justify not voting for him.  For example, I did not include his inability to understand or participate in self-depreciating humor as evidenced by the Al Smith dinner or his vanity or his small circle of friends or colleagues willing to say something positive about him at his convention in Cleveland. I could have made a list of 100 red flags, but the above list can each stand on their own as a reason any right thinking individual could not vote for this guy.

I could only conclude that the United States went crazy, and I acted accordingly.  Everything changed in January 2017, and so did I.  I quit my job helping people after realizing that the number of deaths and destruction of families was only going to get worse.  I changed who I hung out with and who I communicated with.  The world looks much different than it did in 2015.  I had hope that the United States would finally get around to addressing inequality and injustice.  Now, I only hope that my children will see the beginnings of a civil rights struggle take root and that they will repair some of the institutions destroyed by electing an evil man to lead the United States.

by Brian Davis

PS: While I was thinking about this it came to me that even his slogan is a reason to vote against this person as he sought the Presidency.  "Make America Great Again" means that you are saying America is bad and needs to be transformed into something out of the past.  When has a candidate for federal office ever said, "America sucks and needs to go back to the Golden days?"  It is a crazy slogan that should have cast the author into the dustbin of history through deportation to some other country.  Did anyone think about what MAGA really means?  What happened to the concept that "God blessed America or we live in the greatest country on earth?"