I'm going to go on a little rant here about the election and why the nation is so divided...
Regardless on if you agree or not the economic engine that got the colonies started was slavery...the first 100 or so years of America AKA as our "foundation" or roots was based on systemic racism and slavery, predominantly it was rich white men OWNING other people.
Now we like to teach in history books that the driving force to the American revolution was "taxation without representation"...and while that may have played some part in the revolt it was by no means the driving ideology...no what happened was England began to outlaw slavery and the colonies knew that if they outlawed slavery their entire economic engine would collapse...I suggest the American revolution was not based on taxation without representation (which we have enthusiastically embraced NOW), it was in fact the panic over losing our economy.
The American revolution was predominately choosing economy over people we did not care about.
Our federal buildings and state capitals were pretty much built by slaves...our largest loss of life in a war was over this issue...we went to war with one another over the idea that ALL men are created equal with certain inalienable rights...half of the country was unwilling to allow that concept to apply to different races.
Not.A.Whole.Lot.Has.Changed.
While there are pockets of minorities who supported trump the VAST MAJORITY, which ended up being close to half of the voting population was predominately whites who are once again trying to protect a way of life that applies ONLY to them.
It's racism.
Go look at the economic demographic of who voted for Trump and you will find very poor whites and very rich whites as the central make up of that voting block...the MAJORITY was white men who make over $200,000 year.
Now we don't frame it as racism, but it really is...you have to strip it down to the core of who is protected and who is disenfranchised by these so called "tax breaks" and "gun rights" and "anti-abortion" positions...
I'm not saying that of you voted for Trump you are a racist...its not that simple...but if you voted for him based on protecting your "tribe" you need to look around at what those policies you suggest are actually protecting and its not the minorities or the disenfranchised...those people need to go out and get jobs (at non-livable wages) and work their way up the food chain which is economically impossible for them to do under the current set of rules.
The Justice system and the police were also founded to protect the rights of slave OWNERS...just do the research on who the very first police were...they were created to find and punish run away slaves.
Not.Much.Has.Changed.
Strip it down to the bare wire...trace the connections like you would trace a short circuit, go back to the original schematic and see what it called for...racism is in our foundation.
It will not go away in an election...it will take GENERATIONS...but it will eventually fade out.
The fears of "socialism" and "marxism" are just banners to wave, if you believe that you are entitled to your social security that you have paid into you have already accepted a form of socialism, hell when it was introduced its opponents called it just as much.
Not once has a democratic president ever tried to confiscate guns or enact marxism...it is not going to happen now...no one wants your damn guns people just want common sense laws about making sure violent people don't get them for free (which will never stop here, we have too many).
But voting for Trump on "economic policy" should really be dragged out into the discourse and examined...what exactly does increasing the deficit in record numbers have to do with fiscal responsibility?
The current divide in country is ONCE AGAIN choosing an economy over people...it shows up in how we talk about Covid and taxes...but tis the saem thing that drove the revolutionary war...CHOOSING ECONOMY OVER PEOPLE.
I am still a conservative...but the GOP has lost its way...I'm not suggesting the dems are better, what I am suggesting is that we all go forward together...and that means counting every person and every person counting...no matter what party does that they will have my support.
We are in this together and we have SO MUCH WORK TO DO.
We need to heal our foundations. But that means facing them.
