America, Great?

Recently I’ve been a bit befuddled by the catch phrase that is so lovingly etched onto bumper stickers and baseball caps alike: “Make America Great Again.” Which past America are we yearning for? From my seat in the theater, the American life has never been “great” except for a select few. A few centuries ago when this country was started we were a new land built off of slavery, misogyny, and some ideas that came from a really good place but were ultimately contradicted in everyday American life (refer back to the slavery and the misogyny). According to historian Jill Lepore, only about six percent of people living in America during George Washington’s presidency could vote. Is that the America we want back? Move a couple of decades down the line and we fight a few wars, win most of them and now we are a “United States.” Still, women could not work outside of the home and many states still had laws restricting their ability to own property and businesses without a husband or father in the mix. Slavery was gone (legally) but its scars were still (and are still) extremely visible within our society. Very few people could have access to education or healthcare. Everyone in the LGBTQ community were either invisible or in danger. Laws against rape and sexual assault barely existed. Voting was still not a right everyone could practice. Is that the America we want back? Now let’s get into the thick of it; the 1950s and 1940s. These are the decades that make every white guy really cream their pants. Visions of a successful military and dinner on the table by six dance around in their heads while Bing Crosby croons lovingly in their ears. I’m not going to drag you through all of the facts of those particular decades but sufficed to say that, as previously stated, it wasn’t all milkshakes and Sinatra unless you were a white Anglo-Saxon cis straight guy. Weirdly enough, white men are the majority of Trump’s supporters. Huh.

Interesting. Could it be that these guys are truly excited about the idea of a creepy failed business man yet successful (and still creepy) reality tv star being our president? A man, might I add, who has been accused of abusing his employees, rape, tax evasion, and a level of ignorance that is truly incredible for someone in his position. Or are they perhaps just looking for a bit of whatever that little blue pill and that most recent football game couldn’t give them? I couldn’t say, as I am but a mere lady voter who doesn’t need to take other people’s rights away in order to feel better about my own place in society.

On September 26, 2016 a lot of us watched as a failed business man, successful reality star, and all around doofus talked and snorted himself into a nice, cozy hole, where sadly, many of his supporters will join him in their great fall onto the wrong side of history. However, the people that support him are not all stupid. The people that support him are not all mean. The people that support him don’t seem to care about anything but their own pride in being right and preserving their way of life. Preserving their power. Preserving their “America.” Sadly, for them, America is not an idea. It is not a state of mind. It is a place, a home for around 319 million people, and at the very least 240 year old social experiment that is currently careening off the goddamn rails.

Years from now, they will pack their “Make America Great Again” caps and t-shirts and ideas deep down where their grandchildren cannot find them. They will die peacefully in their sleep and their children or grandchildren will find them and be like “oh, sh*t” and shove them down even deeper – not wanting their own children to find them. This will go on until their stupid red (or pink…because ladies can be ignorant too) shirts gather the same dust that their great uncle’s klan uniform has and it will be shrugged off as an embarrassing piece of family history.

Until that time though, I do ask that if any Trump supporters feel the need to call any liberals or activists “whiny” they take a look in the political mirror and wrap their head around the fact that “Make America Great Again” is the greatest collective “whine” this country has heard for years and nobody’s going to be crying for you when that fact is made clear in the recall of modern history.