In The News
It’s been hard for me to talk about how bad of a president Donald Trump is because of how contrarian I am. Whenever it feels like everyone is repeating the same thing over and over, at nauseam, my instinct is to look for reasons to prove the opposite can be true. “Yea but…” is how I have responded numerous times over the last 10 years to peoples comments about Trump.
I also hated talking about it because it felt like I was giving the Democrats, who, in my lifetime at least, have yet to live up to the ideology they supposedly represent, a free pass. Over the last 10 years it’s felt like I could never get anyone to admit the shortcomings and failures of the left because they feared it would embolden the right. They had a boogeyman and that was good enough for them. But I felt like, and I still feel, if I didn’t bring the conversation back to shining a light on something terrible done by the Democrats (which in some cases has been the exact same thing), then we would forever be stuck in this real life pin ball machine, bouncing back and forth and never moving forward.
Hearing someone talk negatively about Donald Trump, I thought, was an opportunity for a broader conversation about the change we really need to see in government. Not just in one person.
But I realize the error in my ways. By not being able to acknowledge a universal truth, that Trump as president is dangerous and a liability, without conditioning it on something else being true, that I was part of keeping us in that pin ball machine. How could a conversation move forward if I was unwilling to acknowledge that important truth?
I wrote the other day that one of the hardest things about change is admitting you were wrong. And so while it’s hard to say, I realize I was wrong. I have been taking the wrong approach. That I don’t have to steer every conversation towards some adjacent point or broader picture of blame. That it’s ok, and probably better, to let the focus lie as it is, and deal with the other issues during a later conversation.
——
Bad bunny’s performance was as American as America gets. America is a Puerto Rican born artist performing at the Super Bowl halftime show singing completely in Spanish, at the same time as the government embarks on a brutal crackdown of immigrants, most of whom come from Latin American countries, on the same weekend that the president posts a video depicting African Americans as apes. The fact that these three things can all be happening simultaneously, and that despite all the rhetoric and oppression Bad Bunny’s performance could be the most watched halftime show in history, is I guess in part what makes this country great, and should give us hope that there is a future. People in this country still value diversity, and appreciate talent.
I saw a few clips of talking heads on TV calling it the worst performance they’ve ever seen! Which is such a weird thing to say because it is so obviously a lie. The worst performance you’ve ever seen?! Why’s that? Mostly they were irate because it was all in Spanish. And on that point I kind of agree. I also wish it was in English. Not because Spanish bothers me, or because I feel angered that singing in a foreign language is offensive to America, but because I don’t understand it, and the only thing that could’ve made his performance any better is if I understood what he was saying. I didn’t understand one word, but I still connected with the performance in a way I never have with any halftime show. I don’t know that I’ve ever watched half time show in its entirety before this one.
Spoken language is only one form of communication and it didn’t take a linguist to figure out what he was trying to communicate. Peace, fun, and unity. All of which are messages that are easy to get onboard with regardless of the language or ethnic background of the person spreading it. It just takes a little heart.
But again I come back to the question of why can’t people on TV, in the media, on social media, or in political office, just be honest instead of always having to be so hyperbolic and spew lies? Why can’t they just say they didn’t like the performance. It wasn’t for me. Not my taste. I like rock. I like country. It was hard to get into because I don’t speak the language. Being honest has become so uncommon in today’s world, and I wonder how much of it has to do with us. The viewers. The voters. Lies and outrage is what’s rewarded. Being divisive is what’s rewarded. And so people continue to do what they know is going to make them popular.
One hundred thirty five million + people watched the halftime show. Six million watched the TPUSA alternative. And despite the fact that people preferred Bad Bunny by a 22.5 : 1 ratio, people, including the president, felt the need to say “WORST SHOW EVER!” And maybe that’s also why America is great. Freedom to say whatever you want. I don’t know.
——
I read some of the exchanges between Pam Bondi and democratic lawmakers as they questioned her on a wide range of issues. And all I could think was, “are you fucking kidding me?”
One congresswoman stormed out after being accused by Bondi of being antisemitic (her grandfather died in the holocaust). The important thing to her was to make a scene to prove just how much of an affront such an accusation is, that she left. Other lawmakers tried to match Bondi’s jokes and theater with their own brand of showmanship.
Another congresswoman demanded that Bondi turn around and face the victims of Jeffrey Epstein that were present and apologize. Bondi, as expected, refused. A lawmaker brought a bible and the whole Harry Potter series with him so he could drive home how many times Trumps name appears in the Epstein files compared to God’s name in the Bible and Harry Potter’s name in the whole series.
And as far as Pam Bondi, the country’s top lawyer, she brought a book full of insults and criticisms about each lawmaker to be used in response to her questioning. She made jokes of serious offenses, lied, yelled, and muttered insults under her breath the way a middle school or elementary school student might. Instead of responding to questions she also regurgitated rhetoric and pushed the president’s propaganda.
How did we get to this point? Where what should be normal questioning is allowed to turn into an episode of Jerry Springer? Where we have a nominated official in Pam Bondi who is hell bent on sowing chaos and lawmakers who are incapable at holding her accountable, and instead fall right into the game she’s playing?
These exchanges are what you would expect to find in the comments section of any social media platform, not in the halls of congress. If I or any of my colleagues ever reacted this way during tense exchanges at work we’d have been fired on the spot. No questions ask. Pack your shit and get the fuck out. But for some reason this has become acceptable. And that’s the thing that confuses me more than the actions themselves.
The fact that we as a country accept this. We accept lawmakers, attorney generals, federal agents, presidents, who time and time again prove that they are unfit to serve, and yet we keep voting for the same people that give us the same mess. The question I always ask myself is would I ever hire any of these people to work for me? Or if anyone I know that has a business would hire them to work at their company? And the answer is always a resounding no. So why do we keep hiring them to run our country? It just makes no sense.