Names

Names are important, in mythologies with magical traditions, to name something is to have power over it, and sometimes to allow it to have power over you. More practically the ability to call yourself by the name you choose is a really important part of self identity, particularly for trans-people, but it goes for anyone to some degree, if other acknowledge your chosen identity, it helps you define your own sense of self.

I can't call him President, or President-Elect, it gives his name too much respect to be associated with the office, and does the opposite to the office itself. I can barely bring myself to type his name anymore I am so sick of it. Trump, shudder. His name has power over me in that it incites a revulsion and aversion that I have never experienced before

But I can't stop writing about politics, which means I have to write about him, and I can't just keep saying him, it's confusing, and also the name of  Powerpuff Girls villain. And like I said, to name something is to have power over it, even if it is just in my head. I think I will call him the Toddler, a selfish shouting monster who doesn't know enough to know what he can't do. Then I don't have to type the name anymore and that will make me happy.

The Toddler is blatantly corrupt, a fascist and abettor of fascists, he was elected because he was willing to bet that there are enough people out there who find that appealing, as well as enough who believe that "They are all the same anyway", that he could take advantage of our electoral process that gives more weight to the areas of the country that are home to those ideas. That he appears to have done so accidentally is a telling example of how racist, stupid, and credulous the American public is.

I could talk about why that is, the sociological reasons, the programming behind it and those who benefit from it, I could also talk about the media's abject failure to give anything approaching a balanced job at reporting on this election, balanced isn't the right word, competent I think is? Except that isn't quite right either, I'll go into it more another time.

I could talk about all those things, and all those reasons do share blame, but when you get right down to it, 288 electoral college votes went to a man who literally ran on a platform of "get rid of the brown people". That wasn't hidden, or spun, enough people looked at that and decided they were either down with it, or could ignore it because they liked his other positions, what exactly those are seemed to change because he really didn't have any others.

American, it seems, really are that racist. I see a lot of "If you voted for Trump you are either a racist or are comfortable with racists" memes and posts around, but really it isn't about being comfortable with racists, that just means you are one, it isn't like being comfortable with Christians, or with children, racism doesn't fucking work like that, you don't get to say "I'm not racist, but some of my friends are and I am fine with them" So no, every single fucking Trump supporter is a racist, or both racist and stupid, but not just stupid.

Let's talk about corruption for a minute, a number of people who voted Trump or didn't vote, used the logic that if they are all the same it doesn't matter who I vote for. They aren't completely wrong in one area, Hillary Clinton is at least as corrupt as any other politician in modern memory. She can hardly have maintained the level of influence she has had over the years without being so. That is how it is done in American politics and I don't know if there is any legitimate national politician who hasn't made a number of deals in smoke filled rooms, or taken money from sources they shouldn't. The thing is, she at least hides it, no she didn't kill Vince Foster you lunatics, the Clinton Foundation is a completely above board charity that does good work and has saved millions of lives. The email server was a dumb decision that may have cost her the election, but didn't hurt or benefit pretty much anyone.
Look, at that level of power you don't funnel money through a foundation, you filter it through offshore accounts and into shell corporations, or just pay in cash sometimes, you want someone dead? Well then you fucking wait until they die because you are rich and powerful and can afford to do that.

The Toddler can't play that game, he doesn't know how and refuses to learn, he thinks he is clever when he uses his foundation to pay for giant paintings of himself, or to donate to an attorney general who is prosecuting a case against him. He thinks refusing to show his taxes hides anything from people, when real operators don't have anything in their names to hide in the first place. He doesn't respect the population enough to fake honesty.
And we ate that up, we chose a man whose primary goal as president will be enriching himself and oppressing people, he never hid that and now we have to deal with the consequences

We don't deserve this, but only because most of us didn't ask for it.