How Democrats Are Destroying A 2020 Win and Why I Walked Away
From the the moment I woke up in the world of politics, I was designed to be a democrat by my very nature. My very existence represented everything Republicans loathed. I’m a transgender person that conservatives on Capitol Hill have characterized as a potential predator. My gay friends had the acknowledgement of their relationships as marriage compared to practitioners of bestiality. We, an innocent demographic of society have endured a barrage of attacks from Republicans which, as a developing person, was one of the first legitimized institution to make sure I knew I was wrong. I was sick. I should e exempt from civil rights, denied healthcare, housing and eve the right to have a family with a partner. It was evident to me that Republicans serving in positions of power had one goal — to create a nation in their image. The rest of us, people of color, LGBT folks, those who don’t subscribe to the faith of Christianity… we have no place. That’s when I opened my eyes and realized that I had no choice but to use my words to push back against the venom and deadly fearmongering and propaganda being peddled by White men in expensive suits speaking from a Senate podium.
I’m not the American they wanted to represent.
Maybe you aren’t either.
4 years of Trump has taken an immense toll of so many of us. Each sun rises with a new crisis wherein we find ourselves- we who are othered- as sitting in the cross-hairs of people with extraordinary power to influence our lives, or safety and our ability to thrive in society without an inordinate amount of resistance. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that Republicans want to make it harder…
… Harder for people of color to vote.
… Harder for women to get access to feminine healthcare.
… Harder for transgender people to server our country.
… Harder for the poor to reach beyond their grasp and flourish economically.
…. Harder for gay people to adopt children into loving families and now, potentially stay married.
…. Harder for LGBT and children of color to have equal access to education…
Trump may not be responsible for molding this agenda, but he and his administration have amplified it. In fact, they’ve emboldened hatred to such an extreme that our cultural division has grown more hostile and dangerous for minorities because every wrung of the political ladder has been corrupted by a theater entirely cast by Donald Trump and his cult-like followers.
So, why would I, a disabled, transgender person of Arabic descent who lives in a state of perpetual fear from the opposition walk away from a party that was supposed to be my allies? Why would I step away from a collective that I once eagerly sang in chorus with?
Because as much as Donald Trump completely distorted the Republican party beyond recognition, robbed it of any shred of integrity or accountability, the other end of the spectrum found themselves growing equally radical. I’ll concede that we’ve all been forever altered by the emotional and psychological trauma over what we’ve witnessed during Trumps tenure in the Oval Office. From bombs sent to journalist and Democratic leaders to black families having the police called on them for spending family time in parks or selling lemonade on a hot day, to immigrant babies in cages, to white nationalists marching as they proudly chanted “Jews will not replace us” before being called “Fine people” by the Commander in Chief. How does one maintain some semblance of normalcy, much less sanity? How do we organize to resist and ultimately refuse this macabre twisting of reality instead of fall victim to it and become the very monster we’re fighting?
Those were question I asked myself. During the past few months, a surprising number of Democrats stepped forward to challenge Donald Trump in the 2020 election and provide some salve for our ever-deepening wounds as a nation.
Instead of breathing a sigh of relief and listening, the liberal extremists segregated immediately into primitive tribes and each found something wrong with every candidate that came forward.
Bernie Sanders is too old. His ship has sailed.
Kamala Harris isn’t black enough, she’s married to a white man.
Elizabeth Warren is too far left and “Lied” about having Native American ancestry.
Pete Buttigeig isn’t gay enough and comes off as pretentious.
Joe Biden invades women’s spaces.
Amy Klobachar is mean to her staff.
Beto O’Rourke appeared entitled when he said he was “Born for this.”
These are tweets and facebook statuses of absolute condemnation filled my timeline on the event of every announcement of candidacy. Bizarrely, they all came from liberal social justice warriors who are impossible to satisfy and thus are willing to hand Trump another presidency. They were all self-described Democrats. Ideologues who have decided upon an unattainable standard of expectation despite the bar being so low that a piss ant couldn’t limbo beneath it. Still, there’s something wrong with everyone willing to save them from four more years of Trump terrorism.
Contrastly, there are those who are factioning off. Teams are developing like it’s a superbowl event instead of a tipping point in history. In fact, it was recently reported that 20% of Bernie Sanders supporters admitted that they would vote for Donald Trump is Bernie did not win the primary. They would actually burn down the entire house to make a retaliatory statement. It has been estimated that 1 in 10 Bernie supporters voted for Trump in 2016 as an act of rebellion.
Once again, Bernie has tapped into an enthusiastic base who see him as gentle, thoughtful, experienced candidate who is, perhaps most importantly, likable. They’ve thrown their weight behind him and in doing so have openly attacked other candidates with shocking ferocity. I didn’t believe in the term “Bernie Bros” when it was used in 2016. I believed it was a caustic slur. Today, it is clear they exist.
Then there are the gay men, a specific brand of gay men, to be clear, who are straight acting and enthralled by the idea of having our first openly gay president. It sounds great- full disclosure: It’s something I’d love to see. But Mayor Pete has developed a base as loyal as Sanders who refuse to see beyond their own relatable candidate.
Some people of color, quite understandably, have aligned themselves firmly behind Corey Booker more than they have Kamala Harris. They see him as the next Obama (If only!) and they have created this narrative of him that isn’t accurate, but idealist. They do not see an alternative.
Democrats have splintered off into a dozen different directions. There is no organization, no communication between the factions; It’s been reduced to in-fighting, insults and damning accusations as the different teams rally behind their fighter and sling mud at each other.
We don’t need a crystal ball to see that the results of the primary will leave the bulk of loyalists behind the 21 losing candidates outraged that their horse didn’t finish first in the Kentucky Derby of politics. Many have, disturbingly, confessed that they won’t support anyone else.
Since the first candidate stepped forward, I have say agog at the immediate division that formed with the democratic party based primarily on identity politics. While it’s a historic year election year, being the most diverse cast of representatives from every sector of society, I know that the ego of the democratic voter will, inevitably, split communities into small subsets white Trump followers, united beneath their bigotry and red-hat wearing symbolism, will turn up at the polls in record numbers. These are people who will not tolerate another black president, a woman president, a gay president or even a diminutive, white haired old man. In fact, some women voters are determined not to have a male president at all, and gender alone has committed them to candidate already based on that fact.
So, while the democrats- the proverbial snake eating it’s own tail — take aim at each other, Trump is thumping across the country hitting very backwoods township and village to rally his backwoods voters who are chanting his name and willing to dismiss his estimated 9,000 lies, his alleged obstruction of justice and even christians re filling seats at his stadium speeches. They don’t care that they can’t see his tax returns but can, indeed, see his wifes nude photos. They don’t care he is an adulterer. They don’t care he is antithetical to everything their institutionalized religion represents. They’ve allied with even their most heinous enemies to ensure their Divine leader stays in power. They’re even having him autograph their bibles. No. Really.
I’ve seen enough at this point to know that I don’t fit into the democratic party anymore. I’m not interested in voting for someone who simply looks like me, share an identity encompassed beneath my LGBT umbrella, or who has shared a similar life experience. I don’t want a president created in my image, and I don’t want one who thinks I need to reshape my identity to fit their standard of acceptability. I want a leader who will give the office of the most powerful seat in the world the dignity it deserves. I want someone who represents the interests of all Americans and recognizes the trials and tribulations of those of us who are treading water, surviving instead of living, and is more concerned with the health and wellbeing of, for example, the residents of Flint, Michigan who still have no clean drinking water and are suffering irreparable damage to their health. I want someone who doesn’t sit on a loft perch and build a wall around him with appointed flagellants that protect him from accountability but a President who wants to protect us and improve our quality of life.
I used to think that every American who identified as a Democrat shared that sentiment, but I was wrong. It has now become a blood sport. It’s become hyper-emotional and rife with protest voting… even while our current President and his colleagues have manipulated the system so, if you come from a poor community or one that is populated with people predominantly of color, your vote won’t count a all.
Democrats are distracted. Many have chased Trump into the rabbit hole of his crazy, upside-down world where extremism is normal, where lies are alt-facts, where white nationalists are fine people, and the results have been, much to his delight, we’ve turned on each other and have lost our way.
To maintain my own sanity, I had to take a step back and watch the very same people I was once in lock-step with. I think the path they’re going down is detrimental to us as a people- not just some of us, all of us.
And if Trump wins, it will be a deserved win. He won’t need Russia this time. Democrats are sabotaging each other.
