I’ve recently come to understand that the upcoming election is not about Trump or Clinton as a Republican or Democratic choice. The majority of uninformed citizens just want a change and Trump is the new shiny thing that entertains them with his brutish, hateful, nasty persona.
This could be a bloodless coup by the ignorant over the informed. I don’t mean this as an analysis aimed necessarily at Kent or even Washington state voters (Amazon rated Seattle as the most well-read city in the nation) – but more of a national perspective on how the election seems to be shaping up.
Perhaps the polls are wrong or most of the Trump supporters don’t actually vote. But I’m reminded of the stunning Brexit vote in the UK. No one expected that either.
More and more I’m seeing this election as the beginning of the end of the American empire, and I’m not exaggerating. Americans have stopped caring about the civic participation that a democracy requires. Citizens must inform themselves about the machinations of government and the ramifications of banks too big to fail.
So, apathy among voters, the power and greed of people like Trump, and the consolidation of corporations will hasten another recession or, more likely, a crippling depression. I am convinced that most Americans have no idea what that will look like. Hitler took over Germany because people wanted a “strong man” running things. We know how that turned out.
I’ve resigned myself to the spread of willful ignorance across America. I didn’t realize how pervasive this ignorance was until I read several pro-Trump comments on major newspaper websites and noted the emergence of the white supremacist “alt-right” factions that are emboldened by Trump as the epitome of their racist philosophy.
I had never watched Trump on his TV show and wasn’t aware of his crude, mean-spirited personality until the Republican primary debates. I thought he was just a common schoolyard bully – never a serious contender for anything of import.
How is it that we have shunned politeness, mutual respect and regard for each other – and now revere rank vulgarity as somehow a more honest personality trait? Shades of Orwell …
The media pundits don’t understand the base nature of people who are attracted to the chaos of Trump. But I get it now: We get the government we deserve. And America may well be heading toward a devastating fall after Trump sells us all out. Think I’m exaggerating? We may well rethink the events of November 2016 when average Americans are standing in soup lines again.
When our vote is irrelevant.
– Sandra Gill
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