Open your eyes to election's stakes
It's democracy vs. the middle finger in 2024
I blinked at what appeared to be a vulgar insult on the license plate on the car in front of us.
“You’re not allowed to have license plates like that,” I said to Bella. “I can’t believe that.”
I picked up my phone to take a photo of it, but the car pulled away as we wound through Ashley Place toward Upper Glen Street. I did get another glimpse though, and realized that what I was seeing was a bumper sticker made to look like a license plate, positioned right above the actual plate.
The car slowed down at the light on Fire Road, and I was able to take a photo.
I’m struggling to understand the feelings that motivate these displays. Apparently, crowds at college football games and Nascar races have chanted this particular message — not the initials but the full insult — and also its euphemistic version: “Let’s Go Brandon.”
It’s not a political message, it’s personal, with no reference to any policy or quality of Biden’s that the messenger resents. It’s the verbal equivalent of a raised middle finger — an expression of rage.
Saying to someone the words initialized on this sticker puts an end to argument. There is nothing to talk about after that.
But this is where we have arrived in this country, at a split that cannot be straddled, even in quiet little places like Glens Falls.
Something has changed, and we should recognize that. A significant portion of our friends and neighbors — probably a majority in Warren and Washington counties — endorse the platform of grievance, rage and “retribution” that one of our presidential candidates is proposing.
I’ve heard patronizing explanations from social commentators for Trump’s widespread support in rural regions, as if people in these areas are too simple to grasp the danger he poses.
Many Americans, including many residents of our area, want an autocratic, xenophobic leader who says our country has gone to hell and invokes an imaginary golden era of the past when things were better.
Trump’s supporters are not misled. They endorse a swelling of executive power to the point of autocracy if it means immigration can be slowed to a trickle.
They want a wall — a physical and a legal one — to block all immigrants but a handful of “good ones.”
They want abortion severely curtailed or prohibited altogether.
They support the ostracizing of trans people in the courts, the schools and the workplace.
They agree that using the military for crowd control at protests may be necessary, and that the president can make that call.
They’re fine with their candidate turning the Justice Department on his enemies while using his unrestricted pardon power as president to get his friends and supporters out of trouble.
They want Ukraine abandoned to Russia’s depredations.
They want loyalty to the president, not federal law, the top priority of U.S. civil servants. They want the IRS gutted.
Those of us who fear a second Trump administration cannot just hope that our friends and neighbors and family members will one day wake up to these intentions, because they are already widely known.
If we want the United States to continue to be a nation of laws; to prosper with the help of immigrants; to have our president’s power balanced by Congress and the courts; to oppose the unjustified invasion of sovereign countries like Ukraine, we’re going to have to work until Election Day to overcome the negative force of Trumpism, even here in Hometown USA, where we would prefer to get along.
Wanderings
Ladies Night in downtown was a tremendous success on Thursday. Bella and I and Ringo happened onto it, and were stunned by the crowds. Every shop and restaurant was jammed, and traffic crawled as cars lined up from one stoplight to the next. We had to park two full blocks away from Glen Street. It was cold, but we warmed up with hot chocolate, topped by mini-marshmallows and whipped cream, at the Juicin’ Jar.
Here is a little video of the scene on Glen Street:
The hatred is on display everywhere these days. I guess people used to hide it and I was naive to think it didn't exist at this level. Silly me! Now that I can see it so clearly, it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel that we are an election away from Gilead and people are walking around oblivious to that fact.
I think Trumpies have but two motivations. The wealthy want to keep all their tax dollars - all for me and none for you. The not-so-wealthy fear the demographic changes that will make America even more diverse, eventually with Whites as a minority. So what. No matter your skin color, we can all be educated, all find employment, and all enjoy life. It is not a zero-sum game. What hides behind the fear is racism. Add a soupcon of variant gender fear, and misogyny, and you get the voter who dreams that Trump will be his champion. Donald Trump will keep the dark and/or sexually "deviant" away from my block. He will save embryos only to let them go hungry once they're born. He will continue to support the hatred and just plain churlish behavior we see with this bumper sticker.
It's the "I'm going to heaven and you're not" world view that is turning America divisible, with liberty and justice for ME.