“They are Americans and they deserve your respect”


Governor Pence! Governor Pence!
A question (like whither, or wherefore, or whence):
If bigots and racists deserve our respect,
How far is too far? Would you care to reflect?

You’ve said all Americans—all—are deserving,
But given your crowds, that’s a little self-serving—
Your people are waving Confederate flags
And screaming at w******s and n*****s and f***s

So which is it going to be, Governor Pence?
The one thing you can’t do is sit on the fence!
Align with the bigots—your prejudiced masses—
Or admit that your team has been giving them passes!

It’s fine if you’re racist—it’s fine if you hate!
You’re voting for Trump? Get a move on! Don’t wait!
We hate to win ugly, but worse is to lose,
If it’s Nazis for Trump, we can hardly refuse.

So, Governor Pence, what’s the line you would draw?
Who are citizens, when you and Trump make the law?
Or, Governor Pence, will you look to your sins,
And pray, for our nation, that Hillary wins?

I am torn between extremes. In one, democrats have shot themselves in the foot until that appendage exists no longer, and Trump emerges victorious. In the other, republicans of all stripes have been forced to declare allegiance, and sink with The Donald to the inky depths.

Hey, seriously, look to your local races. Be active. Change the world!

Please!

Comments

  1. says

    I quite like this* and the previous one.

    In many of the responses they’re not just Americans but hardworking Americans. Because in a culture as corroded by capitalist values as ours is, this is a badge of honor (which somehow, for white people, transcends the loss of actual jobs). It’s intended to differentiate between the good, “deserving” struggling people and the bad, undeserving, lazy (gasp!) takers and moochers; but what it really does is translate the capitalist demand for docile labor into a mark of morality. Even if you can be laid off anytime, you lack benefits and family leave, and you’re treated with little respect, even if you have little to show for your hard work other than ill health and lost time with your family and friends, you can take pride in being one of those hardworking Americans! And since it doesn’t specify the nature of the work, it’s no measure of anything: Malala Yousafzai and Steve Bannon probably both work hard. It’s a sort of code that stands in for meaningful qualities of character – kindness, thoughtfulness, fairness, honesty, generosity,…

    * Especially:

    Your people are waving Confederate flags
    And screaming at w******s and n*****s and f***s

  2. StevoR says

    Think and be kind.

    Americans deserve your respect.

    United States citizens like, say,

    African Americans, (like your current President & also Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey & Benjamin Banneker),
    Mexican Americans.
    Native Americans
    Even, gasp, female Americans like ..wait for it ..
    ______________ wait for it ..

    Rosie O’Donnell ..

    —- Rosa Parks ..

    __________ Danica Patrick

    Plus oh yeah, a certain woman whose name starts with H who attended one D.J.Trump’s wedding, well, one of his many weddings anyway.

  3. StevoR says

    PS. D’oh! Forgot toadd also Muslim Amercians like Anousheh Ansari, Khizr and Ghazala Khan – the parents of Purple Heart recipient U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan plus, oh, yeah, only The Greatest Muhammad Ali.

  4. says

    Whenever I see a picture like that, I’m reminded that those are the people who think they are superior. Superior, why? The superior person probably doesn’t go around rubbing their superiority in people’s faces.

    Tzu Kung was always criticizing other people. The Master said, it is fortunate for Ssu that he is so perfect himself as to have time to spare for this. I myself have none

    (Analects of Confucius)

  5. StevoR says

    PPS. Also forgot trans* Americans like Kit Yan, Yasmine Petty & Julia Serano among many others.

    So many Americans to respect and think kindly of.

    Shame Trump and his supporters by their actions and words have shown they don’t belong in that category through no fault but theirs.

  6. says

    Gary Johnson, Gary Johnson, he’s the best you’ll find,
    Too bad our stupid system leaves third parties far behind.
    The Libertarians stand for freedom, the rights of everyone;
    Their voice belongs in all debates, that justice may be done.
    No fear, no favor, no tricks, no bull, not feeding pointless hates–
    Vote for Gary, on the ballot in all 50 states.

  7. Cuttlefish says

    Oh, memehunter, we are sooooooo just gonna have to disagree on this.

    I have friends who are libertarians (even one or two who ran for office as such), and… no. I disagree fundamentally at every level from philosophical to practical. “Lack of regulation” is not the same thing as “freedom”; rather it’s a recipe for a tragedy of the commons. (and for the record: yes, I have read the Libertarian Party platform. For every plank I absolutely and utterly agree with, there are half a dozen which are either reprehensible or are in contradiction to scientific consensus about human behavior. So, yeah, maybe 3 or 4 agreements, and a whole lot of WTF?!??!?!?!?!!?) And… my mom was a public school teacher, my dad an administrator, and I have taught at Cuttlefish U. for 30+ years. The L plank on education is a guaranteed way to leave an awful lot of people hurting. But hey, you can blame their parents. After all, it’s their job, whether they have the ability to perform it or not. Remember, the invisible hand of the free market works like evolution does, by killing off (metaphorically or literally) the less fortunate. A nasty way of designing a culture, given that we know methods that work better. But hey, “promot[ing] the general welfare” isn’t technically in the Constitution, only in the preamble, so we don’t have to have it as a goal.

    This time around, the L party decided on two former R governors, in order to try to snipe votes, which makes them all the more unacceptable to anyone watching the SCOTUS. Nope. Nope on the face of it, before we even get to the waste of down-ticket support.

    I would love to see Green or even Libertarian candidates emerge from local and state movements, to earn a place at the debates. I think it would be great, and it would have to reflect serious outreach to diverse populations. But True Believers wanting to bypass the work and go directly to a seat at the big table? At this point, it’s Nader in Florida. And that is not a chance I would take for someone I already disagree with.

  8. Linda Calhoun says

    Memehunter @10 –

    I live in NM. I lived through eight awful years of Gary Johnson. No more, not ever.

    I thought it was pretty funny when he didn’t know “what” (where?) Aleppo is. Everyone was concentrating on that. But the reality is that even if he’d known everything about Aleppo, he wouldn’t give a rat’s patoot about any of those people. L

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