Resisting The Racist Anti-Semite's Appointment

[gehayi]

I called my two senators today. One staffer said that Senator Blumenthal had already spoken against Bannon’s appointment. Senator Murphy’s office said that he hadn’t denounced Bannon yet--though, oddly, it looks like he did yesterday. I hope this is an error on the staffer’s part

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Part 2

[gehayi]

Hell, Trump couldn't even stand the fact that the cast of Hamilton spoke to Mike Pence in a post-show speech, calling it harassment. He appears to blame the entire cast for the audience booing Pence. Given that Pence, a man who caused a mini-AIDS epidemic in Indiana by closing Planned Parenthood clinics that were treating AIDS patients AND a man who supports gay conversion therapy, was at a Broadway show, and one in which a gay HIV-positive actor is now starring (Brandon V. Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr), I think that the audience and the cast were positively restrained.

Oh, and this is the terrible, horrible, no good speech that the Hamilton cast made.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight. You know, we had a guest in the audience this evening. And Vice President-elect Pence, I see you're walking out but I hope you will hear us just a few more moments. There's nothing to boo here ladies and gentlemen. There's nothing to boo here, we're all here sharing a story of love.

We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out. And I encourage everybody to pull out your phones and tweet and post because this message needs to be spread far and wide, OK?

Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical, we really do. We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us - our planet, our children, our parents - or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

Again, we truly thank you for sharing this show. This wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men [and] women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.

It was delivered by Dixon and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton's director Thomas Kall, and lead producer Jeffrey Seller. It doesn't sound "very rude" or "harassing" to me. Hell, Pence himself that he wasn't offended at all. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but he didn't make a scene in public.

But Trump did. Trump rallied his followers, who started swearing they would boycott the show. A show, mind you, that is sold out for the next two years. It's almost impossible to get tickets. It's pretty hard to boycott a sold-out show. But Trump and his slavering followers don't seem to understand that. And--once again--Trump hinted at legal action against the cast.

Part 3

[gehayi]

The impression I get is that the Trumpkins expected all the liberals and Hillary supporters and whatnot to just vanish after the election. Trump, at least, doesn't seem to have been expecting anger, fear, protests or mockery. I think he genuinely sold himself on the idea that he was beloved by everyone, not just his supporters. Instead, senators and representatives and lawyers are pointing out things he wants to do that are illegal. Ordinary people are doing that. People openly despise him...and since Trump is basically an older, more blatantly racist version of Christian Grey--a filthy rich, deeply insecure misogynist who has an entitlement complex the size of Texas--he doesn't appear to know how to deal with it. Somehow, this creature has reached the age of seventy without learning the word 'no."

And, like the overgrown toddler that he is, he is lashing out. This doesn't bode well for anyone. He has drones at his disposal. He has nukes.

Do you know what scares me the most? The possibility that it won't BE four more years. It's almost impossible to unseat a sitting president, after all. And what if he doesn't bother to run for a second time? What if he just refuses to step down?

He's got actual fascists on his transition team. I don't see official dictatorship as beyond the realm of possibility. He would probably chalk it up to "emergency powers," and insist that it was temporary--but I've seen Trump in the news since the 1980s, and I have never seen the man give up power of his own accord. I have never heard him admit that he cannot do something or that he made a mistake. If something is a disaster, he hangs on until there is no longer a choice. I do not see him willingly turning power over to someone else.

I also don't see myself surviving this. I would cheerfully move to another country, but most countries in the world are likewise having a resurgence of right-wing parties or governments. There is literally nowhere to run, and that terrifies me more than I can say.