(This is to be the final post of this thread assuming I don’t suddenly come up with a related idea I cannot resist posting about – previous post was Are We Great, Yet (part three) from 7 March. Yeah, yeah, there’ve been so many squirrels that I’ve not been able to finish this until now.)
It’s taken much longer than I expected it would to come up with the words to express the thoughts and ideas I’ve been working through. Then White House press secretary Sean Spicer lodged his foot squarely in his mouth today when speaking (on Passover, no less) about Assad’s crimes against the Syrian people in relation to the Holocaust.
“You had someone as despicable as Hitler, who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” he said. “You have to, if you’re Russian, ask yourself, ‘is this a country and a regime that you want to align yourself with?'”
Hitler used cyanide, and Assad used sarin gas. Big difference? Obviously not.
Two things here. First, Spicer recognized almost right away and certainly when asked about his statement that he had screwed up and that he had inadvertently engaged in Holocause denial. You could see the shame and the regret on his face, in his body language, hear it in his voice. He messed up royally, and he knew it. He has since apologized for his “inappropriate and insensitive” comparison to the Holocaust, and I suspect that the apology is quite sincere. The Anne Frank Center is calling for Sean Spicer to be fired, and I believe they’re right to insist on it. But that isn’t going to solve the problem.
Sean Spicer’s job as press secretary is to act as spokesperson for the executive branch of the United States government administration, the President, Vice-President, and their policies. That probably isn’t an easy job no matter who is in office, but right now? Well, right now, it’s Spicer’s job to put lipstick on a pig. He’s supposed to spin the behaviors, statements, policies, and intentions of a selfish, impulsive, greedy, sexist, bigoted sociopath (pig) and his cronies so that we believe what that pig wants us to believe and not what is happening in front of our faces. Spicer clearly understands what he’s doing, and nobody can make that pig look good. I don’t care who the make-up artist is. We make fun of the things Spicer says because we know they’re ridiculous, and he clearly does, too. Fire him. Yes. He messed up. But he’s just a symptom of the illness.
Second, in reference to Spicer’s statement today, he brought up a good point about being a Russian knowing that they’re cozy with Assad. We have almost the same issue here as Americans. We also need to ask ‘is this a country and a regime I want to align myself with?’
That pig Spicer is layering lipstick on is saying deplorable things some Americans like hearing; when they hear hate speech from the president they have permission to repeat it. Spicer knew that what he said was wrong, but it appears to me to be beyond saying something that is inappropriate at his job; it seemed to me that he knew (after he’d already said it) what he said was wrong and insensitive. Spicer appeared, to me, to feel actual shame. And he should. The problem is that the pig he speaks for, the Pig-In-Chief, and the pig’s numpties feel no such shame.
Pig-In-Chief and the numpties are the problem, the illness, that Spicer is a symptom of. Pig-In-Chief needs constant feedback, constant adulation. He says horrid things like “Mexicans are rapists” or “you have to treat women like shit” or that we need to ban Muslims because they’re terrorists, and his supporters cheer and chant racist slogans. 45 thinks that means he did good. Behavior reinforced, Pig-In-Chief says more sexist and racist shit. He suggests violence against the “others” among us and perpetuates terror among our own citizens. He can’t hear anyone telling him how and why what he is saying is so wrong over the din of praise from his worshipers. He dismisses anyone who doesn’t tell him what he wants to hear. He kills people in poorly-planned military operations, including shooting missiles into Syria, and gets more praise and positive press. For casual murder.
We’re reinforcing the wrong behaviors, harmful behaviors. Americans, just like Trump (only poor), who are too lazy to find out what is really going on in the world (or too simple to try to grasp the big pictures) are lapping it up, imitating the Pig-In-Chief. It’s easier for the suckers to choose ignorance when 45 makes it look like a winning option. It works for him, right? We expect the president to be better than us, smarter than us. For some reason, we wanted a change so badly that we went out of our way to choose a president who’s worse than us. Not all of us chose this, not even a majority, but enough of us in just the right places.
45 has no understanding of responsibility. Unless it’s his own revenge on someone else for what he views as a slight or disloyalty, he cannot comprehend consequences. He has no shame. He is a sociopath.
Trump has never been unclear about being full of shit. Page 58 of his book, “The Art of the Deal”:
“I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole.”
Does anyone really think DJT used the word hyperbole correctly in a sentence? twice? Yeah, neither do I, but I digress. Damned squirrels.
45’s standing up making empty promises “Believe Me” and “Make America Great Again” (what does that even mean? seriously?) and playing upon people’s fears and bigotry, encouraging violence and division. He’s telling people not to be ashamed of being bigots and lazy and mean, that if they just follow him they can be lazy, mean bigots, like their Pig-In-Chief, but that they’ll be wealthy, too. Rather than look at what is happening in the world, reality, truth, these people choose to follow him.
Our Pig-In-Chief was born to wealth. Because of where he started, he’s managed to say wealthy despite his repeated attempts to fail. In his supporter’s internet world, they put out their hate speech, and like 45 they lap up the positive responses and hit “ignore” on the negative. They go out into the world and do what Pig-In-Chief tells them to. They hurt “others” because he told them to, because he told them he’ll pay for the lawyers. It’s working fine for 45 so it should work for them, too. Do what he says, stay loyal, and soon they’ll be just like him.
But they never will be. They didn’t win the falling-out-of-the-right-vagina lottery like DJT did. 45’s supporters are suckers. They’re the people who want to believe that their hate and their sloth and their loyalty will be rewarded. They want to believe so badly that they’re willing to take us down with them. I choose not to align with that regime.
There are lots of links I’ve been collecting as examples here and there of the terrible things we do to each other, especially lately, in the United States. This series is not about celebrating the hate. It’s about revealing it, spotlighting it, pointing out even when our current administration will NOT, that it is wrong and against what most of us believe and feel and strive for in this country. This hate is not something to be proud of. It will not make us Great. This hate is and should be a source of shame and an example of how far we still have to go. It is a reminder that we cannot rest until there is no longer a “least of us” that needs protections. 45’s supporters and their hate are a cancer, fighting against and attacking our own, eating away at our progress and our unity.
Go ahead and fire Spicer, the symptom, but don’t forget what and who he represents because they are our disease, our cancer. Spicer will understand the consequences for his mistake. It’s time for these others, the Pig and the numpties, to experience consequences for what they’re doing to us. The Pig and his supporters need to see that what they’re doing is wrong, to learn shame, humility, and responsibility. We cannot reinforce these negative behaviors anymore, and we need to break them. I don’t just mean the hate speech and violence. There need to be consequences for following blindly, for espionage, for meddling in the election, and for the damage to the country, to our people, to other countries, and to the environment.
The United States of America might have been built on slavery and contradictory ideas about freedom, but it’s been almost 241 years; we’ve learned some things. The Pig-In-Chief’s supporters aren’t going to take away what we, the majority, have learned and what we’ve done for each other, so far. They’re taking us a step or two back from that Greatness we seek as a nation, but we will get there, together, despite their attempts to destroy our unity. So, they’ve put a spotlight on our weaknesses. So what if there is more to do than we thought? Now is not the time to give up.
E pluribus unum.
Link: “Islamophobia grows louder in North Carolina: ‘Can we not kill them all?‘” – by Jordan Green
Link: “ARIZONA TEACHER BONNIE VERNE SAYS IMMIGRANTS SHOULD BE VIOLENTLY KILLED” – by Raquel Reichard at Latina
Link: “Trump Scapegoats Unauthorized Immigrants for Crime” – by Peter Beinart at The Atlantic