Resolutions

Author’s preface:  This began as a post on Facebook. But the ideals outlined below apply to all of my social interactions, online and off. And because, a) not everybody who reads Stonekettle Station or follows me on Twitter subscribes to my Facebook page, and b) my Facebook page is subject to continuous attack by those who violently disagree with my viewpoint and my right to express such and therefor commenting is perforce limited to less than 5% of the people who follow me there, and because c) there is no such limitation here, I’m reposting this here on Stonekettle Station, expanded from the original Facebook post. // Jim

 

Let us make a resolution.

Let us resolve, in the coming year, to be the people we believe ourselves to be.

It won’t be easy, but then nothing worth doing ever is.

Let us resolve:

1. Trump will be president.

All alternate options are now exhausted. Short of his abnegation or unexpected demise, Donald Trump will be president of the United States.

Whether or not Trump should be the president is irrelevant.

Whether or not the opposition could have run a better candidate is irrelevant.

Whether or not Trump lost the popular election is irrelevant.

The wisdom and merits of the Electoral College (or not) are irrelevant.

This is our Vietnam, we won all the battles, but we lost the war. Trump will be the president.

As such, I ask that you stop sending me scenarios describing far-fetched, impossible ideas for [insert alternate of your choice here] to become president in his stead. That's not going to happen and I'm sick of being polite while people waste my time with it. Stop it. Please.

The simply truth of the matter is this: We need to face reality. And that reality is Donald Trump will be president.

 

2. Trump is not going to abdicate.

Whether or not Donald Trump "really wants to be president" is irrelevant.

Donald Trump is many things. And there are many things he unfortunately is not. But one thing is certain, Donald Trump is pathologically incapable of not accepting the office as his due.

Donald Trump if left to his own devices, will be president. He will not reject the office.

As such, stop entertaining fantasies suggesting that he might. He won’t. Face it.

2a. Tell you what, if he does resign the office, you may crow about it then and I will eat that crow, raw and kicking. And I will do it publicly and I will tell everybody that you told me so.

 

3. Do not wish for Trump's untimely demise in my presence.

I shouldn't have to explain why.

 

4. It's Trump. And it's going to be PRESIDENT Trump.

Yes, I know that pains you.

Yes, I know you hate the idea.

But after eight years of Oblamo, Obummer, Oh No Mo, Nobama, Obama bin Lyin, Obie, Barry, and whatever idiotic childish diminutive Conservatives managed to slap on President Obama in an attempt to delegitimize him, I refuse to resort to similar juvenile behavior.

And I think you should too.

Somebody has to be the grownup in the room and it's obviously not going to be Republicans.

So that leaves us.

I'm not telling you what to do on your own social media pages or in your own life, but I would appreciate it if you'd stick to "Trump" here.

4a. Please stop using "Drumpf."

Folks, I know some of you are really attached to that supposed insult. But it just sounds stupid. More, it is an unconscious repudiation of what we – those of us who believe in the right to define yourself – are supposed to stand for.

We tell ourselves every American has a right to define themselves, to define their own identity, and we will accept it, gay, straight, trans, queer, undecided, conservative, liberal, religion, that’s our right. We decide who we are. That’s what we tell ourselves. Some of you would come at me with both barrels if I insisted on using “Bradley” instead of “Chelsea” to describe former Army Private Manning, because in your mind even a disgraced soldier and convicted criminal who betrayed her country has the right to define who she is. And I agree with you.

My own Dutch and Irish ancestors anglicized their own (unpronounceable) surnames when they arrived here during the Potato Famine. A lot of immigrants did.

It's time to let this go.

4b. Guessing here, but I estimate that I've been called a "libtard" at least a dozen times today. That's probably the politest thing I've been called since a bunch of openly admitted racists have apparently gotten my number. Yay. So, Libtard.

Sounds stupid, doesn’t it?

Libtard. It sounds stupid even if you don’t say it out loud and it sounds even more booger-eating gap-toothed shirtless overall-wearing ignorant when you do.

Folks, that's what you sound like when you use "rethuglicans" and "conservatards" and ...

Just, stop. Please.

 

5. It's Melania. It's going to be First Lady Melania Trump.

I can't say I admire her taste in men or her choice of careers, but it's not up to me.

She's never done anything wrong to me. I have absolutely no reason to attack this woman personally. Likely neither do you.

Whether or not you find her attractive matters not one iota in any way whatsoever. Whether or not Donald and Melania find each other attractive or whether they are simply engaged in a business relationship is as irrelevant as speculation by conservatives regarding the Clintons’ marriage. I don’t know. I don’t care. I doubt you could make me see how it matters in any way important to me.

Look here, either we are the people we say we are, or we're not.

Either we are, or we aren’t. There's no gray area.

After eight years of watching Conservatives level every vile form of attack at Michelle Obama, every racist insult, every misogynist sneer, every attempt at body and identity shaming, I refuse to resort to similar behavior.

I refuse.

Again, I'm not telling you what to do on your own social media pages or in your own lives, but here I would appreciate it if you'd dispense with any tendency to slut-shaming and body/gender/identity based insults with regard to Melania Trump or the Trump children.

5a. NOTE: If Donald Trump's adult children become part of his government, or otherwise affect us as a nation, they are obviously then legitimate targets of public criticism.

Those of Trump’s adult children who are part of his transition team have made themselves legitimate targets of public criticism. Certainly. Just as adult Chelsea Clinton or Bristol Palin made themselves when they stepped into the public spotlight. I’m not arguing that at all. But that criticism is for their actions, not because they are somebody’s kids – with the caveat that nepotism is a legitimate criticism in certain cases – the Trump administration for example.

Trump’s underage kid is not a legitimate target.

I shouldn't have to explain why. Again either we are the people we say we are or we're not.

 

6. If you're an American, Donald Trump is going to be your president.

Yes, he is going to be your president.

Yes, I know a number of you pedantic bastards are going to argue the semantics of it. I would be disappointed if you didn’t.

But, just as Barack Obama was your president and the president of conservatives whether they liked it or not, Trump is going to be your president. If you're an American, if you believe in law and the Constitution and America, then you accept the results of the election (and if you don't believe in those things, then why does it matter to you who is president?).

Trump will be your president.

Our president.

It galls me as much as it likely does you, but refusing to face that unpleasant truth doesn't change the truth. It was childish when conservatives did it, it's childish when liberals do it. And as I noted up above, somebody has to be the adult, either it’s you or it’s not. Make your choice.

Trump is going to be be our president, we’re responsible for him and for what he does to our country whether you voted for him or not.  Take ownership and demand he be held to account.

That’s a responsibility of citizenship in this Republic.

That's how America works.

So what am I saying here?

Am I saying I'm throwing in with Donald Trump? That he’s my president? That I stand behind him no matter what? Is that it?

No.

Hell no.

I stand foursquare against this guy and nearly everything he represents and I will continue to do so until I no longer have the means to resist.

 

Because that too is a responsibility of citizenship.

 

What I'm saying is this:

Either we are the people we say we are, or we are not

And if we are to be the people we say we are, that we want to be, then that requires we not resort to the behavior we despise.

We must hold fast to fact-based and fact-checked reality.

After eight tedious years of one wild-assed glassy-eye conspiracy theory after another, after nearly a decade of endless birthers and a parade of truthers and more goddamned lame-ass Benghazi reboots than the Batman franchise, after robot alien reptiles in rubber human suits, after Obama is a Muslim, Obama is gay, Obama went to Mars (no really, there are people who believe the CIA teleported Obama to Mars as a teenager, twice, and those silly sons of bitches write me letters), Obama killed Antonin Scalia, Obama has 39 different Social Security numbers, Obama secretly worships Satan, Obama is going to invade Texas, Obama was adopted, Obama's wife is a man, Obama's kids were stolen from Africa (because Obama's wife is a man), Obama is a commie, Obama is a Nazi, Obama refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Obama is a time traveling super-villain here to gayify white Christian babies with his Magic Negro Ray of Chocolate Mojo, and etcetera, and etcetera, and etcetera up to the part where conservatives are actually floating the idea Obama is conspiring with Hillary Clinton to kidnap kids for some world-spanning Soros-funded pedophile wholesaler operating out of a pizza joint in Washington D.C (which they've figured out from "clues" they "deciphered" by reading John Podesta's emails which were stolen by Russians and fenced via an international criminal organization run by a guy who actually is  wanted on sexual assault charges), after 8 years of that, let's not resort to the same defective Creation-Science based reasoning here. Please.

 

Let's focus on the things that matter.

 

Let's try not to repeat every unsupported bit of wild rumor and unhinged conspiracy theory that comes along.

Trump is grossly unprepared for the job, Trump is a big enough problem, he's creating big enough problems, without us inventing stuff on top of it. So don't.

Check your facts.

Check your memes.

Check you sources.

Check your reasoning.

Logical speculation and extrapolation based on history is one thing, wild conspiracy theory is another.

We have to be the people we want to be – otherwise there is no point. And it's hard, being that person. No doubt. But the things in life most worthwhile usually are.

 

If you lay claim to the moral high ground, then you have to hold the moral high ground.

 

So, in 2017, let us resolve to be the people we want to be.

Let us stand together against the fall of night.

And let us always remember history is on our side if only we have the fortitude to see it through.