What If Trump Is Just A Distraction?

-by Tracy B Ann

Wait, what am I saying? There is no “if,” Trump is a distraction. It’s like when you’re driving down the road looking at an accident over on one side, and Wham! A car pulls in front of you and you rear end it because you weren’t paying attention. And it’s your fault too. It’s always the fault of the guy in the back. For not focusing on the road ahead.

I’m saying this as nice as I know how, to the readers and leaders here on the internet. It’s time to fucking focus! Because, you know what happens when we all collectively look to one side of the road to gawk?

We get this. A country where the majority of states are controlled by Republican Governors and legislatures. States where there is no expanded Medicaid. States where money for schools has been cut. States where money for programs for the elderly has been cut. States where programs that could help anyone get ahead, or just fucking keep their heads above water, don’t exist. Unless, you are already wealthy. In which case, you are guaranteed more wealth. Just look at that exceptional guest post from earlier today by Marvin Nelson, the progressive Democrat running for governor of North Dakota.

As Howie explained yesterday, when we lose focus we get a country like this:

Right to work is one of those tricky Republican word plays. These are states where companies have the right to pay their workers less than what they are worth, and give them no benefits. “No Union States” is the accurate title. “Right to Live in Poverty States.”

This is the shit we get because of our apparent ADD; our inability to get focused and stay focused.

I would bet anyone my house and my car, that Hillary Clinton will win this Presidential election without much help from us. I say this as someone who is not a fan of Hillary Clinton either.

If the choice is Clinton or Trump, you bet your ass I'll be voting for Clinton and so will a lot of other people who wouldn’t normally vote for her. I had already committed to voting for the Democratic candidate no matter who it was, but we’ve gone beyond that now. This isn’t right vs. left or liberal vs. conservative, or moderate vs. progressive.

Nope, we’ve moved into the sane vs. insane territory and all but the lunatic fringe know that, and the lunatic fringe isn’t big enough to elect a President. What they can do though, is draw attention away from the really important matters.

What matters to me, is getting a progressive Congress elected, a Congress who will support Clinton when she takes office, and drive through the issues that will help the people like me, who live in the red states.

Did Donald Trump call for some “Second Amendment People" to “take out” Clinton? No. He said this:

"By the way, and if she gets to pick-- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks," Trump warned. "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

And his staff walked it back to this:

“It’s called the power of unification-- 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power."

I believe these versions too. What the Republicans seem to be able to do that the Democratic Party can’t do, is to focus. Guns, Gays and God. Like lasers, Republicans focus on that, and car crashes to the sides don’t distract them from their purpose.

What did the “2nd Amendment people” do after Sandy Hook? After one batshit crazy guy went into an elementary school and used an assault weapon to kill 26 people? Twenty of them little tiny kids? Well, they doubled down as usual. Wayne LaPierre hired a security team (ironic isn’t it?) and went off to Washington to give his famous “only a good guy with a gun, can stop a bad guy with a gun” speech.

When the Sandy Hook parents went to Washington to try to help get a bill passed to do something, anything... they were told, Yeah, no, sorry, nothing we can do. Not even close a background check loophole.

The average 6 and 7 year old (the ages of the 20 children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre) is about 3 and ½' tall and they weigh around 42 lbs. And we couldn't pass any kind of laws protecting them from the weapons manufacturing industry. For fucks sake!

You want to keep talking about Trump? Every day? All day? Fill up the whole fucking world wide web?

Be my guest, but this is what it will get us. Continuing to move in this direction. More and more red on the map. More poverty, more income inequality, more climate change, and more mass shootings. More racism, sexism, ageism and schism-ism.

I want a map that looks like this. It’s not unicorns and fairy dust but it’s at least a start.

I don’t think we’ll get that by focusing on Trump. We’ll get there by electing a progressive Democratic Congress, progressive Democratic Governors and progressive Democratic State Legislatures. We do that by filling the blogs, the newspaper letters to the editors, face book and twitter, with articles about theprogressive Democrats in down ballot races. We do that by writing articles about voting and voters rights.

So please, I am fucking begging. The average 6 and 7 year old has a 10 minute attention span. Can we show some respect for the kids who have died, the ones who are living, and the ones yet to be born, and focus? For longer than 10 minutes? For 10 hours? 10 days? 10 months?

Write an article about a candidate you like. Like and share and comment on any post you see about a down ballot candidate, voting or voters rights. Ignore any of the other flotsam or jetsam that may appear on your screen. I have my dream map in mind and the only way to bring it into reality is to make it happen. I think we can do that. All we need is to focus. Fucking focus!