I came across this essay on Facebook... It is so noteworthy I decided to include it on one of my blogs. Please read it and learn about what we, who critically think, have suspected all along about the Party of No (republican) and all their supporters. thinkingblue
They/ Don’t/ Care.
By: KAREN HAAKENSON-KAHAN•SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2017
Okay. I’m seeing a whole lot of very nice people agonizing over what the GOP and Trump are doing, and trying to appeal rationally to others about how wrong it is. Especially now that the Big White-Guy Privilege Machine is starting to warm up in all its antisocial racist anti-LGBTQ feudal misogynist anti-secular glory. So I think something needs pointing out before anyone else attempts to engage Trump supporters in rational discussion about the issues being perpetrated by their politicians. That thing is this: They. Don’t. Care.
Trump, the GOP, the supporters: They. Don’t. Care.
They. Don't. Care.
It's unconstitutional? They don't care.
It's unethical? They don't care. It’s going to leave a shit-ton of women without access to affordable, crucial, preventive testing and women’s healthcare? They. Don’t. Care. It’s going to leave millions of citizens without legal protection--at work, at the ER, at home, walking down the street? They. Don’t. Care.
It's going to leave a huge number of American taxpaying citizens without *any* healthcare? They don't care. It’s going to completely bankrupt the Middle Class? They don't care. It's going to burn down and salt the earth of what was once a good education system? They don't care. It’s going to leave the next generation with a raped and denuded country, and no ability to work competitively with the rest of the world for... anything?
They don't care.
It's going to legislatively endorse open discrimination in practice and theory against many groups of marginalized citizens? They don't care.
It directly contradicts what they said when they were campaigning? They don't care.
Russia worked to influence the legitimacy of this election? They don't care.
The national and international comparisons of Trump to Hitler are flying faster and thicker around us? They don't care. We’ve been put on the map as the country currently under the most unstable impending leadership in our history? They don't care.
It is absolutely corrupt? It is. But they don't care.
And by "they," I mean the political figures *AND* the voters who put them there. Because what we’re seeing the birth of right now? *This* is *exactly* what those folks were after.
If they cared about *any* of those arguments, any well-thought-out explanations for why it is reprehensible and literally or morally wrong, our concerns for the youth of this country, our concern for our standing in the world, any of the protests, any of the open rage or disappointment or rebellion or disapproval, Donald Trump would not be our president, and the rest of his merry band of rich-frat-boy Christian Sharia neo-nazis would not control all of the branches of our government in the first place.
This is what they worked for; what they wanted as a result. This is the monument to the triumph they built. And they don't give a fuck about what any of us think about it now that it's theirs. They’re sometimes willing to listen a while to what we have to say, but only so they can use our discourse as a way to insert “Libtard” and, “Get over it,” into the conversation as often as possible. They love this shit. They hope this shit goes on forever. Seriously. This is the world they wanted all along.
That's the truth. I found the truth important, myself, because it got a lot easier to disagree, draw my own lines in the sand, when I no longer felt a need to explain our points of view and serve as one of millions of completely ignored canaries in the coal mine. Because they really don't care. And that makes it okay for me to change the paradigm I’m going to live with now. It’s freeing, actually. We can disagree simply because we disagree, instead of disagreeing because the research no one is going to look at or give any validation whatsoever shows our point. We can skip addressing any of them at all, and spend that saved energy volunteering at a community table or something, where we are among people who aren’t actively trying to pervert everything that made us proud to be American people. We can stop trying to save people who want the sort of country whose leaders shamelessly, smugly, vengefully, actively work against the majority of the taxpayers who pay them for "representation." We can give up giving a shit about people who have expressed their disdain for us, and be loyal to those who deserve our loyalty rather than demand, and then denigrate, it. Because they're going to do exactly what they've been dying to do all along, and until an avenue--a legitimate avenue--to take meaningful action head-on against it appears, we’re all going along for this ride together.
That's a grim thought, yes. But all indications thus far are bearing it out pretty clearly. This is a country divided in a way, already, that commentators on international news outlets are referring to as a Cold Civil War. We aren’t going to change that with our respectful forbearance, and fairplay debate skills. They. Don’t. Care.
So calling it by name is pretty freeing. Reality--even if it sucks--is more empowering than not. It means we can drop the pretense, drop that particular exercise in social debate, and just do what we need to do. What we can, what we'd like, to do to make things better and safer for each other, without them. In spite of them. We still care; we can care about the things we can do.
So they don't care. What are you willing/able to do without their involvement and approval? Grow a garden this year? A larger garden? Share some produce with friends and family? Teach someone how to preserve seasonal foods by pickling or canning? Help your community with winterization? Get together with a few members of your community to start a small clothing bank for shelters (or individual members) in your community? Buy a gas card if you have a few bucks, and give it to someone who needs it when you can? Offer to pick someone at risk up from a night class or a late work shift? Ask each other once a week how they’re doing and what they need?
The roots are the strongest part of the trees. That’s the truth, no matter what the rest of the forest thinks.
So they don't care. As long as we still do, we're free to decide what to do about it.
