You know what? It bothers me a WHOLE LOT when I
repeatedly see people on Facebook and in the news accusing Bernie
Sanders and his supporters of being terrible people because they (and
I) will not agree to support Hillary. The accusations get uglier all
the time.
But the thing is, the convention
doesn't even HAPPEN until July. Contrary to what Clinton and
Wasserman-Schultz and the media and ALL SORTS of other people are
constantly telling us, we do not actually HAVE a candidate for the
Democratic party, at the moment. Clinton IS ahead of Sanders...
yes, I HAVE noticed. But despite all the shouting and name-calling
and media pundit-ing... she HAS NOT WON. YET.
I keep thinking about this THING that's
going on, and how everybody is ready to LEAP into the future, all the
way to JULY, going, "What IF, what IF?" We humans are
really terrible at living in the present moment, particularly
Americans, I think. I know that I personally struggle with this all
the time. I go "what if"... and then suddenly I'm
imagining all sorts of terrible outcomes. And all the time I'm
(physically) still in my pleasant apartment in Beaverton, OR, with my
wonderful husband and two lovely cats. All IS well... only I'm not
there to enjoy it. Instead, I'm off trying to figure out what's
going to happen in the future, so I can maybe prepare for it...
somehow.
It seems to me that Clinton's campaign,
and the media, and the Democratic National Committee, and all the
other powers-that-be that I don't know about behind the scenes...
that they are all exploiting this very human tendency of ours to leap
into the future. They make it seem like it's already happened, that
Clinton has won, and now we've all got to stand together to defeat
the fantastically, apocalyptically obnoxious threat that is Trump...
and if we don't, it'll be "Hello, President Trump"... and
THEN...!!!
Of COURSE, they want us to follow this
train of thought. OF COURSE, they WANT us all to fall into line
behind Clinton, and believe that the future of the free world depends
on it. But the bottom line is this: UNTIL Clinton is actually
elected as the Democratic candidate, all the trash-talk about how
Clinton is our only hope, and how Sanders and his supporters are
somehow terrible, for not supporting her...? Guess what-- that talk
is PROPAGANDA. Its only purpose is to play on our fears, to make us
despair... and to convince us that things are true, when they're NOT.
It's actually similar to what the Germans did in
World War II: they had a propagandist radio broadcaster known as
Lord Haw Haw, whose job was to convince the Allies to give
up. Good thing it didn't work!! Lord Haw Haw
I don't frankly know what I will do, IF
Clinton wins. What I DO know, is that I don't appreciate being
constantly threatened and badgered by the Clinton campaign, and the
press, and Facebook posts, that I'd better roll on my back and start
supporting her... or else Fascism will take over, and it will be ALL
MY FAULT!!
How about if we try to keep the
conversation to things that are currently happening, and out of that
dangerous "what if" territory? There's certainly plenty to
talk about, and plenty that needs to be done! But when I think too
much about what the future might hold, the world suddenly seems too
dark for me to want to continue in. I need to fight that kind of
thinking... I think we ALL do.
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