Coping and Unfriending

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

On Wednesday morning of last week, I was woken up around 8:30 by my girlfriend calling me on my mobile, but I couldn’t get to it in time to answer. A few seconds later, she rang on my land line and told me she was at my front door with my birthday presents. I didn’t even have to ask, and especially when I got downstairs and saw her face at the door, I knew Trump had won. But I asked anyway, “So Trump won, right?” She gave a very nervous yes, afraid I might decide to top myself, but instead I said nothing, merely went to the house message board  and wrote a simple “Fuck America.” Not exactly professorial, but it was all I could think of at the time.

It was sad coming on my birthday, and only 24 hours after we had gotten back from a lovely week in New York. By the way, that adage about New Yorkers being unfriendly (the old joke goes: “Hey, typical New Yorker, is this the way to Times Square, or should I just go fuck myself?”) couldn’t have been further from the truth. Almost everyone we asked for assistance was more than accommodating, and some who could tell by our demeanour that we were tourists were more than willing to volunteer information.

From the little bits of television I watched out there, the Trump victory didn’t surprise me as much as it probably did most of the people. I could see a certain arrogance/confidence from the Trump team that was not just predicting a win, but almost guaranteeing it.  In NYC, the mood was pretty solidly Hillary, but once we made our way to upstate New York, I saw a lot more Trump/Pence signs than Clinton/Kaine’s. I figured this was indicative of the rest of the nation, and I was correct there, just as in June, I saw only Remain signs in my North London neighbourhood, but almost all Pro-Brexit signs anywhere outside the city.

It’s been a dismal year for anyone left of centre, and to compound it, there’s all the great artists that have checked out this year, let’s now welcome Leon Russell and Leonard Cohen to this incredible list. The bright spot may have been the Cubs winning the World Series after 108 years of futility, but on my own personal front, I’ve had to deal with my dad’s death and my brother’s marriage falling apart after 36 years. I manage to keep myself happy, and a couple of months ago, I posted “I’m just really fucking happy,” which got the most response of anything I’d posted all year. I expect this post will not be quite as popular.

What’s been most upsetting this past week has been the continual gloating from the Trump supporters, who only have to spew a couple of sentences of their gobbledygook, and I can’t hit the unfriend button fast enough. One high school friend tried to cheer me up with “Be happy about it, we elected a family man with some new ideas, and rejoice in the dawning of a new Ameruca.” Before I’d seen this post, and had the chance to say, “well if you love your country so fucking much, maybe you should learn how to SPELL it,” he had already gone off on someone else (coincidentally another high school friend) with the “Well it’s better than that corrupt blah blah blah e-mails blah blah Benghazi.” My parting shot before un-friending was “I preferred the ‘corrupt’ woman to the vile, racist, misogynist man, just as I prefer not to read your bullshit, so even though we had some laughs 48 years ago, you’re gone, buddy. Family man?? ‘If she weren’t my daughter, I’d be dating her.’ Yeah, real family values.”

Several comics have been excluded from my life, as well as one high school acquaintance who not only was a Trump supporter, but was saying the sort of crap I used to hear back in the 60’s from people that were about the same age I am now. This guy was going through the whole “love-it-or-leave-it” diatribe, not even to me, but to a Latino-American high school friend who was voicing his displeasure. It ended with “Why don’t you just go back to Mexico,” which was amusing as the guy he was spewing his venom to was a third generation Californian. This crap is happening way too much.

I don’t believe I’ve unfriended everyone who I think voted for Trump, especially since there’s a few of them I like too much. Hillary did a lousy job of campaigning, starting with her running mate. I plan for my next quiz Tuesday, to ask, “Name Hillary Clinton’s running mate in this year’s election,” and I bet people will have forgotten already. She could have helped herself by picking Bernie Sanders, which would have garnered a good million of those Sanders supporters in the swing states who wound up voting for Trump in protest. Also the big money backed her without thinking about the baggage she carried, and what the opposition would do to her. She held up pretty gracefully, all things considered, but it wasn’t enough. Truth be told, I never got to the point of actually liking her, but was fearful enough of the alternative.

I’m not happy with the results (duh!), but I really don’t want to hear any further gloating or belittling me for being a Libtard, or any other kind of insults. The word I have the most trouble with in the English language is the word ‘stupid,’ and I’ve seen it bandied about way too much. I know I’m NOT stupid,  so don’t call me that just because I disagree with you. If you dare to call me that, then in simple English, Fuck You in Your Every Orifice, you’re unfriended, and have a nice rest of your life.

November 17th, 2016



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