Thoughts On Inauguration Day

/ Sirius Bizinus
Image from Pinterest.

Image from Pinterest.

Normally I don’t pay much attention to Inauguration Day. I’ve ignored it every time it’s happened, in fact. Today was no exception. Regardless of whatever leanings one has, the world is still spinning. The universe hasn’t collapsed. Life goes on.

The whole spectacle surrounding this is surreal.
I’ve written and deleted over a thousand words on this by now, and I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t overcome my apathy at the spectacle. Everyone seems to have a crusade over this. It’s like everyone can agree this is important, but they can’t agree on why it’s important. All anyone is doing is watching some guy put a hand on a book and say some words.

What happens next could be anything. I didn’t vote for the guy because I thought he’d do more harm than good. I might be right, or I might be wrong. If he does a great job in office, I will be more than happy to admit I’m wrong. It’s more important that people lead productive, healthy, and happy lives than for me to be right about someone I disagree with.

One thing I think needs to happen is everyone needs to practice their listening skills.
I know people who voted for this president because they just needed relief from the previous president’s policies. The ACA ended up not doing well for a lot of people, myself included. Under the previous president, deportations went up, drone strikes proliferated, foreign crises got mishandled, and people got to watch big businesses get bailed out while they lost their homes. They have a legitimate beef with how Dems handled things, and they voted accordingly.

Similarly, I know people protesting this current president because their votes mathematically aren’t equal to people in other states. Take those voters and place them elsewhere, and the election would be different. Only geography accounts for the result of what happened. Dismissing them as childish ignores their real concern that they aren’t treated equally under the law.

In other words, this means that almost everyone can find some valid faults with how our government is run. Is it okay to give tax breaks and handouts to people that make billions of dollars a year? Is it okay to make poor people spend half their income on health insurance? Is it okay to elect someone who gets into Twitter feuds like it’s a hobby?

People still get along in spite of politics.
That’s what I want to remember. Let this president do whatever he feels like. If he does ill, I think people will recognize it for what it is. And if he does well for people, that’s a bonus. Whatever happens, it will not change who I am.

15 thoughts on “Thoughts On Inauguration Day”

  1. I can understand what you are trying to say, but I do not fully agree. I feel that he will do as he wishes, will do what makes things better for him. He will do what is inline with his goals. One of the signs he has shown of this is all the nominees for departments and offices are people who dislike, want to eliminate, or are totally against the service that the department / office provides. Mostly I am afraid his supporters will not wish him ill if his administration takes actions that curtail the civil rights of some groups. For me personally I am worried he will weaken the meaning of my marriage, will provide people the legal means to ignore what benefits come with my marriage. I doubt his supporters would react negatively about things like that. I worry he will make things harder for the least among us and those of different ethnic backgrounds. I also doubt the majority of his supporters would object to that. I do hope I am wrong but that if my fear with this administration. Hugs

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    • Those are some pretty big fears, Scottie. I’d like to point out that Trump getting elected didn’t change what some of his supporters were going to do anyways. They were still going to be against gay marriage. Even when Trump appoints a Supreme Court nominee, the Supreme Court will still not be composed of people that will reverse the decision.

      What this means is that if they try to take away rights for homosexual couples, they’re just going to create a huge body of law that defends it. In the short term, it will be scary, but as things go on, it will only erode that group’s popularity.

      Quite frankly, to pick on the LGBT community is a hill they’d be stupid to die on. Most people under 40 who can vote have become disgusted with such discrimination, and it will just erode that support even further to the point that they can’t ignore the negative effects.

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      • I don’t think they can overturn marriage equality, but I do think they can enact laws to make it nearly worthless. The so called religious freedom laws at both state and federal levels will do that. Every nominee that tRump has picked is seriously anti LGBTQ. Jeff Sessions his attorney general pick is extremely hostile to the LGBTQ community. During his time in congress he has vigorously fought any thing benefiting LGBTQ people. As for tRumps supporters, they may have been anti many things but kept it under some control. Now they feel embolden. I read of one elderly politician who groped a woman and claimed it was OK as tRump had changed everything. Hate crimes are up all over the country. The racist and homophobes are coming out of the shadows and strutting around in daylight thinking they have clear permission now to lash out. I do agree we have more people accepting than before, still the against crowd is very vocal and has the congress and republican party behind them. As you know there are still places where the courts put ideology before law on these issues. So while we have people willing to go to court we will lose many battles before we end up winning. Everything will be appealed to the highest level possible, mostly the Supreme court. In the meantime more laws like the pretend bathroom laws will be passed and need to be fought on every level. In 16 states I heard they are being considered. The religious right will keep screaming till their dying breath that we somehow are responsible for all wrongs in the world and they must destroy us at all costs. I have read that they plan to do to gay equality and civil rights what they have been doing to abortion and reproduction rights. Chip away at them until you have the right but can’t use it, you will have the right but it won’t mean anything. Hugs

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      • You’re right that this seems to be the tactic, but that was also the tactic back in segregation as well. Standing against centuries of discrimination never was going to be easy. Quite frankly, your courage at being who you are up until this point is astounding. In the end, it is that strength which people have drawn and will draw from.

        That’s why I’m confident equality will prevail. Hatred is a fire which consumes its fuel. Being who you are in spite of that will always last longer.

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      • Yes, I see that is understandable but what I am trying figure out is that since most of his supporters are blue collar workers that feel left out, well they think is rhetoric is positive. If he says health ins for all, jobs for all I would think that is very positive. Seems Hillary supporters put fear for what Trump would do and Trump supporters put fear in what Hillary would do and neither could know unless time plays out. I have no real position here but it is unfortunate that there is such rabid hate on all sides before anything has started like they already know the future is against their particular interests. .

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      • Your points are valid. It seems people prefer to lean towards the negative. I guess they would rather be pleasantly surprised than utterly disappointed. 😉

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  3. Nope.
    Best case scenario: this guy really is the feckless twit who he appears to be, and he flails about for a bit before sinking back to the world of make-believe from whence he arose.
    Worst case scenario: he actually does some of the things he’s been spraying about.
    Either way, he remains a standard-issue jackass, and it is hard to blame him for it. His supporters have it right. He’s just being himself.
    But those supporters do not get a pass. Those little douches endorsed all the pussy-grabbing, waterboarding, extreme-vetting spray which he spewed. If it wasn’t why they voted for him, then at least they thought that the cost of swallowing that nasty shit was not too high.
    No pass.
    The inauguration means nothing, ’cause it changes nothing

    Liked by 1 person

    • It’s not about giving people a pass, but doing what you can to get people to help fix the problem. There’s going to be a Congressional election in a couple years, and those historically have low turnout. Getting everyone to vote for candidates who will block Trump’s policies should be a high priority.

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  4. I fell asleep last night with the radio going and woke up to the sound of the vice president being sworn in, followed by the swearing in of Trump and then his inauguration speech. From someone from outside the US, it was kind of chilling. He’ll “make America Great again” Isn’t he aware that it’s still the most powerful nation on earth, and that it has the highest per capita income? What does he mean by “great”?

    He placed an awful lot of emphasis on “patriotism”. I get the feeling that anyone who doesn’t support his vision (what ever it is) will be considered unpatriotic, and I hate to think what might happen to such people. One only needs to look at how protesters and hecklers were dealt with at his rallies to get some idea.

    Then there’s his claim that a nation has the right to put its interests first, above all other considerations. With a nation as large and powerful as the USA, that amounts to bullying – no give and all take. I would like to be proved wrong, but the tone of his speech doesn’t give me much hope.

    And why, oh why did he have to bring religion into it? He mentioned God six time and the Bible once. We’d all be cringing with embarassment if a Kiwi polititian did that.

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