Category: politics

bookmark_borderA beautiful day

Posted on by Marissa

I am happy today. 

This is the first time in my life that I have voted for a presidential candidate who won. In 2008, the first year I was eligible to vote, I voted for libertarian candidate Bob Barr. In 2012, I voted for libertarian candidate Ron Paul. In 2016, I voted for libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. I was happy that Trump won, and definitely preferred him to Hillary Clinton, but due to the fact that all of Massachusetts’s electoral votes are basically guaranteed to always go to the democratic candidate, I continued my tradition of voting third party. In 2020, I voted for Trump, and he lost. In 2024, I voted for Trump and – it feels both strange and amazing to type these words – he won.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Italian Americans 4 Trump 🇺🇸🇮🇹 (@italiani4trump)

It is a beautiful day. Things feel lighter, more hopeful. I feel that I can breathe again. A noose is no longer tightening around my throat, the heavy boot of tyranny no longer stomping on my face. For four years, I never thought that this result would happen. To some extent, it feels magical, unreal, almost like a dream. Part of me feels that any moment I will wake up, and this beautiful reality will be shattered.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by RFK Jr. (@robertfkennedyjr)

I am proud of my country today. For four years, the sight of the American flag, the sound of patriotic music, and the mention of the Fourth of July made me feel more pain than pride. For me, these things signified the country that had elected a government determined to force people to undergo a medical procedure against their will and to destroy everything that makes life worth living. But now I feel much more positively towards America. Self-righteous bullies have spent four years pompously lecturing about “our democracy,” but now the very democracy that they’ve spent all this time worshipping and fetishizing has elected Donald Trump! Perhaps this country, this democracy, isn’t so bad after all.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Vivek Ramaswamy (@vivekgramaswamy)

I admit that Trump is not perfect. He almost certainly does not care about statues with the same intensity as I do, or in the same way that I do. He cannot fully reverse the atrocities that have been committed against historical figures, and by extension against myself. He may not even partially reverse them. But for today at least, it feels like a healing balm has been smoothed over my wounds. This election result is the most significant good thing that has happened in a very long time. It does not undo the pain, anguish, and trauma that I’ve experienced over the past four years. But it helps. It really helps. 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Virginia Flaggers (@the_virginia_flaggers)

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by colbycovington (@colbycovington)

Four years ago, at this exact time of year, was the rock bottom of my life. Everything that made my life worth living had been destroyed, the historical figures that I love having been lynched, smashed to pieces, set on fire, beheaded, strangled, and drowned with complete impunity, and the people who committed these atrocities perceived as holding the moral high ground in the eyes of society. And by electing Joe Biden rather than Donald Trump, our country confirmed that they didn’t care about my pain, didn’t care about my perspective, didn’t care about the historical figures’ right to exist. Our country’s response to my pain was to inflict even more of it. Our country’s response to my (metaphorical) gaping, bleeding wounds was to rub salt in them. Seeing other people’s joy, exuberance, celebrations, and gloating, after the excruciating agony that I had experienced over the preceding months, was nothing short of soul-crushing.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Jason Aldean (@jasonaldean)

Now, the situation is reversed. It’s the mirror image of that horrible time four years ago. I never thought that such a thing would happen, and I hesitate to type these words for fear that I will somehow jinx it. But the people who gloated so cruelly and gratuitously four years ago, who fell all over each other in their eagerness to shove their spiteful celebrations down my throat, lost. I won, and it is now my turn to gloat. Part of me wants to do exactly that. The people who hurt me deserve to be punished for their actions. Retribution, revenge, justice… these words are all synonyms to me, and all are completely justified in this situation. But another part of me sees the merits of what is commonly referred to as “taking the high road.” If I gloat as nastily as my enemies did, then that makes me like them, at least a little bit. Part of me feels that the people who caused my pain deserve to experience the same pain in return, while part of me feels that no person deserves to experience pain so horrific.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Jacob Bryant (@jacobbryantmusic)

Regardless, I am happy today. I intend to savor this feeling, to soak it in, to enjoy it for as long as I can. For the past four and a half years, positive experiences have been hard to come by for me. This is a big and important one, which I truly appreciate.

In an Instagram post which you can view here or below, Breitbart News described Trump’s victory as “indisputably the greatest political comeback in American history,” and I can’t help but agree. Trump is only the second president, after Grover Cleveland, to win two non-consecutive terms, and as the post mentions, he overcame “multiple prosecutions; two assassination attempts; censorship on social media; overt media bias; and even efforts to intimidate his lawyers.”

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Breitbart (@wearebreitbart)

Breitbart’s mention of overt media bias is no exaggeration. Starting with their coverage of the capitol protest on January 6, 2021, the news media has completely given up on even pretending to be neutral. Their coverage of that protest was appalling, disgraceful, literally sickening, beyond unprofessional, and absolutely shocking to the conscience. Nearly 100% of their political coverage over the ensuing four years has fit those descriptions as well. Any semblance of neutrality, or professionalism for that matter, has completely vanished. Prior to 2020, the news media certainly had a progressive bias, but at least it was covert. Now their bigotry, their closed-mindedness, their utter contempt for anyone who deviates from their totalitarian social norms, is naked, blatant, and on full display. I have been hurt, enraged, and traumatized dozens if not hundreds of times over the past four years thanks to the news media, and this is despite making the decision to almost entirely cease news consumption due to finding it so hurtful, enraging, and traumatizing. Every time I so much as glimpse a biased headline, I am reminded painfully of the fact that news consumption, previously an enjoyable and interesting way to gain information, has devolved into just another way for society to torment me by expressing its rejection and hatred.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk1776)

Which brings me to the most amazing and remarkable thing about this election result:  for possibly the first time in my life, the people who hurt me didn’t get what they wanted, and I did. The gloating “friends,” acquaintances, family members, and strangers on social media. The mindless conformists who displayed Harris/Walz signs on their lawns in order to remind me every time I walk down the street that they support the lynching of the man that I love. Democratic politicians, activists, and government officials determined to eradicate every last shred of diversity and individual liberty from the earth. Their despicable accomplices in the aforementioned news media, who have traumatized me dozens if not hundreds of times. Bullying prosecutors. Orwellian social media executives. Wannabee assassins. All of these people lost. And I won. That’s something that has never happened to me before, and I am in awe of it. 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by President Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump)

One final observation about Trump’s victory is that it provides a bit of justice, even if only small, for the historical figures. Particularly the statue of Christopher Columbus who stood at the Minnesota state capitol until being lynched by a mob of bigoted bullies in summer 2020. Perhaps statues weren’t in the forefront of voters’ minds when they cast their ballots, but rather overshadowed by more mundane issues such as inflation, social security, immigration, and the economy. Regardless, the man who chose to allow this lynching to happen, and later to characterize it as an understandable act of civil disobedience, lost his bid to become vice president. So today I am thinking about Christopher Columbus of St. Paul, Minnesota. Nothing can undo the atrocity that was done to him, but today brings him a quantum of justice. He, and what was done to him, must never, ever be forgotten. 

Christopher Columbus Statue with the Minnesota State Capitol in background

 

bookmark_borderWhy I am voting for Donald Trump

Posted on by Marissa

Today’s election is a very important moment for our country. I’ve identified as a Republican for many years and have volunteered for various Republican campaigns and organizations, but the past few years have really changed how I see the world. Tomorrow I will be voting for Donald Trump. I feel more strongly about this decision than I’ve felt about my choice in any other election, and here are three reasons why: 

  1. I never thought that the continued existence of historical statues would become a political issue. Tragically, countless statues have been permanently removed, torn down, and destroyed, something that has been devastating to me. Donald Trump is the only candidate who has spoken out for statues. He has stood up for them in his public remarks, signed an executive order increasing punishments for people who harm statues, and signed an executive order calling for a new statue garden (unfortunately canceled by Biden).
  2. Additionally, I never thought that the United States government would require people to undergo a medical procedure. Yet that is exactly what the Biden administration did by introducing an OSHA rule mandating the covid vaccine. In my opinion, this is a huge violation of individual rights, and I would never support any politician from the Biden administration as a result.
  3. The horrible thing that happened to the Christopher Columbus statue in St. Paul, Minnesota is important enough to list as its own reason. The images of what was done to this statue – see this blog post for more details – are horrific, traumatizing, and seared permanently into my consciousness. Tim Walz deliberately chose to allow the atrocity to happen, and late characterized it as an understandable act of “civil disobedience.” The Italian American Civil Rights League issued a press release correctly characterizing what happened as “racism” and “a flagrant hate crime,” which you can read here. Additionally, Dr. Christopher Binetti published an important article, an excerpt of which is below:

When rioters came to destroy the Columbus monument on the grounds of the state Capitol in Saint Paul, Governor Walz ordered state troopers, who were on the scene, to stand down and let it happen. The main culprit, shown lassoing the head of Columbus in broad daylight, was penalized for his crime with only community service. Walz never returned the statue to its rightful pedestal. Italian Americans have been in a state of second class citizenship under Walz, ever since.

Italian Americans are not safe anywhere in America because of Walz’s actions. Thanks to him, the attack on the Columbus monument in St. Paul was copied all over the country: In Richmond, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Ohio, etc…

Walz wants to erase us because he loathes us as Italians. This is not about Columbus or even Howard Zinn, whose warped views of history Walz seems to embrace. This is about the dehumanization of Italian Americans in Minnesota and throughout America. Remember, that in order to destroy Columbus, his statue had to be physically lynched. No one seemed to care about that symbolism; how it reminded us of the horrifying lynching and riotous massacre of Italians, in 1891, in New Orleans. Make no mistake, Walz loathes Italians.

Binetti correctly, and importantly, characterizes what happened as “the lynching and tearing down of the Columbus monument.” Indeed, a mob of bigots and bullies decided to viciously lynch Christopher Columbus at the Minnesota state capitol, and Tim Walz decided that it was OK for this to happen. This statue, and the horrible thing that was done to him, must never be forgotten.

For these reasons, my little statues and I are voting for Donald Trump.

bookmark_borderKamala Harris’s repugnant comments on Columbus Day

Posted on by Marissa

“European explorers ushered in a wave of devastation, violence, stealing land, and widespread disease.” – Kamala Harris

Unsurprisingly, Kamala Harris posted the above in a tweet on Columbus Day. Seeing statements like this is hurtful, exhausting, and demoralizing. I am sick and tired of being made to feel that my very existence is something that I need to apologize for. I did not choose my skin color. I did not choose my ancestry. I did not chose to be born, and I did not choose which country or continent to be born in. And I don’t deserve to be shamed or humiliated for these characteristics, as Harris has done with this statement. 

Perhaps European explorers did usher in those things that Harris claims. But honestly… who cares? What is the point of mentioning this, and what is Harris trying to accomplish by doing so?

European explorers lived multiple centuries ago. Neither they, nor their alleged victims, are alive. I certainly didn’t cause the atrocities listed by Harris (nor did anyone who is alive today); therefore I do not deserve to be punished for them. The only thing accomplished by harping on and on about the alleged atrocities of European explorers is to inflict shame and humiliation on people like me, who didn’t do anything wrong. To inflict suffering and punishment on people who don’t deserve it. It’s disgusting that anyone – let alone a major political party’s candidate for president – would consider this a good thing to do.

Octavian destroyed the lives of Antony and Cleopatra, and the English army burned Joan of Arc alive at the stake. Why do Harris and other Democratic politicians not go on and on about that? Why does our society care so much about the alleged devastation, violence, theft of land, and disease inflicted on indigenous people, but not care a whit about the suffering that I’ve experienced going through life as an autistic person being held to neurotypical standards of success?

It’s because, in the eyes of Democratic politicians, not everyone’s pain matters. Not everyone’s experiences and perspectives matter. But rather only the pain, only the experiences and perspectives, of groups deemed (arbitrarily and randomly) to be “oppressed.” In the eyes of society, indigenous peoples’ pain matters, but not mine. Black people’s pain matters, but not mine. Queer and trans people’s pain matters, but not mine. It’s like a clique of popular kids in middle school. Only those people deemed “cool” enough to be in the clique matter. There is only empathy, recognition, acknowledgement, and inclusion for those deemed “cool” enough to be in the clique, and not for anyone else. 

As an autistic person, I’ve been told all my life that everything I do is wrong. I’ve never been deemed “cool” enough to be in any clique. I’ve grown up feeling that I need to apologize for my tone of voice, the words I use, my body language, my hobbies, the way that I dress, the way that I do my hair… the list is endless. And now I am being told that, because I am descended from European explorers, I need to apologize for existing in the US.

No. No more. I am sick and tired of living in a society that acknowledges everyone’s pain, everyone’s experiences, everyone’s perspectives, except for my own. It is past time that I be included, that I be shown empathy and recognition, that my struggles be acknowledged and my accomplishments celebrated, rather than me being condemned for immutable characteristics over which I have no control. Harris should apologize for the intolerance and lack of empathy that she has demonstrated with this statement.

bookmark_border“LMAOOO he’s shrinking”

Posted on by Marissa
 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk1776)

In addition to the fact that it is factually incorrect (as Charlie Kirk’s response demonstrates), this post angers me because it exemplifies the flippant, stuck-up, and quite frankly moronic attitudes of those on the left-hand side of the political spectrum. 

It’s as if they look at politics as a game, as a source of entertainment, as a joke.

While I’ve been subjected to excruciating, soul-crushing pain for over four years due to government policies that violate my rights and destroy the things that my life worth living, they laugh their butts off because a person that they dislike has allegedly shrunk in size. While I logically analyze issues, make philosophical arguments to support my positions, and thoughtfully consider the best words to use in expressing my ideas, they ridicule a person because of his height. 

For me, politics matters because one of the major political parties supports forcing me to undergo medical procedures against my will, discriminating against me because of my skin color, and obliterating from existence the historical figures that I love. Politics matters because the outcome of the election may very well determine whether I have any hope of a life that is worth living. 

But to supporters of Harris and Walz, politics are apparently just one big joke. In their eyes, politics are something funny, a source of entertainment, an opportunity to ridicule, insult, and make fun of people who are different from them.

There is so much talk about white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, cis privilege, et cetera, but no one recognizes or acknowledges the type of privilege that this “LMAOOO” post represents. This post represents true privilege: the ability to treat politics as a joke because it’s not your rights under attack, not you being shamed, sneered at, and insulted merely for existing, not your loved ones being lynched and dismembered with impunity.

Slowly and laboriously, I am working to heal from grief and pain more severe than I ever thought possible, all while fighting to preserve the few things left in this country that are worth fighting for. Meanwhile, the person who made this post is making fun of someone for shrinking as he gets older.

The things that I’ve experienced are not something that I will ever be able to laugh off, and it’s both infuriating and disturbing that those on the other side can dismiss political issues as a laughing matter.

As one of the comments on the post astutely pointed out: “Even if he’s shrinking.. is that all they’ve got? Trying to find reasons to not vote for him, and ‘shrinking’ is what they came up with.”

The attitude embodied by the “LMAOOO” post is mean-spirited, thoughtless, and completely lacking in empathy. It’s pathetic that this is the level to which political discourse has sunk in our country. 

And I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that to be particularly funny. 

bookmark_borderAn example of the bias of Yahoo News

Posted on by Marissa

While checking my email the other day, I came across this infuriating set of headlines on Yahoo:

I can almost hear the awe and admiration in the author’s voice when reading the headline about Harris’s “historic speech” as the “first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s presidential nomination.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s reason for doubting election results is sneeringly dismissed as “baseless.” 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: News articles and headlines are required to be neutral. This is the entire purpose of the news media. News articles, and their headlines, must contain information only, without opinions or value judgments.

Despite this, Yahoo, as well as other media outlets, has a pattern of consistently portraying one party’s politicians in glowing terms while criticizing, condemning, shaming, attacking, and calling attention to every possible negative thing about, political figures of the other party. Because the things that have been going on in this country over the past few years are so triggering to me, I almost never read news articles. Yahoo’s disdain for people whose political views differ from those of the establishment is so blatant that its existence is obvious merely from looking at headlines. Given that the entire purpose of the news media is to present facts only, and to abstain entirely from voicing opinions, this situation is completely unacceptable.

To characterize something as “baseless” is an insult, not a piece of information. Therefore, it is unacceptable for a news headline to contain this word. (Unless it is part of a quote by a person whom the article is quoting… but that is not the case here. “Baseless” is the headline writer’s own word.)

It is mentally exhausting to be made to feel shamed, insulted, and attacked day in and day out for having political beliefs that are different from the majority. Shame on Yahoo for their repeated use of bigoted, biased, pejorative, and sneering headlines.

bookmark_borderOveranalyzing the pro-Palestine posters in Malden

Posted on by Marissa

Lately, I have been seeing various pro-Palestine posters and stickers taped to stop signs and streetlights around my town. One such example is the below poster, which was displayed at the pond near my house:

The first thing that stood out to me upon reading the poster was that the pro-Palestine groups or individuals who put this up poster chose, in arguing against using tax dollars to fund Israel’s weapons, to list different expenses that the tax dollars could be spent on instead, rather than arguing that the tax dollars simply be returned to the people from whom they were taken.

I guess there is nothing wrong with providing households with public housing or solar electricity, as long as the selection process is fair. Same with elementary school teachers and N95 masks.

But I’m puzzled that the flyer mentions specifically that 326 children could be provided with healthcare. Why isn’t providing adults with health services considered a worthy goal? Health services are something that apply to all ages equally, after all.

And advocating that tax money be used to cancel the student loan debt of 24 people is even more problematic. Canceling student loan debt is discriminatory and unfair. People made sacrifices to save up for college under the assumption that if they didn’t, they would have to take out loans and pay the money back. When loan debt is canceled, people who saved up are stuck having paid for college, while those who chose not to save are rewarded by having college made free. You simply cannot make a product free after some people have already paid for it, because that makes the product free for some people and not others. I would much rather see tax money spent on weapons for Israel, or almost anything for that matter, than this. 

As I alluded to earlier, the best argument against spending $939,024 on Israel’s weapons is the fact that the government could instead simply return this money to taxpayers, or even better, not collect it in the first place. This solution is the simplest and fairest one. Allowing people to keep more of their own money benefits everyone, not just politically favored demographic categories. Why doesn’t the poster advocate for this instead?

Probably because benefiting politically favored demographic categories is exactly what the left values. 

To end this post on a somewhat happy note, it seems that another Malden resident isn’t a fan of the pro-Palestine posters either. This is what happened to an identical poster on a nearby light post:

bookmark_borderUnder Biden, American leadership stands for, not against, tyranny and oppression

Posted on by Marissa

On April 24, President Biden signed a massive foreign aid package including $61 billion to help Ukraine and $26 billion to help Israel. In addition to the fact that spending billions of dollars of tax money to interfere in conflicts between other countries is immoral and unfair (both to the countries that the US is siding against and to taxpayers), I was struck by the hypocrisy of the following comment that Biden made.

Biden said: “Congress has passed my legislation to strengthen our national security and send a message to the world about the power of American leadership: we stand resolutely for democracy and freedom, and against tyranny and oppression.”

How can Biden say that he stands for freedom, and against tyranny and oppression, when he has actively worked to take away the freedoms of Americans, and to impose tyranny and oppression in his own country?

There is no freedom more important than the freedom to decline medical intervention, and there is nothing more antithetical to the idea of freedom than requiring people to undergo a medical procedure. Yet that is exactly what Biden did with his executive order forcing all people at companies with 100 or more employees to submit to either the covid vaccine or weekly covid testing. It is ridiculous for the person who implemented this policy to claim that he stands for freedom. And it is preposterous for Biden to purport to oppose tyranny and oppression when he has actively worked to impose these very things on his own people.

Any person who supports vaccine mandates has no business giving lip service to freedom, full stop.

(An identical argument could also be made regarding Biden’s position on gun rights, among other issues.)

It’s also worth noting that Biden, like so many people in today’s society, makes the mistake of mentioning democracy and freedom together as if they are basically the same thing. Sen. Chuck Schumer did the same when he said: “Today the Senate sends a unified message to the entire world: America will always defend democracy in its hour of need.” But in reality, democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a system of government in which the majority is able to violate the rights of unpopular minorities, which makes it closer to being the opposite of freedom than a synonym for it. Democracy belongs in the same category as tyranny and oppression more than it belongs in the same category as freedom. 

Thanks to Biden and his administration, American leadership does not stand for freedom, let alone resolutely, nor does American leadership stand against tyranny or oppression. The exact opposite (with one exception) of what Biden said is unfortunately the case. Under the Biden administration, American leadership stands resolutely for democracy, tyranny, and oppression, and against freedom. 

Sad but true.