I didn't notice at first that it's partly an exhortation to vote for the lesser evil if that will "shift your country as much closer to your ideal as possible." That's pretty funny right there, since Dem loyalists were furiously denouncing the Lesser Evil option so recently. I guess that if you don't actually say the words, it's okay. (But if you say them three times quickly ...?)
The main thing, though, is that the meme amounts to a denunciation of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the DNC, and Democratic partisans. Clinton most of all, though, who put her determination to be President ahead of every other consideration, including the probability that Sanders had a better chance of beating Trump. Her ego, her entitlement, her notion that it was her turn now. I can't think of a better example of "extreme individualism." To ensure that she won the nomination, she played dirty, which some of her fans even thought amusing. It's their party, after all, one such person wrote, which at least was honest: the party belongs to its elites and big donors, not to the rank and file who do the scut work of making phone calls, knocking on doors, driving voters to the polls -- let alone the voters themselves. It's not about you, you individualist with your silly notions of government by the people. Don't believe the fairy tales the elites told you, that elections are meant to choose the best candidate for office. Don't believe the fairy tale drummed into your head since childhood, that American values and ideals have anything to do with the running of our government. It's like the Bible: you're not supposed to take it literally, just have faith in your leaders. Just don't reject the fairy tales during election season, or in the hearing of the real owners of the party.
I guess I'm more or less functional again, after spending a day walking around feeling stunned. I needed to write to find out what I thought about Trump's victory, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know what I thought. I stayed off Facebook yesterday, and timidly logged in today. Before long my liberal friends' reactions had me angry again, and I was back in the fray.
Most notable, as I expected, were Democrats blaming everybody but themselves for the debacle. Paul Krugman was apparently leading the charge, but I hear Rachel Maddow was in there too. If I'm not mistaken, that was one of the tendencies that drove Germany into the hands of the Nazis. Did Germany lose the Great War? It wasn't their fault, it was the Jews and the homosexuals and the Reds stabbing the Fatherland in the back, and women spitting on Our Troops. Did Hillary lose this world-historical election? It wasn't her fault, it was the Bernie Bros and Julian Assange and Jim Comey and all the haters who made voters stay away from the polls.
Most entertaining are the Dems who yell "Don't play the blame game!" when their own attempts to play the blame game are rebutted. We can blame everybody, but don't you dare blame us -- that's being judgmental. We aren't being judgmental, we're just pointing out who stabbed Hillary in the back... Really, they are acting as we were warned Trump's followers would react if he lost. I imagine I'll be seeing a lot more of that.
Meanwhile, what to do? I don't have any answers, but some writers are making sense. There are others, of course, but these two were close to hand. It's alarming that so many liberals and progressives and near-rightists and neoliberals are freaking out, lashing out almost randomly, but that was only to be expected. I can't go on, I'll go on.
