The Reddening of Pierce County: Saturday Political Soap Box 197

I thought we had turned a corner.

I thought it would get better.

I was wrong.

I look forward after each election to The Blackshear Times printing a detailed grid, precinct by precinct, of the election results.  I have not found that yet.  I did see a news story that described the results in general terms.

And it was heartbreaking.  Devastating.

I thought we had hit a low point in 2016.  Democratic candidates, including the locally despised Hillary Clinton, averaged around 13% of the vote.

This year, I believed with all my heart and soul that things would get better.  No miracles.  Even 20% would convince me that we were back on the road to better balance.

We had a courageous Pierce County candidate, a hometown boy, running for State House Representative.  We had in Lisa Ring the hardest-working, most aggressive Congressional Democrat this area had ever seen.  She made her presence known here, and canvassed here, and did not ignore this county like so many previous Democrats would have done.

So what was their reward?

They, like all the Democrats on the ballot in Pierce County, received roughly 10% of the vote.


10%.

We are now at Soviet monolith proportions. 

We are now at autocratic levels.

I am so sad.  I hate living in a place where you have to fear what might happen if you express yourself full force.

I am saying this more for the Democrats and Progressive people that I know.  I understand why you have been afraid to speak out. I have not had the intelligence to restrict myself.  In print at least, whether it's on Facebook, The Blackshear Times, or my world famous blog, The Strait Line.

It's not that I'm brave.  I'm not.  I'm an idiot who has loved discussing politics all his life and doesn't know when to shut up.

Over the years, it has had some consequences, but nothing too dire.  2002 was particularly rough, with most of a whole local church deciding I was evil incarnate.  My sin?  I dared to state at the beauty shop where I get my haircut that I would not vote for Kay Godwin, a local Blackshear resident running for the State House, and one of the leaders of the movement to redden Pierce County.  Yeah, somehow, years later,  NOT voting for local State House candidate Greg O'Driscoll didn't carry the same weight (I proudly voted for our local boy).  We had a prominent preacher, Mike Stone of Emmanual Church,  pretty clearly state that being a Democrat and a Christian is incompatible (I don't know what to say - I struggle every day now how you can be a Christian and support Trump, so I may have lost the moral high ground on this one).

In 2012, my son was told by at least one of his peers that if he talked about his support for Obama, he would kill him.  After the 2016 election, one of my co-workers threatened to report me to the boss if I dared talked about politics again.  Now, don't get me wrong,  The others can say whatever damn fool thing comes into their heads.  I'm the one who was intimidated into silence.

In the most recent episode of Real Time, Bill Maher said we just stop talking about politics with the other side.  It does no good.  They don't listen and it just ostracizes you further.

For the most part now, I don't talk about politics with those whom I know are Trumpeteers.  But if they start talking crazy, if they initiate the conversation, it's hard for me to stay quiet.  I'm always at a disadvantage in most conversations because my heart beats faster and my sense of reasoning flees me.

Although I understand Bill Maher's point and try to avoid talking about politics to the Trumpeteers as much as I can (although I think about it about as often as most psychologists suggest men think about sex).  It's not easy, but I do the best I can.  Most of the Trumpeteers I know are individually good people, so it just adds to the confusion.  I've lost more sleep and stressed more about this than I have anything in my life.

I'll continue to speak out, particularly in my blog. 

It hurts to stay silent.  I'm not good at internalizing things.

And I think of Anne Frank, and all the terrible things that happened at the hands of the Nazis,  I think of Schindler and how he cried about not being able to help more, blaming himself for every Jew he could not save.

Silence in the face of tyranny, of autocratic fascism, of a narcissistic, racist bully - it's just something I cannot do.

It may be hopeless to reverse the Red Tide that has engulfed my home county. 

But I can't give up.

Anne Frank haunts me.  Schindler haunts me,  Children in cages haunts me.  A crazed madman with his hand on the nuclear trigger haunts me.

Sorry, Bill Maher.

Sorry, Pierce County.

I cannot stop,

My conscience will not let me.