What Would Nellis Say?

Voter's remorse

By Rick Stiller

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After years of writing political novels and reams of essays reinforced by my belief in the most basic goodness of our society, that hope was dashed when a majority of our citizens voted for a hateful, lying bigot who is an adjudicated rapist, convicted felon, and twice impeached traitor to disgrace our nation’s highest office…again.

 

There is no other explanation for his overwhelming victory than admitting that a large portion of our society has been given permission to hate by accepting the bile spewed by the white-nationalist propaganda machine, blaming the ‘others’ for every challenge being suffered by society. As my character, Mac Murphy, says, and voters proved, “Hate’s an easy sell.”

 

Men voted to allow their wives and daughters to die as the result of a miscarriage or other complications in pregnancy because doctors are threatened with charges of murder if they provide care for those patients.

 

White women ignored his misogyny, his abusive language and violence against women, and his adjudication as a rapist. They don’t seem to mind that the Supreme Court rescinded their right to abortion with their decision to discard precedent with Roe vs. Wade. They are expected to outlaw IVF and contraceptives in their next session.

 

The court will also be considering whether you have the right to marry whoever you choose, whether you have the right to be who you want and need to be, or whether women and minorities should have the right to vote.

 

Puerto Ricans seem to have forgotten that Trump tossed out rolls of paper towels after the devastation of Hurricane Maria and withheld $30 billion in relief money appropriated by Congress throughout the remainder of his term simply because those American citizens were not white and did not vote for him.

 

Black men ignored his blatant bigotry and a promise of a “day of violence” when he will order marshals or troops to invade and attack the poorest communities in the country’s inner cities and assail people of color he refers to as ‘vermin’.

 

Hispanics and non-white minorities ignored his plan to arrest, incarcerate, and deport 11 million of their brethren, many of who have lived in this country for their entire lives, in what will be the most brutal and draconian program in our nation’s history.

 

He intends to transform the Department of Justice and the FBI into his bureau for revenge against his personal, political, or perceived enemies. After they finish rounding up minorities and Democratic leaders, they’ll come looking for your friends and neighbors who refuse to pledge allegiance to him. And then they’ll come for you.

 

Self-proclaimed patriots ignored his praise of dictators like Putin, Kim, and Orban and his promise to transform our democracy into a dictatorship on his first day in office.

 

Veterans voted for him despite his mocking dead or wounded military personnel as “suckers and losers.” They also ignore his intention to recall the generals who advised him during his first administration to have them court-martialed and executed.

 

Survivors of the Covid pandemic have forgotten that more than a million of our citizens died, and the economy stopped functioning for a year because of his ignorance, lies, and incompetence.

 

Greedy investors forget that the deficit rose more than 25% during his four years in office, more than any other president in modern history. He and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 promise to eliminate the Department of Commerce that regulates business, impedes monopolies, and protects consumers.

 

Underpaid workers voted for him only to find that since the election, he’s surrounded himself with billionaires, who ponied up hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaign and expect to receive generous government contracts and tax cuts, and could care less about the wages, benefits, or expectations of their slave-workers. 

 

Shoppers worried about inflation ignored Trump’s promise to slash corporate and income taxes for the rich, abolish the Federal Reserve that regulates the banking system and monetary fluctuations like inflation and deflation, and institute tariffs on all imported goods that will raise the cost of all consumer goods by double digits.

 

Seniors ignored his very public threats to defund, dismantle, and eliminate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid before the end of the decade. Workers enrolled in health insurance through The Affordable Care Act should expect the cost of membership in those programs to increase rapidly and eventually be eliminated with Trump’s “concepts for a plan” to replace it - which isn’t, wasn’t during his first term, and never will be a plan. Should they succeed, you will pay all of your medical expenses out of your pocket.

 

People who value real education for our children ignored his promise to eliminate the Department of Education and hand those responsibilities back to the states so public school curriculums can be transformed into “Christian” indoctrination that ignores truth, facts, and history in favor of the incoherent teachings of one radically extreme “religion”.

 

Tiny bands of ignorant bigots have managed to have thousands of book titles banned from schools and libraries across the country, and citizens in Florida have gleefully burned treasured books they have never read.

 

Colleges and Universities are being attacked for providing a “liberal” ”Woke” education, which emphasizes many perspectives and points of view so graduates will know how to think, analyze, and make critical decisions based on knowledge and facts when they venture out into the real world to save humanity and build our future.

 

Citizens who value clean air and water ignored Trump’s plan to end participation in the Paris Climate Accord, eliminate restrictions on pollution, cut incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, and increase oil and gas production on public lands, which will massively increase the amount of pollutants being pumped into the atmosphere during drilling and production. This after the hottest year in recorded history.

 

His Republican Senate will fast-track federal judges, vetted by the ultra-conservative (think fascist) Federalist Society, who pledge allegiance to Trump over the Constitution and promise to eliminate every right or benefit granted since 1860 when rich white men owned their women and their slaves.

 

The Republican House majority has not passed any meaningful legislation since they took the gavel in 2022, and they are unlikely to pass anything that benefits the American people in their next session other than massive tax cuts for his billionaire buddies.

 

More than fifty million registered voters failed to vote, whether in protest or through sheer laziness, while seventy-four million actually cast ballots for the blatantly fascist candidate. Those votes sanctioned the horrors that Trump will inflict on you, your family, friends and neighbors, our society, our economy, and our democracy. Voters chose the personification of hate and bigotry, and the tyranny we should expect from the next administration over the ideals this country is supposed to represent.

 

How many of those one hundred twenty-five million will have voter’s remorse when the effects of their decisions come back to haunt them?