Occasional Words from the Resistance
…from the desk of R.E. Vanella.
So here’s what happened. I did go to the pub. That’s where I go for a pint on the way home from the office almost every day. I was near the bottom of my second and getting ready to split. Guy walks in and sits down at bar and orders a club soda with a dash of bitters. His voice is deep, throaty, like a man who makes his living doing voice overs for big budget sci-fi films. In a world where a lunatic clown cons a few small rural villages that were politically beneficial and becomes the man-child king…
Also, adding Angostura bitters is a great order. Classy. I generally take two dashes of it in ginger ale. Cuts the sweetness. But club soda makes sense to me.
So I pay the check and get ready to say, “hey, you’re Al, yeah? Look, I’m standing down.”
Before I speak, he says, “you Rob?”
Good people of the Internet you may consider the hatchet buried. Al bought me a third and we talked it out. As many of you have said, we really are all on the same team here. Testosterone is nasty business. I still haven’t figured how to handle it.
Anyhow, I’ll spare you the boring bits. Just know this. Whatever happens here on the world-wide-web we need to stick together. This Trump thing looks bad already and we aren’t even a week in. I know it doesn’t always look like it, but we are unified in this. Keep going out in street. Keep fighting. Risking hyperbole I’ll say this may be the most important political movement of our time. At the end of each day please just consider what you did to resist that day and what you can do tomorrow.
That’s the only thing that matters. Sara was right. Pathological male ego got us into this situation. It’s probably a good idea to be a little more cognizant of this fact before exacerbating the problem. (I’m giving this advice to myself most of all.)
Moral of the story is, ok, we suck. That seems pretty clear. However, Al and I were brave enough to go out in the world and face it. Get to the gist of it and reaffirm our commitment to resist. It was unseemly here yesterday and for that I do humbly apologize. Distasteful trash. No excuse.
So continue phoning our representatives. Push this Hansen character to stake a real claim instead of simply selling the bland alternative. Support the local organizations like the Network and Delaware United. Get on record in public. Don’t waste time being overly critical of each other. It really is a waste of time and it takes one to know one.
Al and I are in. Get on board. Stay on board. This is not a fad. Solidarity. REV.
There’s a lot of performance art in blogging. There are plenty of opportunities to grandstand in the perpetual and futile attempt to be the smartest guy in the room. Being more critical than the last guy is a cheap way to try to look smart. Myself, I have to hold my tongue all the time. Age is supposed to bring wisdom, so let’s get with it.
It helps to give comments a final check to remove the word “you.”
Peace and solidarity.
Jason-what are our action alerts today? What are we telling Coons and Carper when we call? I need a daily “nag”. This needs to be a daily habit.
Very glad to see this happened.
I got into a non-anoymous-ish interwebz fight with a dear friend recently, and it took some in-person in-toxication to work it out. We cannot do this to each other. All the pain and anger needs to be pointed at the pig-fuckers. shit, martial law is in store for Chicago… I’d say before the end of the month.
You forgot to mention that the first thing that happened was an old head at the bar told me, “Like your shirt.” I’m telling you, that Trump Sucks shirt is a conversation-starter.
When Rob drained his beer and started to pay up, I thought at first he might be a Trump fan who didn’t like the shirt. But when the bartender said, “Thanks, Rob,” I realized who he was. And we had a good, hour-long conversation. (The club soda is because I quit drinking three years ago when I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes).
Yeah, testosterone is a powerful drug. But 10 years of fighting conservatism daily taught me that you never stand down unilaterally. As I wrote earlier, non-violence only works as an appeal to an outside agency — the government, the world, the public conscience. None of them seems available to appeal to here.
Lots of liberals are not ready for fighting — we’re much better at rational discussion. That’s why I’m around. I’d be worse than useless in a physical confrontation, but I’m hard to beat in heated debate. Yes, I disagree with all the other liberals here — but if they can’t deal with me, how are they going to deal with the opposition? If you can’t deal with my ugliness, how are you going to hold up on the streets when you’re outnumbered 10 to 1 by Trumpkins? I’m no Marxist, but I do believe in dialectic. Anything you hear from me is tea and crumpets compared with what I heard from drunk Trumpkins last Friday.
Liberals often pine for the “unity” that the GOP seems to have. But if you visit their sites, they argue more angrily among themselves than we do. They’re only unified when it’s time to vote.