Go Back John Clare's Personal Website Saturday, May 24, 2025
You are no Jack Kennedy

 


Say more stupid things

"And for those concerned about children growing up in poverty, we should know this: marriage is probably the best anti-poverty program of all."

- Vice President Dan Quayle addressing the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, 5/19/92

Funny stuff from a political personality best described as a silver spoon goofball with a knack for failing upwards. Sometimes all you can do is laugh at a distance when someone's public ineptitude feels harmless instead of cruel. You could almost say it's quaint, looking back at a moment when one of our nation's embarrassments was simply to have a buffoonish Vice President who was comically incompetent, but lacking the Dunning-Kruger arrogance of Sarah Palin, or the unapologetic corruption of Spiro Agnew, or the scorched earth warmongering of Dick Cheney. And if you think I'm the one being cruel here with snark, put it in context knowing that this person was a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Anyway, crazy as it seems, those were simpler times in comparison to our current history. Enter MAGA.

In 2016, America became afflicted with something on a whole different level of dangerous: an existential cancer on the Executive Office itself, and by extension, our very Constitution. Somehow a popular vote minority of willfully misinformed Americans elevated a con man to the White House with the help of Russian subterfuge and corrupted Conservative values. But it's so much more than that... America's disgraced and twice-impeached President is a stone cold racist, a clinically malignant narcissist, a draft-dodger, a scofflaw who doesn't pay his debts or taxes, a craven business fraud, a sexual predator and a rapist, a pathological liar, and a proud adulterer. Donald Trump organized multiple schemes to overthrow the US government, culminating in an actual god damn insurrection at our capital. If any one person could exemplify the absolute worst of humanity, it would be Donald J. Trump and his cult-like supporters. These are not casual opinions, and they are not alternative facts. Donald J. Trump is a convicted felon, a traitor to his oath, and still the leader of today's Republican Party. Make no mistake, Trump didn't "take over" the Party of Lincoln, they welcomed him in with open arms. It's who they are now, where the inherent selfishness of Conservative thinking has devolved overnight into raw cruelty, their wagons eagerly hitched to human garbage and lies. Maybe life imitates art, because Shield is Hydra, and has been all along.

Am I angry about Mr. PussyGrabber? Well yeah, it's easy to get angry as a natural response to disappointment in others. Not so much at Trump himself, although he is truly reprehensible. No, most of my frustration is with the MAGA cult, not specifically the dottering old man at the top who's sundowning before our eyes. It's a helpless feeling, witnessing the lesser nature of our culture make this kind of unethical grab for power and influence. MAGA, and Conservatives in the larger sense, are always punching down, which is what cowards do.

So I guess if you're here reading these comments and you are still proudly MAGA... you can fuck right off. At this point, shame has little effect on your values, and I don't want you in my life. I don't want to know you. I don't want you near my family. Perhaps the best advice I can offer is simple... You can't share in someone else's power without being complicit in their crimes. If there's a shred of decency left in you, then please think about that and become a better person, become a better American. Make better choices, because your choices define you.

In post-war Germany, thousands of Nazis killed themselves rather than face their conscience. What are you going to do when faced with your conscience? Do you still have one?

- John Clare