The 40 Percent Problem

The 40 Percent Problem

The Original Sin of the United States of America is slavery.  The Civil War did not solve the problem of slavery.  Oh, sure, it effectively ended the practice of slavery in the United States and hey, it only took us a little over 100 years longer than most of the rest of the civilized world, but that's how America rolls, ain't it?  We do the wrong thing over and over and over again and again and again until it huts so much that we finally, at long last and only begrudgingly do the right thing.

We ended slavery but the subjugation of African Americans would continue with lynchings in the south on a regular basis, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan who, according to History.com, Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and Black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of Black schools and churches and violence against Black and white activists in the South.

A point worth noting, in the late 19th century the "Republicans" were actually the liberal party and the Democrats, sometimes called "Dixiecrats" because they were concentrated primarily in the southern states that had formed the Confederacy, were the conservative party.  Then, just as now, the conservative party embraced racism and white supremacy with glee.  They were and still are just terrible people. 

In 2016, after an 18-month long onslaught of racist dog whistling, blatant xenophobia, constant castigation of Muslims, openly calling immigrants from Mexico "rapists and criminals" and just for good measure, mocking a disabled reporter in front of a huge rally crowd who just loved it all, we elected an openly racist, credibly accused rapist to the most powerful position on earth.  Well, actually, thanks to the magic of the Electoral College, we all chose Hillary Clinton and it wasn't even that close in the popular vote as Clinton bested Trump by nearly 3 million votes, but Trump won all of the right states to make it possible for him to capture the Whitehouse with only about 40 percent of the vote.

And now, after 4 long years of scandal after scandal including attempting to extort an ally into announcing a phony investigation into Joe Biden and his subsequent Impeachment and acquittal in the Senate; after an utterly and completely botched response to the pandemic, which he insisted was the "new Democrat hoax to try to damage me" and refused to establish a national response - now known to be a completely calculated move to offload responsibility to the Governors of each state so that when things got bad Trump could blame them.  

After this President separated thousands of children from their parents at the southern border with no plan or intention of ever reuniting them.  After the wanton cruelty that is a feature, not a bug, there are STILL about 40% of the population here who are going to vote for this guy.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

I'll tell you what's wrong with them:  Nothing is wrong with them.  This is simply who they are.  Clearly they're perfectly fine with the racism, misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia, pathological lying, self-dealing, no-tax paying internet troll and bully.  They're OK with all of it because they share the same belief system.  Immigrants are destroying the country, black people are bad, they're all either criminals or on welfare, we don't need any immigrants here, etc.  This is what they're voting for, so obviously this is what they believe.  It's a serious problem because it's not just the racism and homophobia, etc.  They ALSO believe the more whacked-out stuff that Trump spews at his rallies like the QAnon conspiracy.  They actually believe that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Eric Holder, etc, basically all the Democrats they hate...they believe they're all involved in a pedophilia and sex trafficking cabal that is run out of a pizza shop basement in Washington DC.  

Just let that marinate for a while...They literally believe this.  And when they're showed solid, fact-based evidence that shows just how insane they really are, their typical response is something like, "evidence can be manufactured, witnesses can be intimidated, nothing you can show me will change my opinion."

Just a little less than half of the voting public thinks this way.  I reiterate: What the fuck is wrong with these people?

That, my friends, is The 40% Problem and it is basically that about 40% of the people around you, or 4 out of every 10 people you encounter in your day to day life are very likely racists.  *Isn't that special?

*may contain sarcasm