Bosch

There is this little jewel of right wing sophistry going around. I've seen this trope several times now but this time it was emailed to a friend who decided to respond. Here it is in its basic form:

I used to think I was just a regular guy, but . . . I was born white, which now, whether I like it or not, makes me a racist.

I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist.

I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobe.

I am non-union, which makes me a traitor to the working class and an ally of big business.

I am a Christian, which now labels me as an infidel.

I believe in the 2nd Amendment, which now makes me a member of the vast gun lobby.

I am older than 70 and retired, which makes me a useless old man.

I think and I reason, therefore I doubt much that the main stream media tells me, which must make me a reactionary.

I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive American culture, which makes me a xenophobe.

I value my safety and that of my family and I appreciate the police and the legal system, which makes me a right-wing extremist.

I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair compensation according to each individual's merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist. I (and most of the folks I know), acquired a fair education without student loans (it's called work) and no debt at graduation, which makes me some kind of an odd underachiever.

I believe in the defense and protection of the homeland for and by all citizens, which now makes me a militant.

Now, a sick old woman is calling me and my friends a basket of deplorables.

The white guy who sent this to his lifelong friend got this response:

Well (bleep) I am a white guy too and our champion just got his butt kicked in the debate by that sick old woman. I don’t like losers who lose a billion dollars and go bankrupt leaving guys like us that work for a living holding the bag.

This hire a thief to catch a thief idea that Trump is floating doesn’t fly with me. You end up with a thief in the White House running the country. The fact that he paid off politicians doesn’t make him any better than the people he paid off. He didn’t get rich because he is so smart, he got what he has because he used his father’s money to game the system. To hire bankruptcy lawyers to stiff the working guys and gals that are supposed to be so grateful to him for creating jobs. And now he brags that he is genius because he found a tax loop hole with smart lawyers who he is counting on to keep him out of jail if the tax audit goes bad. clip

I have been angry about the system for a long time . Angry enough to spend years learning what is really going on and I dug deep enough to even find that I was part of the problem. I have friends who are angry, bewildered and feel betrayed but don’t know how to put their feelings into words, so when Donald Trump came along with words that are sticking it to the rich and powerful in front of cheering crowds, they felt exhilarated and exonerated. He and his alt campaign manager keep reminding us that all of our troubles started from a black man living in our white house.

We can forgive and totally forget that it was George W Bush and the Republicans that allowed the wall street bankers to crash the economy. Let’s not fault the financial vultures that crashed their companies and took down the world economy in the bargain while giving themselves multimillion dollar bonuses for their good work.

No let’s not mention them and their republican enablers who were in power. No, lets blame the man that came along after the crash, let’s fault the black man in the white house who was not even born in this country, who is not even a citizen of this country and who has no legal right to govern us white guys. clip

What have we got to lose by electing Trump president?

Things couldn’t be any worse, they couldn’t go back to where they were 8 years ago when Bush was president and the economy crashed. They couldn’t go back to where they were 15 years ago when Bush started a stupid war that Trump was sort of against. We couldn’t end up with a planet that climate change made uninhabitable could we, or end up dead from a nuclear war started from blowing little Iran boats out of the water for giving us the finger.

What have I got to lose?

I have a good life, plenty to eat, a good roof over my head , all of my family lives nearby and are doing well and visit all the time.

What about you ?