Thread by @MurielVieux

1 - America The Ugly

It took a man like trump to show us the other side of the Leader of the free world, the underbelly of the most so-called democratic country in the world, and it is ugly.

2 - Some of us, mostly the black and brown minorities, already knew this ugly side, we had seen what was hidden beneath the polite smiles and fake platitudes, we had born the brunt of this ugliness for decades.

3- More than 68 million Americans voted to have trump for a second term, 4 more years, some have taken to the streets to demand it, thousands have put their lives at risks attending covid rally spreaders to cheer him on and the rest of America is asking themselves how?

4- For the longest time Americans, the ones that care about their fellow humans no matter their colors, sex, gender, faith or creed, the ones that have believed in the ideals of the constitution, in the fantasy that was American the beautiful,

5 - the land of the free, they’ve believed in their own press, their own movies, and thought themselves above the “banana republic” antics. They thought America was special, but never bothered to make it special

6- Then came along trump, brash, crass, vulgar, racist, selfish, egocentric, and they were flabbergasted at his popularity, how did he win? How could this idiot be president of the greatest country on earth?

7 - But still, they did not see, they refused to see the ugliness. Voters were taken in by trump they said, they will find out the truth and repudiate him, they said, but the truth was trump had never fooled the voters, he was a reflection of the voters, they understood him

8 - And for 4 years, scandal after scandal, corruption after corruption, lie after lie, they have watched as 40% of the country stood behind trump through all of it, without batting an eyelash, without missing a beat

9 - even through 250,000 deaths, even though defending dictators, and not defending soldiers, the corruption of all institutions, and most of all through the utter disregard for the constitution.

10 - Trump is not an abomination, an outlier, he is for the majority of that 40% of Americans a reflection of themselves for the rest he is some sort of security blanket that will keep them in their way of life, in their comfort zone even when they don’t agree with him.

11- Watching the elections and the way the GOP and trump are trampling all that Americans have ever claimed to stand for under the applause of their supporters, I do not ask myself how it came to this, I know how it came to this, it came to this because as someone long ago said

12- All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing…

13 - And you, the ones saying “we are better than this” “how did we get here” have far too long stood on the sidelines, mumbling under your breath about injustices and abuses without doing much. Even now some are grumbling “anonymously” behind trump's back and doing nothing.

14 - Be warned though, win or lose, if Americans who believe in the ideals of America keep standing on the sidelines without doing anything… America is finished.

Muriel Vieux
November 5th, 2021