Thread by @SlavaMalamud

I was interviewed by the Voice of America's Russian service last night. It was hard to find any other Democratic-voting Russians with any name recognition, I guess. They asked me whether I, as a Democrat, am willing to build bridges and reach across the divide to the other side..

The short version of my reply is "Hell, no." The long one, longer than the airtime allowed, is as follows.
No. No, I am not willing to talk to the other side. I am not willing to understand them. I am not willing to be magnanimous. I sure as fuck won't look for a compromise...

"These folks have sold their souls to the devil", I said, probably scandalizing the interviewer (who was good and professional and tried to ask tough questions, BTW; no qualms here - seriously, props). I want nothing, NOTHING to do with the 70+ million fellow Americans. Nothing..

Here is the list of shit I never wanna hear again. Ever.
* "This is how you got Trump in first place!"
* "We are all in this together!"
* "We will never get anything done if we don't work with the other side!"
* "We just need to LISTEN to each other"
Fuck. That. Forever...

This is not about my being a hardened ideologue. This is not about my making politics an indelible part of my self-identification. Listen, I will talk all day long with people who may have constructive disagreements with me on policy...

If someone like @RadioFreeTom or @gtconway3d or anyone else right of center disagrees with me on taxes or health care, or green politics, or minority rights and social issues, I will happily debate. Not for long, because I am a goddamn sports writer and get bored quickly...

But I will talk to intelligent, principled people who disagree with the shit I care about. I am not a maniac. I am not a fanatic. I am capable of discourse, even if delivered with a rather comical Russian accent.
What I am not willing to do is approach anyone who voted for this:

I will not listen to anyone who heard the President of the United States intentionally mispronounce the name of @IlhanMN, an US Representative, and imply that she is inherently hateful of America by virtue of being born elsewhere. I will not acknowledge anyone who cheered this...

I will not build bridges to those who chanted, "Lock her up!", I will not find common ground with those who applauded "Let them go back to their countries!", I will not celebrate our shared humanity with those who found nothing wrong with children forever torn from their parents.

I have nothing at all to discuss with people who saw four years' worth of deterioration and shame, of undermining our principles, of destroying the faith in democracy, of venality, of petty revenges, of grift, of self-dealing, of obvious incompetence and wanted four more...

I will not tolerate those who voted for his enablers and sycophants. I will happily ignore and bypass those who saw this tweet by a crazy church lady disparaging an American hero for telling the truth and shrugged it off.

https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1197875810256007170

I have no time for people who either loved or found acceptable a man whose entire political dogma boils down to "Only certain people can be Americans, and it all depends on their look, their name, whether they agree with me and whether or not I am fucking them."
None at all...

It's fine if Biden wants to build bridges, I said. He is a kindly old man, and I respect him. He is much kinder than I am. His former boss wanted to build bridges, too, and it didn't work out that well, but if he wants to give it another go, it's his right.
But I won't...

I don't think America needs bridges, I added. America needs a Nuremberg. America needs to stomp fascism into the mud where it belongs. America needs to clean the stain on its history...

The interviewer cut me off at that point to editorialize about America and reprisals against political opponents...
I get it. What I said sounded harsh. Though, of course, if one wants to condemn reprisals, one should start with Trump and the Lock Her Up Choir. But OK, fine...

I said uncomfortable shit, I know.
But as we see what is happening right now, how this cabal of venal, self-serving, utterly amoral thugs is openly trying to subvert the democratic process, while the 70+ million are cheering them on, I ask: what is there that unites us, exactly?

So, no. Sorry. No bridges. I don't need to recognize anyone who wouldn't consider me human, much less an American. Folks who see a child separated from the mother and say, "Should've followed the law" can eat 70 million dicks.
No policy discussion for you. Get fucked.

But, most importantly, I don't need to recognize you because we don't live in the same America. And the America they live in, the authoritarian, venal America with a personalized and vengeful power apparatus, I want no part of. I could have had that in Russia for free.

Anyhow, for those of my Russian-speaking followers who are asking, here is the interview. I start at the 38:00 mark. Following me is a reactionary gnome, extremely typical of most Russian emigres. He cheerfully slurs Democratic youth as brainwashed gays.
facebook.com/golosameriki/v…