Gaslight in full bloom,
truth traded for petty rage—
a nation forgets.
Shame on you America. Have you no decency?
I’ve got some rather disturbing clear-eyed news for you this morning America: Felon-elect Donald Trump is your next President. Shame on you.
You’ve had nine long in-your-face years and three elections to disabuse yourself of his xenophobia, racism and misogyny, along with his petty cruelties, darkness and hate. You can have no illusions about who and what Donald Trump is, because he’s told you again and again. And what did you do? You bought, no embraced, all the bile and bullshit this petty con man was selling you. Willful ignorance indeed. Shame on you.
With cult-like naiveté, you put your blind faith in a small shrill huckster of a man—along with giving him America’s sacred reins of power—who simply told you that he’ll “fix everything” without ever offering you a shred of a plan. And you bought it. Tell me, do you also still believe in imaginary friends, Santa and the tooth fairy? Well, shame on you.
Forget the “politics” of red and blue, left and right. Just think of the character of the man you just re-elected who lies daily, has been twice impeached, has 34 felony convictions, is a convicted sex abuser, has a $355 million fraud judgment against him, stole from his own US veteran-based charity accounts, has multiple pending indictments, and has declared bankruptcy seven times. Do you really need to know more than this person is unfit to oversee anything, let alone the august office of the President of the United States? Shame on you.
You say you’re for the rule of law, reject the might makes right ethos (aka fascism), hate political violence and abide by the motto of "love thy neighbor as yourself". Yet your actions don’t match your words. You’re a hypocrite because time and time again, Trump has shown us all his utter contempt for constitutional democracy and that he has no respect for the law or women, let alone the fundamental values and norms of Americas’ sacred traditions. Shame on you.
Clearly, petty partisan policy differences must pale in context. But you couldn’t for a single brief shining moment lend your ear to the voices of your better angels in the voting booth and see past the blinding limits of your binary worldview of politics to pull the lever for the obvious lesser of two evil candidates. You know, put patriotism over party. Shame on you.
Americans like to tell themselves, usually after one of our all-to-regularly-scheduled man made tragedies (and please note that they are all man made): be it an elementary school shooting, a racist incident, a blatant abuse of power, another corporate rip-off or gross ethical scandal, that we are better than that or that’s not who we really are. Well folks, apparently this is who we really are, and shame on you.
You bought into all his verbally flatulent petty school-boy grievances, all his personal resentments, fears, prejudices and rage. His constant demonizing of immigrants—the historic lifeblood of America. His disturbed, deranged and dangerous demagoguery that we are somehow better than you extremism. A morally bankrupt wannabe despot that, paradoxically, most of you readily admit to disliking and distrusting. WTF? Shame on you.
Like any abusive relationship, Trump battered you, gaslit you with a constant gloom and doom narrative of fear and scarcity, and grossly enriched himself, all the while telling you how much he loves you. That he alone can make it better. Of course, you want things to be better, but your self-esteem is so low that you forgot your own self-worth and precious fundamental values. But it’s not going to get better, and you forgot that you had legitimate choices yesterday. So, for not believing in yourself and America more, shame on you.
Lastly, to the nine plus million voters out there who enthusiastically showed up in 2020 yet somehow failed to cast a vote in 2024, whether it was because your feelings were hurt or your progressive purity-test Bingo card wasn’t all lined up, and you put identity politics over country, shame on you!
Mark my words America: Aside from the coming enemies lists, chaos, mass deportations and further American decline (not to mention tariffs taxes that you’ll be paying for)—carelessly and needlessly, Americans will fight, bleed and die in the coming four years. All because of what you did yesterday on election day. Shame on you.
We all get what we deserve. Shame on US.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
FYI…Hiya. I missed you. Know that I will be renaming this place of work & start writing regularly again, soon I hope. Sincerely - Bill in exile.
Thanks for the privilege of your time, it is the most precious thing we have, and I appreciate it. Please be well.
William D. Chalmers © All Rights Reserved.
Perfectly said. Thanks
Love this. Welcome back.