The other week
when the fall colors were poppin and the leaf peepers were a peepin, I drove
over up to Telluride, and then up to Gunnison. I had a book tour event in
T-ride and then a wedding in Gunnison. As I witnessed the amazement of the
changing of seasons and the colors that accompany it, I was startled by
something else as well, the amount of Trump-Pence signs off the side of the
road.
My urge when I
see those signs reminds me of my teenager anger, I wanted to throw eggs at them,
or spit on them, or tear them down. And, I would, but, well, I’m an adult. The
pen ain’t mightier than the sword, but I can still remind each and every Trump
supporter that you are un-American, and you are a disgrace to our country.
It’s time to go
somewhere else if you think that he is a proper leader for the most powerful
nation in the world. You are a sucker and a damn fool if you think that man is
a decent human being. Hilary Clinton isn’t perfect, but she is exponentially
more qualified than a man who (among other things) taunts and insults the
parents of a dead U.S. solider.
This whole
piece could be a rant against Trump supporters, but I’m fairly certain most of
you don’t read above the second grade level, so why bother. (Please prove me
wrong and write an intelligent letter to the editor of why he is a qualified
candidate.) I want to riff on something else as well, someone that Trump has
clearly paved the way for: Kanye West.
Last year at
the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye aka Yeezy, announced that he was going to run
for president in 2020. Of course, everyone kinda viewed that as a joke, even
Obama himself made fun of him, but now that Trump has risen to power, we have
to look at Yeezy a little differently. I mean think about it: two men with
insanely large egos, who say the most outlandish things just to get reactions
out of people, and in turn get a ton of publicity for it. They both say they are
geniuses. The difference is that Kanye actually is a genius, a musical genius
that is.
Of course,
Kanye would have to be a Democrat. You can’t be hip-hop and Republican. You
just can’t. We believe Obama when he says he has Jay Z on his iPod. If Bush had
said that we never would have believed him. (Side note, even Bernie Sanders has
a little hip-hop in him, and teamed up with rapper Killer Mike during his
campaign.)
Oh, but maybe
this is the problem here. Republicans aren’t adapting and changing with the
times. Please don’t think this is a rant against all Republicans, I know some
of you are good and moral people, and right now with this presidential race, I
feel sorry for you. Perhaps the good and moral Republicans are simply not in
the majority anymore. The racist, ignorant, misogynistic, hate mongers seem to
be in charge these days.
I know Hilary
Clinton is favored to win this race, and you can be damn sure she’s getting my
vote, but let’s say something happens, and the Russians hack our voting system
and god forbid, Donald Trump is our next president. This sets the stage for a
battle. Trump versus Yeezy.
And maybe in
2020 if our country still even exists, and Trump didn’t get impeached for doing
something highly illegal, we will change the presidential debates into rap
battles. (Trump’s style is more suited towards a rap battle than a presidential
debate anyways.) Note: if you don’t know what a rap battle is get on YouTube
and come back to this article. Or, watch 8 Mile with Eminem.
Basically in a
rap battle practically nothing is off-limits. You can diss the opponent’s
mother, their wife, their offspring, anything. It would be PERFECT for him.
It’s just his style.
They would
argue whose penis is bigger. They would argue whose wife is hotter. They might
even mention killing their opponents. The sad reality is that in his own way
Trump has already done all of these things. Trump is more suited for a rap
battle than the presidency, and so is Kanye. But I bet Kanye would tear Trump a
new one if they battled, just like Eminem did to his opponents in 8 Mile.
At this point
in the conversation a lot of folks are bringing up the third party vote,
especially the die hard Bernie folks. They don’t like Hilary and they don’t
trust her. I’m not going to try to sway anyone from voting from who they think
should be the president, after all this is a free(ish) country. But, you know
what, Bernie wants you to vote for Hilary, so does Obama. As a country we need
to ensure Obama’s legacy, we are in much better of a place now than when George
W. left office.
Most
importantly we need a leader who embraces the diversity of the United States,
and knows how to operate within the world of foreign policy. Building a wall is
not a solution. The position of commander in chief is a job, not a reality
television show. There is only one person who is qualified. In the words of the
Atlantic, who recently made their
third endorsement for president in their 159 year history, “Trump is
not a man of ideas. He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing,
and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and
thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and
elect his opponent.”
Word.
This article is published in today's Durango Telegraph.
