Post 679 - November 15, 2024

With the news off, I am only getting the most general sense of what the incoming administration is planning.

The President-elect’s cabinet choices are so absurd that you almost have to laugh. A Fox News host in charge of the military. A Congressman under investigation for sexual abuses as Attorney General. An anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist in charge of our health system.

It seems clear that all the people under consideration will be going into their positions with the express aim of dismantling their respective departments. They seem to want to put the country up on cinderblocks and strip it down to its frame.

If they are successful, the country will end up like every other car subjected to the same treatment by people without a skill set. All that will be left of America is a rusty crumbling hulk on the patchy brown lawn. The broken-down chassis will be surrounded by scattered pieces of machinery whose importance is totally lost on the idiot doing the stripping.

Senator John Thune from South Dakota has been chosen as the Senate majority leader.

Thune voted against the Green New Deal arguing that safeguarding the environment in that way would devastate his constituents economically. He supported the war in Iraq. He voted against a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia. He is vehemently against the Affordable Care Act. After the Vegas mass shooting, he came out against gun control and said that people need to “take steps in their own lives to take precautions.” He voted against President Obama being able to get Merrick Garland onto the Supreme Court. He then voted to allow the President-elect to appoint a successor to Ruth Bader Ginsberg immediately. He voted against the Violence Against Women Act and is against same-sex marriage.

That said, he’s a better choice than Senator Rick Scott, the guy the President-elect wanted. Scott is MAGA all the way. On Thune’s small plus side, he did vote to certify the 2020 election. While he supports a great deal of the Republican platform, he is not a MAGA cult member. As much as I disagree with most of what he stands for, he does seem to believe in the rule of law. I’ll take it. When all the choices are bad, I’ll happily take the least bad ones.

Nicole Scherzinger, the star of Sunset Blvd., did NOT, I’ve been told, vote Republican in this last election. It’s a shame she didn’t just come right and say that when the backlash erupted around her. Her post on Russell Brand’s page seemed to indicate otherwise.

Everybody has the right to keep their voting preferences private. Everybody. I wrote about Nicole Scherzinger because it appeared that she’d come out in support of the MAGA Republicans. By all accounts, she did not intend to do that. Nonetheless, she gave that impression.

Living in the public eye comes with some responsibilities. People listen to what you say. The famous can influence the thinking of those who follow you. You need to be careful of what you say and if you misspeak, say so. I’m not famous, but this is me saying that I misspoke.

In the essay I wrote, I was trying to ask how we respond to an artist’s work if what the artist does or supports is reprehensible. Can we separate the art from the artist? I tried to use phrases like, “if this is true,” rather than saying it was true. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have used what Nicole Scherzinger seemed to have said as my example without waiting to confirm what she truly meant. In doing so, I only made the sentiment rising against her worse, and for that, should I ever meet her, I will apologize.

Her press agents have done her no favors by releasing a seemingly purposefully vague statement that never quite comes out and states that she doesn’t support the MAGA movement. It only says that she didn’t intend for her comment to be interpreted politically. That she isn’t clarifying her stance now that the door is ajar is not going to be the thing that closes it. She can close it shut if she chooses to.

A difference of opinion is a difference of opinion. I can respect that. I don’t know everything. Far from it. And I am sometimes wrong. What we know, or think we know, changes as we grow and learn. If you believe in something I don’t, so be it. Let’s talk about it. If you put your full support behind something or someone, however, that negatively impacts my life, that is something else entirely.

If you are against gay marriage and vote against legislation allowing it, you are voting against my right to live as I choose. You are forcing me to live under your beliefs. I would say that if you are against gay marriage, then just don’t marry someone of your same sex. It’s as simple as that. If you are against abortion, don’t vote against a woman’s right to choose to have one, simply don’t get one yourself. Why should you choose how somebody else lives their life? Those choices don’t affect you in any way. If you think somebody’s choice goes against the will of your God, then let your God deal with it. Stay out of it.

This election was not like any other election any of us have ever lived through before. So much was and continues to be at stake: the environment, world order, and, yes, our basic human rights. The clown car full of potential cabinet appointments, if nothing else, should make that perfectly clear. The incoming administration and the Project 2025 guidebook want to dictate how we live our lives.

That I am counting on John Thune of all people to help maintain the integrity of our country only shows how dire the situation potentially might be.

It seems inevitable that we are going to be divided further apart than we already are. The incoming team aims to destroy not to build. They are not going to “reach across the aisle.” If they could get rid of the Democrats completely, they would.

Concentrating power at the top rather than keeping it in balance through the lower houses and judiciary branches of government will make ruling easier for them. It will be brutal to our freedoms and way of life.

Silence is what will allow that to happen.

“If you see something, say something.” We hear every time we fly or take public transportation. The slogan is meant to safeguard against terrorism, but it applies to everything potentially dangerous.

Not voting in this election was as much a vote as walking into a booth and pulling a lever was.

We can’t keep quiet. We mustn’t. If we keep our voices down now, we may not be able to use them in the future. Silence ain’t golden, far from it, when we talk about our freedom to live our lives as we choose.

If you see something, say something. Or I will, because apparently, I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut.

Nicole Scherzinger is remarkable in Sunset Blvd. The show, itself, may not be to everyone’s taste, but she’s a wonder to behold. I’m thrilled she didn’t vote against my rights in this election. Relieved. 

Art is one of the things that will get us through this next chunk of time.

Art and artists.