A Completely Humorless Rant (with a bit of profanity) About Something I Hate · 6:52pm Dec 9th, 2017
Donald Trump arrived in my area a couple hours ago. People have gathered to listen to him speak. Other people have gathered to protest.
These are not things that bother me. I don't care about Trump because he's just another puppet playing his part in the ongoing political theater. I don't care about peaceful things his supporters do because I believe in freedom. The same applies to the protesters. What bothers me is how it affects everyone else.
My day started normally enough. I woke up, went through my morning routine, and left the house to go get a couple of new tires mounted on my pickup. Those tires, having been ordered online, were in my possession, and I'd have normally put them in the truck's bed, but there was a little problem with that. Thanks to an unexpectedly heavy snowfall, the bed was full of the stuff. That means I had to put those tires, with their strong smell of new rubber, on my front seat.
Still, it's a short drive, right? I won't have to put up with that for long, right? It's not like I'm going to turn a corner and find myself at a complete stop for a long time, right?
So I turned a corner and ran right into a police blockade.
And why was there a blockade? You guessed it. Donald Trump's in town, so they shut down the entire highway system. For thirty minutes. Thousands of cars were stopped, if not tens of thousands. Our basic right to travel was completely nullified. And why? For the president's convenience, or safety, or whatever.
I remember this happening for Bush. I thought it was bullshit then. I remember this happening for Obama. I also thought it was bullshit then. I remember when they did it for Michelle Obama. I think that might have crossed the bullshit event horizon, if there is such a thing. Now it's done for Trump, and it's still bullshit.
Why is it bullshit? A few reasons:
1. There's no fucking need for it. He doesn't need to travel in a limo. His destination has a gigantic parking lot that can easily accommodate a helicopter landing. He could have flown there without disrupting anyone's life.
2. There's the aforementioned right to travel. No one has a lawful authority to arbitrarily suspend the rights of others for their own convenience, even the president. No, especially the president, for whom upholding the law and obeying the constitution is a sworn duty.
3. Safety isn't even a concern. He rides around in an armored car that's about as strong as a damned tank. You could fire a missile at it and not kill him. He's surrounded by armed guards and escorted by a veritable army of cops. There is no significant risk in having him on the road with other cars.
4. Even if there is a tiny risk of something unpredictable happening, that doesn't mean he gets to put his safety above the rights of others. He has no greater right to safety than Joe Schmoe trying to drive to work, who also has to risk unpredictable happenings every time he gets on the road.
When I asked one of the cops who had stopped the rest of us what the reason for the blockade was (no, I hadn't heard about the visit) he expressed the opinion that they were being put out by having to stand in the freezing cold to stop people. I told him that he had no right to complain because he chose to obey the order to curtail the right of innocent people to freely travel, and he was getting paid for it.
All he could say in response was, "I'm sorry you feel that way." Probably because he knew I was right.
In short, fuck politicians, fuck their minions, and fuck all the people who won't cry foul when they step on us.
Yeah, but how many people actively want Joe Schmoe dead and buried, and would even pay thousands to see it happen? That's the difference between the two.
I imagine that man has a family and can't afford to get fired over something like this.
Not a Trump, Bush, or Obama fan, but there's absolutely a reason for all the security.
It's for the President's security. Having all those cars surrounding the President's motorcade is asking for trouble, what with all of the psychopaths and other such undesirables wishing harm upon the man. All the armor and guards don't mean shit if cars can ram the vehicle.
He is the goddamn Head of State, of course he has higher priority over the average citizen. The average Joe also doesn't have to worry about snipers, IEDs or psychos that want to ram his car.
There's no reason to be a dick to the cop, he's simply doing his job. It's not like they're permanently suspending your right to travel, it's just an hour or two. It's not the end of the world.
4744913
You shouldn't curtail the rights of innocent people who are minding their own business just because some guy has enemies. If the president's handlers don't think it's safe to have him travel on public roads, they should use alternative methods, like the helicopter method I mentioned.
As for the cop, I don't care. My tax money goes to pay his check, so I damn well expect him to feel accountable to me. If he doesn't, I have no use for him.
4744921
For the answer to your first paragraph, see above.
For the second, that's a backwards-ass way of thinking. Perhaps you missed the memo, but the US broke up the old paradigm of rulers being sovereign and gave that status to the citizens, with government officials being designated as our servants. If there are threats to the president's safety, it should be handled in a way that minimizes impact on civilian life, not by a motherfucking dominance display.
As for the cop "just doing his job," when his job is to actively fuck me over, he can go to hell. I just barely made it to the tire shop in time to get my business done before they closed. They turned a car away that got there two minutes after me. I imagine that car probably got held up at the same roadblock, so that person actually did get screwed over. Who knows how that will affect them? It could ruin their whole day, for all I know. Maybe ruin tomorrow also.
There is never—NEVER—a valid justification for violating the rights of the people.
After the Loma Prieta earthquake happened, the president came out to make a speech in front of the collapsed freeway. Great photo-op, I guess. The problem is that the secret service guys cleared the area of everyone not involved in or covering the speech... including the rescue workers that were still trying to free people trapped in the rubble.
If you ever want to get a solid idea of the place of average citizens in relation to the rulling class, that's a pretty good example.
I've got to disagree with you there. He is more likely to be targeted than Joe Schmoe, and if he does die, it affects the entire world. If Schmoe dies in a crash, then probably about 200 people max grieve and whereever he works is hurt economically. If President Trump dies, millions grieve, and the whole world is hurt economically.
It's not the cop's fault, it's his bosses fault, or someone even higher up the command chain, for ordering him to do this. At a certain point "just following orders" is not a good excuse, but that's at the point where you're ordered to commit a crime, not inconveniencing people. He probably would have preferred not to inconvenience you and be stuck out in the rain, probably would have preferred to do his regular job, but he didn't have an option here.
There was probably a better option to ensure the president's security without causing such inconvenience to your city, but if there wasn't then this may just have had to be done, and regardless it's not street cops faults.
4745097
The effects of one person's death versus the effects of another's are irrelevant. I'm talking about rights, and those of a politician are supposed to be the same as those of anyone else. It is a fundamental truth of America's foundational political philosophy that those in government are not better or more important than the citizens whose power they wield. The idea that any one person's safety and convenience could be so important as to justify the suppression of the rights of the people they supposedly serve... Well, it's ridiculous and backwards. It's a mentality befitting a system of lords and serfs, not an enlightened society which values equality and liberty.
Besides, the crux of my point is that it's completely unnecessary. Transporting him via helicopter would be just as safe as (if not safer than) doing it via motorcade. The motorcade is a dominance display. Pure theater. Tens of thousands of people were stuck behind roadblocks for the better part of an hour, and it was utterly pointless.
As for your comments about the cop, you would have a point except for one thing: they were committing a crime. The government won't recognize it as a crime, but the suppression of rights is a crime, nonetheless. It simply won't be punished unless the people whose rights are being violated take action.
You might also find it interesting to note that I was not attempting to travel on the same road as the motorcade. They didn't just block off all the entrance ramps, you see. Any road going remotely near it was blocked, which maximized the disruption.
4744988 Well, in Bill's defense after the earthquake, presidents *try* not to make trouble for rescue personnel, and catch heck for it either way. GW caught it for the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which was a worse disaster than expected and the press hammered him to no end on. He actually flew over the damaged area, which the press proceeded to take as some sort of veiled sign of contempt instead of getting on one of the rescue helicopters and flying into the disaster, which they would have taken as interference. Sometimes, they just can't win for losing.
We've had a half-dozen presidents or Veeps visit around here for the Landon Lecture series. It ties the area into knots for two days because it's not just POTUS, it's about a hundred security pre- and post- including things like welding (seriously) down some sewer covers and checking the vents for people hiding nasty packages.
So, what I take away from this is that you don't care about all the damage Trump is doing as president, but you do care about your life being inconvenienced.
4745425
Your partisan biases are showing. If you were paying attention and thinking rationally, you'd see that the overwhelming majority of his policies are the same as Obama's, which were the same as Bush's, which Hillary Clinton said would be her policies. They all cause the same damage. Only the faces change.
4745533 My first instinct on this was 'Really?!' but upon further thought, I'll agree with you. The overwhelming majority of all politicians of any stripe, right, left, or cross-stitch, want to make the US a productive, comfortable, happy place. The paths they take to that end are generally similar, with some specific radical differences that we pay far too much attention to. After all, 99% of politicians want safe food, clean water and air, immunized people, educated children, no terrorist attacks, a productive economy, a strong military able to protect us against world-wide threats, and Justin Bieber to go back to Canada where he belongs.
(It is nice that we're recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel finally, though, after every presidential candidate since Reagan promised it)
4745533
I have been paying attention and thinking rationally, thank you. You think it's partisan bias, but I think a lot less of Trump than past Republican presidents and candidates. I had a difficult time deciding between Obama and McCain. This isn't partisan bias, I don't want Trump as president because he's a terrible human being. He constantly spouts divisive rhetoric and is temperamental and petty, in addition to being a bigot. He is NOT the same as most other politicians.
That said, I apologize for my first comment. I shouldn't have assumed anything about your motivations.
4745722
Thank you, and I likewise apologize for mistaking your perspective.
As for Trump, though, you're right that he's a shitty excuse for a human being, but he was the inevitable consequence of a decades-long process. The American people have grown increasingly frustrated with the illusion of choice we're given when it's time to pick our leaders, and it's led to the rise of political candidates who were never intended to reach the heights they have. These include people such as Ross Perot, Ron Paul, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders. They gained traction because people were desperate to hear something other than politics as usual, and the people's pursuit of honesty and integrity gave rise to Trump's cult of personality.
Still, it's a mistake to focus on Trump himself, rather than the events he portends. He's merely a buffoon, an obnoxious puppet dancing on strings, but he has another significance as the harbinger of the final phase of the generational cycle. He's almost certainly the Gray Champion of the Fourth Turning we're halfway into, and his actions will help to shape the inevitable conflict that will begin in the coming years.
For context about that last paragraph, I recommend reading up on the Strauss-Howe generational theory.