With Cleveland set to become the center of the world this coming week with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump set to officially accept the GOP nomination for president, things are about to get a little crazy here in the CLE.
As I posted on my Facebook last night in my original status, I decided to expand upon that post with this first-person op-ed column, that on the eve of the RNC invading my fair city, I was on my normal bus ride commute home and talking with a fellow passenger about why foreign governments would be more inclined to deal with a President Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump.
Only would I know my normal bus commute home would turn into a seemingly futile encounter with a Trump Zombie.
For those not in the know, the term “Trump zombie” is an individual who—despite his many flaws and blatantly uber-nationalist, racist and brash brand of “politics”—unabashedly supports the Donald, ever if it is against their own personal best interests.
Normally, sane individuals would at least consider the alternate if their favorite political candidate is either flawed or has some glaring issues. Trump zombies don’t care, because it is all about Trump.
Period.
My bus driver, who was causally eavesdropping on our conversation, proudly identified himself as a supporter of Trump, began ranting about why he is voting for the Donald in stating that he is “different” and isn’t a politician who gives it too you straight and that he hates Hillary for lying and Obama for being a “dictator”.
Such talk is common amongst what I like to call Fox News muppets, who self-consciously regurgitate America’s so-called No.1 cable news network religiously, took things to a whole new—and frightening level—when gushing about the Donald.
So naturally, I calmly ask him why is Obama a dictator who has trampled over his constitutional rights-yawn!—in forcing him to buy health care coverage. To which I respond, he is not forcing you, in offering universal health care for all Americans. He then tries to say that ObamaCare violates the Constitution, to which I state that it is within the “commercial clause” of the Constitution since it is considered a tax, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in a 6-3 ruling.
He was like…okay.
This type of empty thinking and lack of knowledge is what troubles me this coming election, because as much as I don’t like Hillary—I’m actually a Bernie bro!—I’ll still cast my vote for her over Trump any day. Can you actually imagine this thin-skinned egomaniac at the controls of the world’s most powerful military AND economy?
Didn’t think so.
After this, he proceeds to goes on(again!) about how Obama is a “dictator”—as all Fox News muppets do—in passing all these laws in bypassing Congress, to which I politely educate him about the three branches of government and that George W used the most executive orders of any US president*.
*FDR passed the most executive orders with 3,721 with W passing 291, per the American Presidency Project.
Again, he was dumbfounded.
He then went on to try and argue about why Trump would make a great president and that Obama basically “made it easier” for Muslims to come to America. To which I responded, all people can come here and that he never made it “easier” for any one.
Then, I asked him why is he REALLY voting for Trump and do you know what his platform is and who his new running mate in Indiana governor Mike Pence is?
He didn’t know and then proceeded to rant about the need to make America first, build a wall to protect us from immigrants and “get rid of the Muslims” so I had to explain to him about his controversial anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bill that cost the Hooiser stated and estimated $60 million and 12 conventions, per David Badash of The New Civil Rights Movement website.
He didn’t and couldn’t even explain or defend Trump’s economic plan, foreign policy etc.
Dumbfounded and rebutted, he looked lost, uneducated and totally schooled.
Yup, THESE are the kind of people drawn to Trump and the GOP’s circus anti-gay, anti-women and anti-minority platform of hot air, race-baiting and sexism.
So, on the dawn of what will be the most watched political convention in recent memory, which has turned Cleveland into a glorified open-carry powder keg of a fortified demilitarized zone complete with checkpoints, overhead snipers and undercover personnel from an estimated 56 local and government agencies, overseeing an urban populace that will see the likes of Bikers For Trump, the Ku Klux Klan, The New Black Panthers, Black Lives Matter and an seeming non-stop horde of hell-bent Trump locomotive passengers.
Basically, downtown Cleveland is a confined 21st century urban version of the Ol’ Wild West, with everyone packing heat.
While my city is finally getting the global close-up it has long craved, I fear that the cost of it may be too great due to what has the potential of deadly violence marring its moment in the spotlight.
It’s no coincidence that on the eve of the GOP’s coronation of the Donald that there has been a string of shootings at the East Side nightclub Agora, Sims Park and Euclid Beach with many more unconfirmed deaths at peace rallies in the area, that has been conveniently left out of the local news coverage so far.
In terms of the Trump zombie from the other night, thankfully he drives a bus, and that’s it! Next time I’ll just Uber it, Fox News Muppets, I swear!