There’s a video making the rounds on Facebook that claims to show how the “average American” views the Trump inauguration.
It’s shows a lone white male, surrounded by flag art, talking about how we liberals should suck it up, and that real Americans, like him, are happy Trump won.
This video pisses me off for several reasons.
First, the guy being interviewed isn’t one of the “real Americans” he claims to represent. He’s an artist, not a coal miner. He profits off of the people he wants to speak for, but he’s not one of them.
Second, the whole idea that “average Americans” are just like this guy, and all happy about Trump, is a lie. It’s code, code that only white, uneducated males are real Americans, and everyone else should sit down and shut up.
What would a video wanting to accurately show an average American be like?
Most Americans are female. So we have to swap the dude for a woman.
Most Americans live in liberal, coastal areas. So now we have to move the woman speaking out of the implied RustBelt setting and to one of the coasts. Maybe New York, maybe California.
Most Americans do think of themselves as white, so she can be white and still be “average.”
But uneducated? Not this woman. She’s got her high school diploma, and taken some college classes. She probably has an associate’s degree, which she’s used to get a better job.
So we have a white, working-class but educated, woman living on the coasts.
She’s probably Democratic. She probably voted for Hilary. She’s likely in favor of the ACA, and the protections it provides for her access to women’s health care.
It’s the exact opposite of what the video portrays, which is why it ticks me off so much.
But more than that, I hate the implication that other people, who aren’t white, or male, or uneducated, are somehow lesser citizens.
I hate the smug superiority the video reinforces. It’s the refuge of bullies and cowards, of people looking to blame someone else for their situation.
I understand that it’s hard to make a living without a college degree. I understand it’s difficult to change careers when the factory you depended on shuts down. I understand you don’t want to move to a strange town to chase a new job.
But if I could offer some advice to them: suck it up.
Because you had their chance. You made fun of guys like me all through school. You ditched classes and slacked off on your studies. You didn’t go to college, didn’t think it was something “real men” did.
You rule out taking on all kinds of jobs, from nursing to teaching to customer service, as “women’s work”. So your wife or your girlfriend has to support you, while you wait for the Industrial Age to roll back through town.
It’s not happening. No one is coming to save you: not Trump, not Pence, not Paul Ryan. They want your votes, but they aren’t going to help you one bit.
You’re going to have to do it on your own.
And it’s your own fault. You voted to cut the ladder of economic advancement out from under yourself and everyone else.
I sympathize with you, but I don’t feel sorry for you.
You’re a crybaby, whining about the good times that have passed you by.
You’re lazy, unwilling to do the work to make something better of yourself.
And you’re a coward, afraid to join the ranks of those who have their own business, who have to justify their existence through service to others in the marketplace.
You’re an un-American burden on the country, and I can only hope the next four years open your eyes to how your pride and the Republican party have deceived you.
