Ana Navarro is a Republican strategist. Though she’s no stranger to political commentary on the news, she’s one of a a few handfuls of bold voices in the media who are willing to speak truth to power right now, regardless of potential consequences. Navarro voicing her dislike of Trump is nothing new, but the clip of her talking with Wolf Blitzer, where she accurately describes Trump and his Twitter Tantrums, was exactly what everyone in America was thinking that day when Trump’s latest Twitter diversion pulled attention from the actual newsworthy events of the day.
On June 29th we should’ve been discussing things like the enactment of Trump’s temporary, partial travel ban; the Senate Republicans’ looming self-inflicted deadline for revising their healthcare bill; an updated analysis from the Congressional Budget Office regarding federal Medicaid funding; and White House confirmation of Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, among several other things. Instead, we were forced to discuss Trump’s tweet where he called Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski of Morning Joe, “Psycho Joe” and “low I.Q. Crazy Mika,” (who he also alleged was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when he saw her around New Year’s.)
Both the terrible tweet in question and the clip of Navarro’s satisfying anger rant made the rounds on social media later the same day. However, one of the latest trends I’ve noticed on social media is people claiming the distinction of being blocked from Trump’s Twitter account (hashtag, “blocked by Trump.”) So, if you’re one of the seemingly countless people who’ve been blocked from @POTUS, or @realDonaldTrump's Twitter account, or both, you may not have seen the tweet for yourself. Here you go:
Trump’s tweets from 6/29/17, attacking Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski. Trump stands by his tweets and now claims his use of social media is “MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.”
Navarro speaking her mind on the news lately, specifically calling out the behaviors in Trump that we’d like to see eradicated from humankind altogether, is totally awesome. Here is one of several Republicans I can fully get behind and support. Because her statements aren’t about politics, they’re about humanity:
In fact, everything Navarro said in that interview with Blitzer is exactly why the 2016 election was never about “politics” in the first place. A large majority of us, including some Republicans, knew who Donald Trump was and was not. We warned his supporters – gently at first, then harsher later as we yelled “FIRE” to a seemingly deaf audience. Trump is not a Republican. He’s not a Christian. He’s not an ally. He’s certainly not a friend to the “forgotten men and women of America.” He’s a senior citizen, a fully grown man, absolutely set in his ways and unlikely to change, who also happens to embody the absolute worst of humankind.
On the campaign trail and beyond he has proven this, over and over and over. And yet, his supporters still say, “Let’s give him a chance; Let’s see what he can do! He’s new to this; Give him time to learn!” The things is, a large majority of Americans told the Trump supporters exactly what he would do, and how long he would do it for. And we were (and continue to be) indisputably right.
You see, Donald Trump as President to the American people is basically what cousin Oliver was to The Brady Bunch TV show, i.e., the patron saint of jumping the shark. His entrance is inexplicable; it upsets a (not perfect) but working dynamic; is annoying (at best), and is a seemingly last-ditch effort to shake things up. While good intentions may have been the force behind adding him to the scene, his presence (to try and boost ratings) certainly didn’t help because he never contributed anything of value. He had no memorable moments, nor did he change the direction of the show.
Much of the same about Cousin Oliver Syndrome can be said of President Donald Trump – only, Trump isn’t young. Or cute. Or funny. Like cousin Oliver, indeed many of the intentions behind putting Trump in this position were good. People weren’t satisfied with “status quo;” they wanted to shake-up Washington. But, one way cousin Oliver and Trump differ is that Trump certainly has produced… uhm… “memorable” moments, and he has definitely changed the direction of our nation. I’ve yet to encounter anyone who can successfully dispute that Trump has lowered (if not damaged) the level of political discourse.
When he has members of his own party saying he is embarrassing, shameful, and disgusting, and when they are giving advice such as Ana Navarro who says, “I’ll say this about Republicans: I’m really tired of hearing words like ‘disappointed,’ like disturbed, like I’m bothered, like I wish he wouldn’t do it. It’s time that somebody looks at the camera and looks at him and calls him up and says ‘listen, you crazy lunatic 70-year-old man-baby, STOP IT,'” he and his “advisors” really should listen. Even as I write this, perhaps for the first time in 2017, all sides of government have come together on one thing: their utter disgust with POTUS “punching down” at people like cable TV hosts via Twitter Tantrums.
Additionally, that Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist, had to put it in these exact, no-nonsense words? It’s already beyond the point when Trump (and the people who support him) should’ve admitted that all the #MAGA hoopla was never about politics, but more about the tearing down of all the hard work accomplished by a strong, poised, composed, undeterred, wise, incredibly cool, and smart black man. A black man who persisted, led by example, and kept his cool, while a majority of Republican congress tried to block his every move, and our current POTUS taunted from the sidelines, fanning the flames of Obama’s disproved “birther conspiracy.” Trump campaigned on emotions. He knew his base. And whether because of overt racism, or subconscious hints in the back of their minds aligning with Reagan’s notion of “welfare queens” depleting government programs, yeah, it resonated, and it was at least a little bit about race.
#MAGA? Baloney. America was already “great.” In my lifetime, our great nation was never the “American carnage” that Trump tried to paint a portrait of during his inaugural speech, one composed of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.” America was already great – not perfect, but great. We knew this. This is why we said and we repeated, “a vote for Trump is an attack on the foundation of our democratic society, and an attack on the American people – specifically, the marginalized people, who we should ALL care about.
My 74-year-old Mom is among those marginalized groups: the seniors, who stand to lose healthcare at a critical point in life. She has often said she “never understood how all the good people of Germany could just stand by and watch their country be taken over by the horrors of Hitler.” Since watching the 2016 election and its entire hideous aftermath continuing to this day, with all the complicity and people afraid to stand up and say something, she frequently says, “Now, I understand.”
Though she was too young to understand the holocaust at the time, she certainly remembers years and years of discourse regarding The Nuremberg Trials and what led up to that beyond-dismal point in history. Of course, back then information didn’t travel warp-speed like now, but people were certainly not in the dark about what was happening, either. My mom and dad (and indeed countless others for a while now), have likened what’s happening with Trump and America, to Hitler and Nazi Germany.
My parents are good, salt-of-the-earth people, the kind who will literally give you the shirt off their backs, if they even sense that you need it. They express frustration not only with the election and its outcome, but also with everything that has been underhandedly pushed through since that election. “When good people are only told ‘alternative facts’ and are not seeing the whole truth,” they say, “it seems they just allow Trump to get by with it. And when the ones who are strong enough to search out and stand up for the truth end up getting attacked and punished for doing so, it shows exactly how much Trump is like Hitler.”
I know the thoughts of my parents are echoed around the country, regardless of political affiliation, when they say things like, “America has been blessed with fairly good leaders who at least allowed our system of checks and balances to work; Until now, we’ve not been faced with a bald-faced liar who punishes all who disagree with him. We’re afraid when enough ‘good people’ finally realize what’s going on and try to stand up to him, he’ll be so ensconced with power that he cannot be overpowered. Just like Hitler.”
Ana Navarro also says Trump lacks the sufficient character (to be POTUS), she calls him mean, nasty, immature, and unstable, she asserts that he “acts like a crazy person with anyone who attacks him because he’s got thin skin,” and that “he’s never going to pivot.”These are all the things that Hillary and Bernie supporters have been saying since Donald Trump made that infamous descent down the gaudy escalator of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President.
In his Presidential farewell address to Americans, Barack Obama said, “Democracy can buckle when it gives in to fear. So just as we as citizens must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are… So let’s be vigilant, but not afraid.” Those of us who are in any way a part of helping society move ever forward, whether it’s through The Peaceful Resistance, and/or grassroots organizations like Indivisible, we must take Obama’s advice and be vigilant, but not afraid. From the gloom-and-doom portrait Trump tried to paint, representing our great nation as “American carnage,” to his weird fixations with women, blood, ratings, and Twitter, it has been clear that he wants to use fear-mongering to both lead and divide us.
All of the “forgotten people” Trump alluded to on the campaign trail and even in his inaugural speech – those same “forgotten people” who voted for him? Well, it’s really hard to have sympathy for them as they continue to vote against their own – and ALL of our – interests. By not recognizing that we all benefit from fair minimum wages, good education, universal health care, social security, and the like, they are furthering Trump’s cause, which has nothing to do with remembering the “forgotten people.”
Remember the Reagan era, when the “forgotten people” were comprised of working class black folks, and they decided to push back? They were told to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. That mentality doesn’t seem to work for the “forgotten” white man. Why not? Because the type of people who tout this type of phrase forget that 1.) the meaning behind the phrase is that it’s literally impossible for anyone to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and 2.) most people who use those phrases seem to not realize just how much good fortune they’ve been the beneficiary of to begin with.
Most of us are not buying Trump’s “American carnage” and the type of “forgotten people” he mentions. Yes indeed, there are real, forgotten people. But they aren’t who Trump appeals to. Because it seems that the pro-Trumpers who are still left believe that having their feelings hurt over feeling victimized because they voted for Trump is somehow equal to the actual damage that results from misogynistic and racist hate-speech, the kind that Trump spews. Which is ludicrous. Because misogynistic and racist hate-speech serve to further systematic oppression and to violate human rights, whereas white, often “Christian” tears over hurt feelings (because people don’t like that you voted for Trump) is not a result of systematic oppression, nor are hurt feelings of the privileged equal to violation of human rights.
Regardless, I believe, if any Trump supporter has buyer’s remorse, or has realized the cult they had somehow become unwittingly entangled in, they should find themselves welcomed to the growing fold of people who don’t think Donald Trump is fit to be POTUS. And yes, I know it’s not the job of the liberals, progressives, the left, or even the anti-Trump Republicans to make Trump supporters comfortable now should they wish they had a vote do-over. I understand that people who’ve had their basic human rights threatened do not have the responsibility of assuaging their attackers. And, I know there was no shortage of warnings and red flags that voting for Trump was incredibly dangerous, irresponsible, and reckless. Nevertheless, we’re all in this together now, whether we like it or not, and we have to move forward somehow.
In the eloquent words of President Obama, in his final good-bye speech, “this is not a period, this is a comma in the continuing story of building America.”
Originally published at: Gender Creative Life