Will You Be Here For Christmas?
It has been less than a week since I stepped away from the keyboard and got in my car to drive to Austin and see my oldest daughter. 14 hours and over 1,000 miles each way. Lots of time to reflect, listen to the news, observe the campaign signs across several of America’s southern states. Especially Texas.
Texas is a big state. The drive from El Paso to Austin alone is over 8 hours. And there’s still a whole lot of Texas past Austin to get to the other side.
Texas is also a notoriously red state. Big on guns, God, and freedom, unless of course they want to eff with yours because they don’t agree with what you do with it. Then you get into a toxic mash of religion and conservatism. Having lived in that state for over 20 years, I was not sad to finally see it in my rearview when I moved away in 2017. Too many minds are small, too many belt buckles are big, and too many guns are everywhere.
A lot of my drive was through the vast emptiness that still exists in the state. Lots of dust, small towns, farms and ranches. It was when driving through these places and seeing the glut of Trump flags, signs, hate for liberals, and Trump graffiti that I had to remind myself that land doesn’t vote. Spooky signs about socialism are rife. Huge Trump banners adorn the front fences of many ranches. And yes, many a pickup truck sports both multiple Trump flags flying from the bed and a set of bull testicles hanging from the hitch.
What was notable, however, was when driving through larger towns, and into Austin — a blue oasis of education, sanity, and rationale — Biden Harris signs rule the day. And Texas is actually in play as more and more people realize the power of their vote for the first time in their lives.
It gave me hope. This election is like none in our lifetimes. This is not a mere contest of political viewpoints, in which one side will win, and life will go on. This election is so far beyond politics. This election is about hearts and smarts and integrity and respect and honor and salvation. This election is our only opportunity to eject the vermin who have infested our highest offices, soiled our standing in the world, shamed us with their inhumane treatment of so many people and brought us to another boiling point in a pandemic.
Since I left Wednesday last week, we have added 338,747 new cases of COVID. We have lost 4,085 more lives. We are now at a point where 679 out of every million Americans had died from this virus. That means since I departed Wednesday morning, we have averaged over 56,400 new cases and 700 deaths per day.
And we are on an upswing.
All across the country, states are surging with 37 seeing hospitalizations rising. And in 17 states, hospitals are above 70% of their ICU capacity.
Because a privileged idiot who does not understand how to tie his shoes let alone viral spread and epidemiology now believes he is invincible and that “Ehhhh, fuck it” is a good strategy against coronavirus. On a call with his campaign staff today he literally said these words, “People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”
Guess what, Donald, COVID is not tired of us. In fact, if COVID was a sentient being, your super spreader rallies would be giving it wood. Your rally pictures would be kept in a Spank Bank file on COVID’s desktop. COVID loves us.
You stand on your stage, distanced from the rabble, and play your greatest hits from 2016 — “Lock her up!” “But her emails!” “Mexico is paying for the wall!” You dance, you brag about how you’re immune now, how you can just go kiss everyone in the crowd (as if you would even allow those creatures you need to cheer for you to get close enough). If you did have COVID, here’s the difference between you and someone in your Jonestown pavilion who gets it:
You have a full medical staff at all times at the White House.
Joe Magafool has a medicine cabinet with some expired Nyquil and an empty Advil bottle
You have a helicopter at your disposal to whisk you away to one of the top hospitals in the country.
Karen Grabmypussy has a late model Dodge Caravan that needs jumpstarted.
You have a suite of rooms at Walter Reed just waiting for you.
Bubba WhiteandSupreme has a local Urgent Care and no insurance. Hell, in many places Bubba still cannot get tested just because he wants to. Not that Bubba wants to.
You have dedicated doctors and nurses who swarmed you, did your bidding, provided you with new treatments, steroids, around-the-clock monitoring.
Becky LoSelfesteem is lucky if she is allowed into the ER waiting room. And as I said above, in 17 states, she now stands the real possibility of hearing, “Come back when you really can’t breathe.”
You went back to the White House where that medical staff was waiting to continue your care, continue administering you your drugs.
Sent back home, Holly lays on her couch while her husband, Brandon Donttreadonme, stares at her and wonders whether to give her the old Nyquil or the fuzzy Advil he found under the bathroom counter.
The reality is this — COVID is not going away. There will be no miracle. Summer came and went and the hot temps did not scare it off. And when we plebs contract it, Walter Reed is not waiting for us, nor are cutting edge meds. According to Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research, “The next six to twelve weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic. Vaccines will not become available in any meaningful way until early to third quarter of next year.”
That graph above is eerie. In 1918, because of public carelessness, because they “got tired of it,” 195,000 lives were lost in October alone. We are not out of October and November is gearing up to take countless lives.
So what can we do? What we have been told all along to do — wash our hands, distance, and wear a goddamned mask. States who enacted mask mandates literally saw a 75% drop in cases over the summer. Why is that so hard to get through the heads of Cult45?
Sadly, the answer is simple. They worship an orange, make up wearing, hay bale haired, overweight, out of shape, ignorant, sociopathic and narcissistic gourd who tells them all is well. And they believe it because it takes no effort on their part. No sacrifice, no thought, no having to consider the greater good. It caters to what they all have in common — selfishness and venality.
The holidays are coming. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, hell, Boxing Day. This is the time of year we look forward to, to spend time with relatives, exchange gifts, bask in the glow of good fortune, sing carols, pray.
But the cold hard reality is that, at a minimum, over 25,000 of us will not be alive to carve a turkey, and 50,000 of us will not live to see the lights on the tree, the candles on the menorah.
It did not have to be this way. If we had a president who took it seriously from the start, was man enough to admit he knows nothing and let the doctors and scientists lead, had mandated mask wearing from the start, and had a meaningful shutdown (financially supported by our government), we would all be looking to the holidays with hope and heart and excitement. Instead, we will be Facetiming our loved ones as we continue to quarantine, be unable to provide a Thanksgiving meal because unemployment has run out, and staring at empty chairs at our tables where loved ones should be.
Early voting has been underway for weeks now, with new states opening up daily. As of last night over 27 million people have already voted across the country. PLEASE, do not throw your vote away on a tantrum because Biden was not your political crush in the primary. PLEASE do not write in some bullshit like Kanye or Ronald Reagan. PLEASE think of every ounce of privilege you have that makes you even capable of contemplating protest voting, not voting, third party voting — and then go VOTE FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE WITHOUT YOUR PRIVILEGE.
Vote for decency and humanity and science and education and equal rights and protections and the chance to stop this virus before it claims another 225,151 (yes it has gone up 54 since I started typing) lives in this country.
Biden and Harris may not be your perfect cup of tea, but they are equipped with the intelligence and humility we need to restore so much that has been lost, to right so very many wrongs, and to insure science will finally take the lead.
Because if the question is Will you be here for Christmas? And if Trump is your answer, you better shop early. This is the only gift he is giving out.
