The New Liberal Landscape

My dear friends,

I know we are all appalled and sick at heart at what has happened to our country. A man gets acid thrown in his face and told to go home to his country. Men and women who fought for this country are deported like yesterday's garbage. Children are in cages and have little hope of ever being returned to their families.

It is our fault and we need to own it.

We allowed our racist uncle to spew his hate at the Thanksgiving table. We loaned our homophobic sister money so her little homophobes in training could attend religious school. We let our coworkers be snubbed by customers. We ate lunch with the misogynists and put up their jokes for company unity. We said, “Boys will be boys,” and comforted our little girls bruises and hurt feelings. We never called them out for a single thing and that gave them permission to continue doing it. We touted unconditional love and they exploited us. They are absolutely certain as long as the person they kill is gay, trans, brown, black, red, liberal, even if they lose power, they will be welcome at the table and be sharing our love. We will forgive them and go back to ignoring the hatred and bullying because that IS what we have always done. Oh, that's just Uncle so and so but we love him anyway.

It's time to stop loving him. It's time to shun these creatures of hate. Uncle So and So won't be getting a free Thanksgiving dinner. The local Trumper will be sitting at a table alone in the cafeteria. The MAGA hat wearer will be served, as slowly and ineptly as we can manage. The Cult of Trump “friend” will learn the shoulder they cry on answers the phone, “Hello. Thank you for calling. Have a nice day.” and we hang up. The relative that always bails them out suddenly has something better to do with their money, like spend it on themselves or donate to a favorite cause.

Shunning is one of the most effective methods of behavior modification. It has been used for centuries by the Mormons, Catholics, Mennonites, Amish, etc. to keep their members in line. It works and it will work for us.

To the Cult of Trump, kindness, forgiveness, and any kind of help is weakness. They are predators. Once they determine you are weak, they exploit you. Think about it. They have been exploiting us for years. Have a fit about sitting next to a person of color and get the same nice service in their now private booth. Force everyone else in the waiting room to listen to FOX news. Spewing their hatred everywhere they go and we smiled and were nice.

NO MORE. They say hi, we turn and walk away. They want something, they don't get it. Our relatives no longer have a shoulder to cry on, a liberal bank to borrow from or a free meal. Let them explain to their kids why you aren't playing their game and showering them with gifts. They are going to tell them how stupid, weak and foolish you are anyway. You might as well save your money. Make no mistake, they are training their children to be just like them and those little darlings think of you as a dumb ass mark to exploit.

One by one, we will make certain they know they are not welcome and they never will be.

So the next time they cry that no one listens to them, they might figure out that not only have we listened to them but we were taking notes, names and addresses and we will be avoiding them for the rest of their miserable lives.

We have better things to do, like helping those that will play it forward and help others. We will allow them to live in the paradise we create but we won't associate with them. I'm certain they will just love the company of their own kind.....NOT. In their world there can only be one winner and that really reduces their numbers fast.