Irony

I admit it.  I’ve been in mourning.  The election of Donald Trump sent me for such a loop that at 1:30 a.m. on November 9th, I stood in front of the toilet thinking I was going to vomit.  It shook me to the core.  I was sweating and shaking terrified thinking about the future of the modern world.  What is this man going to do to the country?  How are other countries going to respond?  Are we now going back to 1950 where cross burnings were commonplace, and women were relegated to the kitchen, and the country was constantly on the brink of nuclear war?  I was at my wit’s end. 

Then I remembered how much I love irony.

I get it.  Middle and working class America, you want your jobs back.  You are trying desperately to make ends meet, working to provide for your families.  The rust belt has seen jobs diminish as CEOs do business with China and other countries to save money on manufacturing and construction material like steel.  Corporate leaders at Ford, GM, and Chrysler are moving jobs offshore.  Major high tech companies consistently use cheaper Indian, Russian, Ukraine, Chinese, and Vietnamese workers over the higher paid, higher skilled U.S. markets. 

The jobs that do stay here aren’t what they used to be.  The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created a job market where high paying positions that were once filled by Americans are now filled by foreign contractors.  Sure, the rule is that the can only hire an H1B holder IF there is no other U.S. worker who qualifies.  However, CEOs have found ways to work around that, hiring foreign workers who are willing to take less for the same job.

You’re upset that Mexican nationals keep coming over the border to take advantage of our social programs.  Large corporate farms continue to hire the cheap labor, sending busses to bring them across the border to pick fruit, and butcher meat.  Major construction projects that were once done by skilled union labor are now hired out by corporate leaders who hire illegal immigrants who they know will work for 10 cents on the dollar. 

If you are able to save a little for your family, the financial markets can’t be trusted.  Banks and financial institutions game the system to work in their favor.  Business leaders set up programs which dig into your pocket, or outright steal from you.  Then when their antics are discovered and the system crashes, all your savings is gone, your credit is destroyed, and they just file bankruptcy, working the system so they can cut their losses and keep the money they stole. 

You want someone who can make you feel safe.  You worry about your children and what dangers they might have to experience in the world.  You’re afraid for your daughters and relaxed laws that favor criminals over the victims.  As you see it, the world is full of criminals and terrorism and all around you are dangers that make it impossible to feel comfortable in your own home. 

Your response to this was anger.  You’re angry.  We are all angry.  It’s time to stand up against the system both corporate and political which allows these things to happen.  To you, Hillary represented that system.  After 35 years in politics, to you she was just a representation of everything that’s wrong with America.  What had she done for minorities?  What had she really done for women?  What had she really done for children?  With her all you saw was the corporate control you so hated in politics.

So…your response was to vote for Donald Trump.  To you what this country needs is a CEO who can straighten out Washington.  Because from where you sit there needs to be a shake-up at the top.  Government is the reason for all your pain and that needs to change.  What we need is a corporate leader who can bring about real upheaval in Washington and start bringing jobs back to the U.S.

Here’s where the irony comes in. 

Donald Trump’s hotels are staffed almost exclusively with workers from other countries.  He benefits from the lower labor costs that Mexican and other workers will take over the more expensive U.S. labor.  He’s a corporate CEO who has constantly gamed the system filing bankruptcy not once, not twice, but six times, regularly using the system to cheat his contractors out of promised payments.  He has consistently fought unionization of his properties and broken labor laws to prevent his company from paying staff a fair wage.  He built all of his buildings using cheaper materials purchased offshore so he could avoid the higher costs of domestic steel.  He offshores all manufacturing for his brand name goods to China so he can save costs. 

Now that he has been elected President, Donald Trump is packing his cabinet with political insiders.  His chief of staff is the outgoing head of the Republican National Committee.  I’m not sure how you get more inside the political establishment than that.  Jeff Sessions, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, and many others who have been in political life for decades are his advisers.  You voted for change yet all that seems to be happening is more of the same.

Your decision to vote Trump into office is the equivalent of handing your Vicodin to a drug addict for safe keeping.  You were looking for more jobs, and you’re getting less.  You were looking for more control in your financial life and you are getting less.  You were looking for someone to keep your daughters safe, and now you are getting a man that will grab her pussy.

I’ve been laughing at the irony for days. 

Awesome!

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