Thank you, Universe.
She wasn’t a Trader Joe’s shopper.
How, you might ask, did I know?
It’s kind of like when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 tried to explain what hard-core porn was by saying, “I know it when I see it.”
I recall the Trader Joe’s employees doing their level best to treat her with dignity, even though she was clearly trying to trigger every liberal in the place.
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For one, this shopper had very little in her handheld basket, as though she didn’t know what exactly she was supposed to pick there, and two, her clothing was a dead giveaway. Her T-shirt was navy blue and had Donald Trump’s face on it along with the American flag, and it was emblazoned with the announcement that he was now the 45th President of the United States of America. The woman also wore a patriotic necklace—Mardi Gras bead-style—but with stars and flags and eagles.
She sauntered around the store—shopping—of course, but we all knew what she was really doing. She was doing what all sore winners do: gloating. I recall the Trader Joe’s employees doing their level best to treat her with dignity, even though she was clearly trying to trigger every liberal in the place.
This was days after the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton had just lost. It was dark times indeed. If we only knew then just how dark it was going to get over the next four years. If only that Trader Joe’s shopper knew how dark it was going to get. Likely, that woman is now the one licking her wounds, asking us to give her time and space to heal. She, one of the “F@*k Your Feelings” set. She probably never set foot inside Trader Joe’s again, or if she did, maybe she wasn’t wearing a mask, and now the Trader Joe’s staff had to shoo her away for good.
Right now is the moment to drive a wrecking ball into that established idea that women cannot and should not lead at the highest levels of government.
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That woman, wherever she went, was responsible for putting Donald Trump in office. Rather, that woman was responsible for not having faith in Hillary Clinton to run this country. That woman, along with 75 million other Americans built an industry on Hillary Clinton hatred that still seethes today. We don’t need to rewind the tape to relive the last four years, but we can be certain of one thing: the Hillary hate has been replaced with Donald Disgust. With it, my only hope is that the fear and loathing of the idea of a woman elected to the highest office in the land cultivated and nurtured by the Right dies away as fast as Donald’s reputation continues to decompose.
Right now is the moment to drive a wrecking ball into that established idea that women cannot and should not lead at the highest levels of government. With Kamala D. Harris, our first woman Vice President—THANK YOU, UNIVERSE—it is time to show that progress is possible.
I’ll make a few admissions here. I’m a grown human man who has emotions. I’m proud of my Mexican-American ancestry and the highly maternally-oriented family I came from. I’m proud that I am sensitive and understand a woman’s struggle in this world. I have a feminine side. So what?
I admit I was devasted when Hillary Clinton lost. I cried. As soon as Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for President on January 21, 2019, I signed up and started contributing. When she dropped out of the race, I shifted my donations to Elizabeth Warren. When she dropped out of the race a few days after Super Tuesday in March 2020, just a week or so before the world caved in with the pandemic, I prayed to the Universe, “Please, let this be the Last White Man.” Back then, no one knew Joe Biden would be the Democratic Presidential nominee, but it was sure looking like the women in the race didn’t have a chance. When he finally received the nomination, I said, “So be it,” followed by, “Please let this be the Last White Man.”
It’s Kamala that makes me think, “Yes, finally. A younger person. A woman. An American with brown skin. Yes.
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I’ll also admit that Inauguration Day 2020 was mostly about Kamala for me. Yeah, I wept when Biden took the oath, but it was Kamala that turned on the tears. It was her appearances throughout the day and into the night of Inauguration Day that gave me the hope for this country I haven’t had in a long time. It’s Kamala that makes me think, “Yes, finally. A younger person. A woman. An American with brown skin. Yes. That is what’s possible.”
It’s early days. No one can predict what the next four years will hold. As a Biden and Harris supporter, I’m going to follow their lead. I’m going to move forward treating my fellow citizens with dignity. I’m up for the challenge to get out of this mess. And I’m definitely not going to strut around a grocery store regaled in Joe Biden shwag. Who in the hell even wants to be in a grocery store right now anyway?
…perhaps the Last White Man won’t be so bad.
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We can rest easier these days knowing that the next four years will certainly not be like the last. At this point, the only direction is upward, and with a good-old boy politician who actually has a spine and a soul as our President, perhaps the Last White Man won’t be so bad. But it’s not he who I’ll be watching. It’s her. It’s always been her, and one of these days, Universe, one of these days, let it be a her leading our nation.
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Photo source: TheWhiteHouse.gov