How I see it...

If there is a god, I don’t think that god expects us to believe anything. If there is a heaven or some type of pleasant afterlife, I think we all go there no matter what we believed or did while alive. I believe we’re better humans and more loving if we feel loved and feel worthy of love, and I think that’s a simple explanation of Paul Tillich’s concept of “accepting acceptance.” I wouldn’t call any of this “faith.” It’s more like hope. I can’t prove any of it, and I don’t expect anyone else to believe it. It’s just how I see things.

False Prophets

The primary function of prophets in the Old Testament was to relay to the people, and most especially political leaders, what pleased and did not please their god. In the course of carrying out this duty, they sometimes predicted what would happen in the future, but their focus was on their own time, their present.

This is interesting to me as historical and cultural information concerning our particular civilization and the development of religious beliefs among humans in general.

However, if there is a god, I reject the idea that this god would communicate with us through prophets, leaving us with the impossible task of figuring out who is a “false” prophet and who is a “true” prophet. I doubt something as important as a message from a god would be delivered in such a haphazard way. It’s like some stranger knocking on my door and telling me my dead mother wants me to have a fried egg sandwich for dinner. Am I really supposed to believe that? If she is out there somewhere and able to communicate with this stranger, why didn’t she tell me herself?

Therefore, anyone in this day and age who is said to be a prophet is, in my opinion, a false prophet—no matter if they claim that title for themselves or others have made the claim in their regard, and no matter if they’re in the habit of prognosticating or commenting on present circumstances.

I do not believe anyone has any kind of special knowledge of otherworldly entities or their “desires” or “wishes” or “commands” for us. If there is some kind of spiritual reality, and if humans are capable of discerning this reality, I don’t think anyone has special abilities or insights into that reality. So if someone has a spiritual experience, that’s all well and good for them. But don’t expect me to set aside my own thoughts, feelings, experiences and instincts because of a claim that someone else has a message from a god. If there is a god, and that god wants to communicate something to me, I assume that god has my number and can call me direct.

The Rural Vote

It’s true that Democrats haven’t done a very good job of reaching out to rural and less educated voters. It’s true that not much has improved in rural areas in the last 50 years. It’s true that many who live in rural America feel abandoned by Washington. But I am growing weary of hearing how Trump got so many rural white votes because these poor rustic souls believed him when he told them he was going to bring them good jobs and prosperity.

I lived in rural West Virginia for over 40 years. I know the people in rural America aren’t dumb as fucking bricks. All of this post-election analysis that tries to assure us that Trump voters are scared for their economic future and dumb enough to believe Trump’s bullshit… That’s just more urban and suburban elitism and arrogance. If you’re smart enough to see through Trump’s bullshit jobs plan, you can bet your sweet ass most rural Americans are smart enough to see through it, too.

Many if not most rural voters who feel shut out by the system simply don’t vote. The Democrats need to become more progressive and reach out to those people. Like Kennedy did and Roosevelt.

The Democrats haven’t earned the rural vote in a long time. That’s for sure. But you know who else hasn’t earned the rural vote? Republicans. Not everyone in rural America is voting for Republicans. Some are voting blue. And some are staying home on election day. Those who keep voting Republican are the asshole rednecks. Republicans, including Trump, especially Trump, tell them what they want to hear: they are the “real” Americans who deserve to live high on the hog simply because they were born American and white and that minorities are stealing their birthright. They buy into that shit not because they’re poor, simple folk who don’t know any better. They like feeling superior. And they like kicking minority ass.

I am convinced that a vote for Trump was, by and large, in fact a vote for hate and not a misguided vote for good jobs.

They Hate Us

I’ve been switching from network to network, and all the pundits are talking about rural voters and voters who didn’t go to college. I think the Democrats haven’t been doing a very good job speaking to those voters and their fears. Not everyone is suited for college and advanced technical training. We need to do more to make sure that those people do not face a life of poverty, either now or in the near future. For instance, I’m very much for renewable energy. I think that’s something we should have been working toward for decades. But I spent most of my life in West Virginia, a big coal mining state, and I know how much of a disruption a move away from coal would be to West Virginians. When Democrats talk about renewable energy, they go on about how it’ll create new, high paying jobs. Almost as an afterthought, they’ll promise to try to find some funding for training for displaced workers. It’s never very specific, and it’s not very reassuring. And many of the coal miners probably worry they’re not up to doing the new high tech jobs even with training.

A lot of the pundits are talking about how Hillary Clinton isn’t a warm and cozy person who elicits much enthusiasm, how she represents the status quo, how she never connected with these rural, less educated voters. There might be some truth to all of that.

But I don’t think an amoral New York billionaire is a likely buddy of rural, less educated voters. And I don’t think they believe he’s going to help secure their economic future. I don’t think they embraced him because of those understandable, practical reasons. I think they’ve seen the increase in the minority population, and it disturbs them. I think it disturbed them when a black man was elected president. I think the chance of a woman being elected president disturbed them. I think marriage equality and the rise of LGBT rights disturbed them. And voting for Trump was their way to protest against all of that. I think tonight they saw a chance to poke us in the eye, and they took it.

They hate us. They really do hate us. They’re willing to burn their own houses to the ground to get that point across to us.