Beyond Redemption

It is official: Trump has been defeated.

I am overjoyed, just as many of you are.

But I am also in no mood for reconciliation or forgiveness—not after everything that has been done to the Twin Cities by this administration and its followers; not after unprecedented corruption, emboldened white supremacists, the encouragement of terrorism, aid to our adversaries, betrayal of our friends, the abandonment of our allies to the slaughter, and crimes against humanity on the US–Mexico border.

This administration has crossed so many lines in so many ways that forgiveness is unthinkable.

But for me personally, Trump has done two things that in my eyes have earned eternal damnation in the annals of history.

Trump, through both incompetence and cruelty, allowed COVID-19 to spread unchecked. Because of this, the Twin Cities has faced unprecedentedly hard times. Dreams have gone up in smoke as people have had to cancel weddings, graduations, and so many life events. Businesses all over the Twin Cities are struggling thanks to the economy grinding to a halt. More than 3,000 of my fellow Minnesotans, including hundreds of my fellow Saint Paulites, are dead because of a disease President Trump allowed and—I suspect—encouraged to spread uncontrolled in my home.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, when the Twin Cities was going through intense pain and misery (especially the Twin Cities’ black residents), many of Trump’s people only made the situation worse. Some of his supporters came to loot and burn neighborhoods already in agony, including the Midway neighborhood in my home city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. On top of this, Trump encouraged more needless violence in my city.

But wait, there's more!

What the GOP Is Now

The Republican Party has enabled the rise of a complete monster. Even after President Trump’s clear defeat, party members are causing even more damage to the United States by refusing to acknowledge (as a group) the reality that the president lost the 2020 election.

Nothing is redeemable about the modern-day Republican Party. This is not even about policy disagreements anymore, but basic values and morals.

This a party comfortable with killing hundreds of thousands of people as a first response to COVID-19 through “herd immunity,” that politized wearing masks (a very basic but effective measure to save lives), intimidating Secretaries of state to throw out votes, and that has downplayed the effects of COVID-19 because the party thought it would mainly kill people who were not its voters, people of color especially.

We are talking about a party OK with unprecedented levels of corruption, kidnapping children to use as political props, and stoking the ugliest of America’s demons to gain power.

The face of the Republican Party today is Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. On her Twitter feed (I will not link such garbage), she has promoted the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen and not fairly won by President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris.

Let’s not ignore the fact that she is a proponent of QAnon.

No, I am not making up the fact that a sitting member of Congress is a batshit-crazy conspiracy theorist.

The modern GOP is closer to a ruling authoritarian party found in Russia than any traditional conservative party.

As a result, the GOP must be completely destroyed for the sake of the country.

The Far Left

Call them what you like—the Bernie Wing, neoprogressives, or the far left (I personally prefer the term “regressive left”)—they did a lot of damage in the down-ballot races through sloganeering and attacking vulnerable members at a time when we could least afford it.

Democrats experienced this brutal down-ballot carnage on Election Day for many reasons, which I will examine in a later post along with what changes need to be made to prevent a bloodbath in 2022.

The antics of the regressive left helped cost Democrats dearly in South Florida, Orange County, California, the main metro areas of Texas, Long Island, North Carolina, and other locations where losses did not have to happen.

It is political malpractice to act like socialists within communities that have historical trauma with communist regimes.

I have not forgotten what role the regressive left played in allowing President Trump to get elected in the first place by how long its proponents dragged out the 2016 primary and the damage they did to Secretary Clinton.

Worst of all, many of them made a bad situation worse in Minneapolis when they helped burn down several struggling neighborhoods on Lake Street.

I can work with them if I absolutely have to, but I will not forget or forgive what role they played in getting us into this mess in the first place and how many of them helped burn the Twin Cities during this rough summer.

No mercy is my only response to the far right and far left—not after everything they have done.

They are both beyond redemption.