Kaye's Days

There is one topic I have never talked about here on Kaye’s Days and never planned to: politics.

I hate politics. Let me reiterate that. I completely and utterly despise politics with a fire that outmatches the sun’s!

Politics is a topic that never – and I mean absolutely never – ends well. I have never seen a political discussion that doesn’t end in name-calling, at best, and violent threats, at worst.

So, why am I bringing it up now? I made the mistake of participating in it and I deeply, deeply regret that decision.

I won’t bother with talking about the election because, frankly, I’m tired of hearing about it. What I do want to talk about is what consider a strange ideology I’ve seen since the election’s results.

Following the results of the election, I’ve seen a lot of people now speaking about how we as a country or “we the people” (I despise that phrase) need to unite and stand together. My question is: why would anyone do that?

First of all, at least half of the United States is happy with the results, so I doubt they want anything to do with the half who isn’t. In fact, I know they don’t because it’s been little more than an absolute internet war between the two sides. One side sees the other as very prejudiced and uncaring for those not like them. The other side sees the first as pathetic, sore losers who have never held a job and are all on welfare. Does it really sound like the people of either side wants anything to do with the other? Why on Earth would they stand together when they go at each other’s throats while standing apart? To me, this seems akin to asking someone to walk directly into a fire instead of running away from it.

Even without the vitriol, it’s obvious “we the people” do not like each other. Period. I am not talking solely about politics when I say that. Humans have a very long track record of treating one another terribly. You don’t need an election to know that. You’ll figure it out from a very early age if you pay any amount of attention. We live in a world where it’s controversial whether or not some people should truly be seen as people for something they are. Not even something they did. Something they are. When it’s debatable whether some people are really people or not, asking for unity seems, in my opinion, like a delusional request.

Asking for the entire country to unite also means asking people to stand with those who have mistreated and abused them, and frankly, that makes me sick to my stomach. It’s the same reason I was never fond of “support all girls” posts when they’d start going around on Tumblr. Support girls and women? Sure. Support all girls and women, including those who have harmed me and made my life miserable for years on end? Not a chance. It will be a cold day in the realms of hell before that happens. Why should I stand with and support anyone who not only couldn’t care less about me, but saw fit to make my life a nightmare?

I know that viewpoint will be seen as selfish. My question to anyone feels that way is this: Isn’t that what the election was? The point of voting is to vote for the candidate you want to win, the one you feel is in your best interest.

I’ve read posts by people who say the US is now more divided than ever. I’m wondering when it was ever united in the first place. This vitriol is nothing new. It’s been around for decades, long before I was born. It’s easier to hear and know about now because of the internet, which is essentially Information Central. People were not peaceful for hundreds of years until they suddenly exploded with hate in the mid-90s.

Unity sounds like a perfect idea on paper, but in truth, asking nearly 325 million people to stand together as one is an idea that’d only be realistic in a Disney-written fairytale. We are not “one”, we never will be “one, and there’s a very good chance many of us, if not most, don’t want to be “one”. If we could be “one”, we’d never be fighting against one another in the first place. There wouldn’t be two sides constantly trying to tear each other apart.

We are not “one”. We are “many”. Too many to be “one”.