the Stateside Wanderer

Do I support Donald Trump is obviously a question of which I don’t always know how to answer. If you ask me, do I support his history of this or that, his rhetoric on a number of things, or his plans to do whatever you choose to harp on, then it’s hard to consistently say yes. But if you ask me, do I support his willingness over the current opposing party as a whole, or not just his willingness, but what he represents as the spearhead of that movement and what it could mean for the future of our collective nation, it’s hard to say no when he as a choice is compared to a candidate of whom not only do I not know much about, but who I know has the association and support of a party, and specifically an administration, which has in most recent years proven itself open to corruption, obedience to unelected peoples or institutions, and a propensity towards hypocrisy in all of the wrong and same ways that they would label the opposing party.

Corruption is a tricky thing. It takes a combination of a willingness to go against duties assigned to you by a trusted party or group, and a lackadaisical attitude towards a series of more core human values. One of them being honesty. Which brings us to our first accusation of lying. And I shall address it via its usual opponent, the truth. Four years ago, we were told that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a hoax, not only a hoax, but Russian disinformation, or at the very least, disinformation from an area outside of the country with ties and reasons to do so. This narrative was so strongly pushed that you were unable to share it, even in private messages, on platforms that would otherwise let you share videos of a variety of heinous and grotesque characteristics. And then, not that long ago, I heard from the mouth of Mark Zuckerberg, not some right-wing nut, Mark Zuckerberg, that the laptop of which was in question was not only a real thing of both speculation and physical value, but something of which he was told, no, mandated, not to allow as a story to spread without the previously listed fabricated attachment. This order came from the DOJ and the FBI. This would lead any reasonable person to assume that the idea that would have been created after that story broke is that The President may have somehow been implicated in a series of not so favorable things of which there could be solid proof in the age of digital memory. And that the connection itself would be dirty enough to have swung some of the votes or any events preceding information in favor of the Republican Party in a manner as to which would have facilitated their victory in the 2020 election. This means that our Department of Justice and the FBI (sadly less surprising) were both weaponized against not only my right as a voter to know all about the people of whom I am entrusting with the running and the continuation of this country, but also my right to engage in the world around me about factual information without the fear or consequence of censorship from any overarching committee or government. Without the need to go into some of the obviously illicit acts or items that we all reasonably agree have already been put into our system diligently as new threats arise, we must not allow ourselves to otherwise be legislated or black mailed into prohibiting ourselves to speak of or engage with ideas. These rights were violated under the supervision of a party of which chooses not to engage in this fact, but also fails to address how this speaks to and reflects upon their integrity. A statement of which I would say also applies to the majority of the press. In so far as their hiding of the potential storylines from within that laptop, we were denied an ability to fully think for ourselves and make our choice for President with all pertinent information. This offense was a form of election interference. And worse so, this was a form of censorship. Whether you like to admit it or not. Full disclosure, if a portion of the rumors surrounding the contents of this laptop are true, Hunter Biden sounds fun. I imagine certain less tame versions of myself could meet him and have a hell of a good time. I don’t shame him for his addiction or the things he did while under the influence of those addictions. I get it. I do however cast judgement on those who hid these things from a citizenry attempting to make one of the most important decisions it is ever asked to make. 

This propensity to lie, and or avoid the truth is a trait of which also carried over when the elephant in the room for the entire world was the slipping cognitive abilities of our sitting President, Joe Biden. Before the current Democratic nominee for President or anyone feels she deserves to receive a vote from any of us, I would find it important to ask Kamala Harris two questions. Well, one question with two parts and a final follow-up. Question number one, “When were you personally aware of the President’s cognitive decline? And, as a former prosecutor, at what time in your relationship with the President would you have considered his testimony and cognitive abilities to no longer qualify him to serve as an expert witness in a court of law?” Lastly, “When, if ever, did you feel morally, legally, and ethically obligated to inform the American people of this knowledge? Let’s not forget, you have that duty both as a human and as a lawyer.” If she cannot truthfully answer those questions, then I cannot give her my vote. Her actions during this time show an active willingness to avoid transparency and to forgo accountability in one of the most obvious forms of deception that any political party has ever attempted to take part in.  

Vice Presidents: This next part will not be nearly as long as the others, but it is something which I find important to mention. Should something unfortunate happen to either of these two candidates while in office, we would be left with their choice of Vice-Presidential candidates, and therefore deserve to know as much about these two individuals as we do the Presidential candidates. For all you need to know about the Republican nominee JD Vance, he has already given you most of what you could want to know in his personal narrative titled “Hillbilly Elegy”.  In there he tells you about drinking underage, smoking weed, getting into fights, and expresses a tendency to speak like a sailor and associate with others who exercise the same linguistic tendencies. And should that not be enough information for you to engage with, he has also done long-form interviews on a series of platforms without any noticeable hesitation in answering whatever question is thrown his way.

Now, regarding the candidate from the Democratic Party, I have only one point to make. According to public record, Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Waltz has taken anywhere from 15-20 trips to China in his lifetime. With one trip keeping him there for over a year and the other trips averaging 2 weeks for each visit. His reasons for being there are relatively harmless. He was a teacher and was engaging in cultural exchange. Which is great. I’ve been to Latin America plenty, and I understand having a love for other cultures and fixating on one in particular. Although I find it weird and unimpressive that despite his time amongst those people and their culture, he does not speak Mandarin or any other Chinese language. My question for you is this. If you heard that the future director of the FBI or the Secretary of State had taken nearly 20 PERSONAL trips to China, would you feel at ease with the information? This is the only time I will give you the obvious answer and attempt to tell you exactly what you should think, no you would not. Or you should not. So why would we allow that same person to hold the second highest position in our government at a time when China is a known adversary and actively engaging in acts of aggression on both a territorial and digital scale? 

To Be Fair:

There are many areas of which I could address some of the same negative qualities within the Republican party. Although I could never do as good a job as our current mainstream media. Nonetheless, I’ll give it a shot. For one, I have still never seen a video that confirms for me that dogs and cats are being eaten on any scale, large or small. I also do not appreciate the hypocrisy of a group that would stand up for my right to bodily autonomy and an individual’s right to deny any forced vaccination, to be the same party which would wish to hold any sort of control over a woman’s body. I’ll give you full disclosure here. I don’t think abortion is necessarily right. To deny that there is some sort of life or future life that is being denied during an abortion is to also deny an obvious truth. Sperm are alive, and they don’t die during the transition from entry to combination into a fertilized egg. It might not be yet a baby as we know it, but it is alive when it leaves my body and ventures into a woman, even though it may not yet be human. Regardless of that, I cannot harbor a baby inside of my body, I’m never going to be the one to do that, and therefore, I will not tell someone else what their legal ability is regarding the actions they take regarding their body. Especially when the government and healthcare system has done nothing to make the early stages of childbirth even close to affordable. I have no children of my own. A statement which does not give me any joy to say. But a sad truth behind that statement is that not having health insurance, I have never been able to fathom affording a child’s birth in the hospital or the years that follow that birth. Not to say that poverty has kept everyone from the joy of parenting, but it is my largest deterring factor and I doubt I am alone.

There is a great deal I left out regarding some of my thoughts on how poorly the Democratic party has exercised their power over the last few years. And that is more so to save time and touch on the most crucial parts of my current argument. There is also a great deal I left out regarding my previous thoughts on the Republican party and specifically Donald Trump. I also left a number of things out that are more speculation than fact. I don’t know what Kamala Harris would do in her first term and I don’t know what Trump would actually do in his second. I can only speak on what I have factually seen thus far. However, if you want to see all that I have said years ago regarding Trump and my lack of respect for his placement in our highest office, you can find that here.  For the record, it’s a longer article than the one you are currently reading. All that being said, I shall close out this part of my argument with the following statement. The Democratic Party has held power in this country for 12 out of the last 16 years, and I wouldn’t call it better because of it, in either performance or reputation. 

Lastly, I can summarize the situation as I see it with a quote I heard a while back…

“Layered incompetence is intent; persistent indifference is approval.”

So, What’s Next? 

This next part is applicable regardless of who comes into office at the end of whatever fiasco is to follow the 2024 election. At the end of the day, one party is going to win, and the other one is going to lose. Regardless of which outcome, we have a few things we need to address as a nation, and we need to make sure our leaders are addressing them as well. 

Civil War & Unrest: 

This is what I call the worst-case scenario. Far too frequently and more so recently, I have heard mentions of a possible civil war between the citizens of my country following this election. These conversations have come from both the ‘right’ and the ‘left’ sides of my politically inclined friends. This is a future action of which I would implore the greatest caution against and plead with either side to not engage in through either rhetoric or action. This would be the worst form of divorce we could ever imagine and what it would do to our country would forever alter it away from the great nation that we all strive to live in. Our problems may be many, but our differences on what we want are few, with less light between either side than common narratives would have you believe. Talk with your neighbors about the issues, not the candidates, and I believe you will find the same. There can always be logic, even in politics. That is all I currently have to say on the matter. 

STEPS FORWARD:

As far as where should we go next instead of at each other’s throats, I would say the following. We (the people and the government) need to secure the individual rights of our citizens and the future ability of those citizens to thrive in a country they can be proud of. I will go into full detail about what I would consider those rights to be, but for now, they would revolve around body autonomy and individual liberty. Also connected to this, although something I wouldn’t normally think to even need to mention, is to know that your nation, the government which you have elected, is doing a fair and reasonable job at keeping you safe. This includes not only day-to-day protective measures against a whole series of things, broadly including, but not limited to, getting robbed by your neighbor, or having an authority who can make a clear judgment on a car accident and to whom that leaves the financial responsibility, but on a much broader sense, it also has to address the people of whom it allows to cross over the borders into this country. A situation which at the moment is subject to a great deal of scrutiny as an increasing amount of those whom cross may not speak the language, or have a specific good natured intention towards the culture or unity we have created here. That is the nicest way to put it, but the bottom line is that we need to secure the channels through which individuals and interests have and continue to have the ability to cross into our country without even reasonable interruptions. This is not just a government issue so far as responsibility to monitor the legal and illegal migration of humans, this also bleeds over into our uncomfortable relationship with other types of illicit trade across the border. A trade of which is only facilitated through the continued economic drivers of desire and vice. The bottom line is that I’ve walked into Mexico and flown into Mexico. Admittedly they didn’t check me when I walked across, but when I left, they always wanted to know who I was. Same with Europe. Same with South America. This isn’t some racist idea. This is safety. 

Elections & Voting:

There isn’t an individual in this country who has the legal ability to work and pay taxes that did not have to show some sort of ID in-order to get that job. If getting an ID is so difficult, maybe that is more of a problem with our DMV than it is a hill to die on as to why someone shouldn’t have to prove who they are when voting. We have all experienced the headaches of dealing with the DMV. Even as someone born in this country, I have sat there with my temple thumping as I wanted to jump across the counter at some DMV employee who was serving as a bureaucratic blockade to my progress to either update an ID or register a vehicle. Something which I found increasingly frustrating as I considered the headache it took to get to the DMV, take off work, and get all of the paperwork together that I THOUGHT I needed. Despite understanding some of the need for the rules, I don’t think the process should be as difficult as it is, and it shouldn’t cost you a thing. Why not have your first issued ID be free? And make election day a federal holiday. Build words into the legislation which make it illegal for your workplace to deny you the proper time it takes to go vote. Make election day a week-long event. And put polling places as close to people as possible. In 2024 India held an election in which over 640 million people participated, and they did so with the average voter being within 2 miles of a voting station/booth. If India can do it, so can we. 

Government Efficiency: 

I know this part is vague, and what can truly be done is arguable and limited, but anyone who has worked in or around the government can assure you that there is a lot of inefficiencies in the system and some of them can be fixed. Once again, I won’t pretend to know the answer here, but I do know that criticizing Elon Musk as a possible figure to help quantify and fix some of these inefficiencies is ridiculous when you consider all he has done and the comparably little his critics have accomplished in the same span of life. 

Economy:

I don’t understand tariffs. I won’t pretend to talk to you about them intelligently right now. And quite honestly, I’ve never made enough money for any of you to take my advice on the economy. Study compounding interest, and good luck.

Healthcare:

This whole system is fucked. Things cost too much. And there is no transparency. Oh, and Big Pharma has far too much reach and influence. I have also not had health insurance in nearly a decade, so once again, I don’t have a full comprehension of the problem at hand, but I stand by my previous statement, it’s fucked.

The End:

There is a great deal I was unable to address, and categories of change that I did not even mention. For that, I mainly blame the current attention span of humans, in this case, that of both me and my fellow Americans. However, among everything I said, If I have said anything which is factually inaccurate, please feel free to tell me. I will publicly make the proper adjustments.  If I have said anything that you wish I wouldn’t have said for any reason other than that you wish these things were swept under the rug, say something to me personally. But if you wish none of this had been said because you fear it could lead you or someone you know to cast a vote for Trump and the Republican party in the 2024 election, then you are actually part of the problem. Because I am not telling you or anyone what to do. I am only saying the things that for whatever reasons seem to still be left unsaid by those who have the duty to say it. 

• Patrick DiMarchi 

About the Author: I am no expert, and I am no Saint. I am only a seasoned observer of the world around me. I was a political science major, so this isn’t my first time talking about or considering our government or our elections, but I have never had any type of .gov email address. I have however been a bartender/server in the DC area for over a decade and have never been shy about speaking with the members of whatever community I am working in. I am fluent in Spanish via a series of accidental immersion, and I have a digital footprint that would reveal comedy and nonfiction narratives, many of which I hope you never read or watch. But if you want to….here they are. Lastly, I am someone who regrets any hesitation I had in writing or releasing this article due to a fear of personal backlash from anyone who I love and care about, but to keep myself from saying what it is I have felt through my recent observations would be a hypocrisy as bad as any other.