So many people would love to flip off
Donald Trump. In fact, in spirit, that is what most people end up spending most of their days doing - some mental action that ultimately amounts to a rejection of Donald Trump. It's good for catharsis, even if it does nothing practically, to flip off the man.
Performative rejection of Trump is what most people do out of political powerlessness. We understand that with a Republican legislature, very little can be done to stop the actions of the exceedingly-powerful Presidency. American democracy sadly only functions every four years, and most of the time, all candidates on offer are far below standards.
Trapped in these four-year boom-or-bust cycles, performative rejection is just what feels good.
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According to the official press pool report, here's what happened:
“POTUS’s motorcade departed the Trump National Golf Club at 3:12, passing two pedestrians, one of whom gave a thumbs-down sign. Then it overtook a female cyclist, wearing a white top and cycling helmet, who responded by giving the middle finger. The motorcade had to slow and the cyclist caught up, still offering the finger, before turning off in a different direction.”
Trum is down to 38% approval, and between the middle-finger and the thumbs-down, it appears that the people of DC don't exactly like the guy. Trump is unpopular, who would've thought? The cyclist, thus far, has not been identified. She is a nameless hero, and the photograph of her flipping off the motorcade may make it into textbooks or some history of American protest.
Apparently, Trump was also flipped off a second time:
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Nobody knows if Trump himself saw the finger. Maybe
Mike Pence saw? Either way, I'm just surprised more stuff like this hasn't happened. The world is relatively tame compared to how it could look with President Trump. Especially when he's in public, nobody really heckles or publicly gets under his skin, do they?
It's all performative, anyway. Nothing can get rid of the man except for 2020. And along with him, the party that follows him, those Republicans, can go too. It's up to the Democrats to provide a good alternative - which, I mean, it's at least possible. But not exceedingly likely. Whoever it is will have to be good enough - which is pretty hopeful, right? We beg the Democrats to give us a good candidate just so we have a chance against Trump? Why is our democracy so chained up?
Like I've said before, the future of protest is a livestream of Trump speaking while a flurry of angry react emojis stream across the screen. We can all be mad at and flip off Trump forever, but making actual political change exists in a different realm.
If you're an American, make sure you register with your political party so you can vote in closed primaries in 2019 and 2020. You'll be really sorry if you neglect it, and find that the window to register to vote closed months in advance, which they do in America. Yeah, the elections aren't great.
