I love the portrayal of Americans where there’s a big chunk of “hold my beer, I’ve got this” mixed in with a big chunk of being the good guys, being the ones who will stand up against injustice, being the ones who put men on the moon and land rocket ships on barges just because we didn’t bother to listen to everyone saying it’s impossible, being the ones who called fascists and dictators on their shit and held them responsible.
Nazis sweeping across Europe? “Hold my beer, I’ve got this!”
The Japanese are conquering all of the Pacific? “Hold my beer, I’ve got this!”
Saddam invaded Kuwait? “Hold my beer, I’ve got this!”
Americans still have a ton of that in their constitutions. And in their Constitution. It’s just the current leadership that’s lacking it.
It’s not that they lost that part of their character, it’s that they never had it and wouldn’t recognize it if it bit them in the ass. Multi-millionaires, billionaires, and multi-billionaires all pretending to be in it to protect the little guys, while openly ignoring the little guys, lining their own pockets by breaking every law and ethical code they can find, and just assuming that we’re all stupid enough to not notice or not care.
But the people who spontaneously protested peacefully at airports all across the nation ten days ago? They understand the “Hold my beer!” mentality.
The women and men who marched on the Sunday after the inauguration, drawing crowds an order of magnitude bigger than Trump’s attempted coronation? They understand the “I’ve got this!” mentality.
The tens and hundreds of thousands who have bombarded their Congress critters with phone calls and post cards and letters and “Meet your Congressman Day” crowds? They understand that our democracy is not set in stone, but is passed from generation to generation, each of us to in our turn protect it from evil, hatred, and the power-mad creatures who would destroy us from within.
The “leadership” of the GOP in all branches of government and in all of its nooks and crannies? They’re more of the champagne and caviar types. They couldn’t tell you the difference between a Sam Adams, a Coors Lite, and a Stella Artois.
And these sanctimonious cowards who fancy themselves as the last bastion of patriotism? They don’t understand “I’ve got this!” But they’re real good at “we’re going to send your sons and daughters to die and be maimed for some ridiculous and outrageous reason while we sit on our fat asses and work on stealing our next billion dollars from you!”
I guess it doesn’t just roll off the tongue the same way.
Paulietics 