So, I'm up to three reasonably-close gay friends who have either unfriended/blocked me on FaceBook - or, in one case, ended our friendship completely - just because I'm voting for Trump this fall. It's both sad and silly. Gay men are supposed to be tolerant of everyone, no matter their special interest - or which bathroom their gender identity prefers to take a shit in. But that isn't the case this year, this election, and I'm ashamed to witness the jaw-dropping hypocrisy of many gay friends & acquaintances. Most gays are liberals, and liberals like to be known for open mindedness. But that's the opposite of what's happening now, despite the fact the Democratic candidate has been proven corrupt on a scale unmatched by any other nominee in history. But as a gay man, if you dare not tote the liberal party line, the backlash is incredible - and really quite insulting. Especially if you're a Republican like me who likes Donald Trump. Chuckling...very honestly, I find myself rooting for him like a straight man rooting for a sports star. Run OJ, run!
Of course, what really bothers me about those supposedly intelligent/tolerant gay friends is the fact they refuse to see how an entire segment of our population is not just being discriminated against, but being repressed. With the exception of Drudge, FoxNews, and conservative talk radio, every single news outlet available - in print, online, or on TV - has taken an anti-Trump stance. Every Trump story is reported with disdain. Every Trump comment is edited to make the worst sound byte possible. Not only do they ignore Hillary's scandals, failing health, and impeachable dishonesty, the media refuses to cover Trump in any sort of positive light - even when his polls are up, and his campaign continues to hammer out solid, progressive points. Again and again, he's portrayed as a blowhard, despite the fact his rallies fill stadiums - while Hillary barely fills gymnasiums. I love watching Trump rallies on YouTube; I view them start-to-finish, so I can see the crowd and hear the opening speakers. There are so many...people. So much enthusiasm. And I love watching Trump call out the CNN guys, when their cameras refuse to pan left or right to show the size of the crowd. Considering their bias, you'd think they'd at least turn left...
It's been a while since I've written about North Korea, but I still follow DPRK news every day. Unfortunately, in the case of the US election, our media is acting like Pyongyang (seriously). North Korea is a hermit kingdom, a fragile bubble that's trying not to burst in the sharp modern world; the Kim regime controls all state media, like Pravda & Tass during the cold war. Within the DPRK, every news story is scripted to reinforce the state - and North Koreans are punished severely if caught reading news from outside sources that conflict with their government's official point of view. It's a system of "propaganda," a world where every newspaper, radio, and TV broadcast are coordinated to give only one side of a story. That's exactly what's happening now in the American media, and the coordinated anti-Trump effort being made by CNN, MSNBC, and Hillary-friendly news sites, papers, and services. All of these organizations are united in a coordinated attack to both stop the Trump campaign and to ignore a tsunami of scandals - any one of which makes Watergate look like a puddle. It's disgusting. And if allowed to continue, it will grow increasingly dangerous.
"The way he looks now...that's more than just getting old. He's frail, weak, his eyes are sunken. And he has no color under all that makeup. He's got that look that Charlie Sheen has, or that Rock Hudson had - right before he died. He's lost so much weight, David. I don't think he's well, and I think its being covered up."
Abby went onto remind me of all the women Bill Clinton is known to have had affairs with, and how likely it was that he'd caught an STD from one of them. I shuddered to consider this. I can honestly say that such an illness wasn't even on my radar. As a gay man at 47, I remember the early 90s - when HIV ravaged the community. My conversation with Abby then turned to Hillary's own health, and how news has broke - on the conservative sites - that she is taking weekends off to find the strength to finish the campaign. I remembered a chilling song from EVITA: "Oh, what I'd give for a hundred years. But the physical interferes, every day more..." Later that evening, I Googled the possibility of what Abby had said. I cautiously settled back in the chair, as my iMac displayed over 1.9 million results. Jesus...
About a month ago, I had a day-long online chat with a gay coworker in another state. He started the discussion himself, genuinely asking me WHY I supported Trump. His IM included a ridiculous graft, allegedly showing how the Donald wanted to end all gay marriages...along with other trumped-up anti-gay intentions that would be sure to happen in Trump's first days in office. I scoffed of course, and I shared my favorite Trump-defense: I put it in terms of credit card debt, and what happens when a person's debt-to-income ratio becomes unsustainable - and leads to bankruptcy. "Why don't we hold the government to the same standard that we hold our own finances?" I asked. "Our country is almost twenty trillion dollars in debt, and Trump is the only candidate who's jumping up and down, desperately trying to get our attention. If you get distracted by politically-correct social issues, you're not going to have a country left to be married in!" But, no dice. My buddy couldn't see the danger hidden in plain sight. Ironically, I ended up unfriending HIM on FaceBook - not because I disagreed with his politics, rather, because I couldn't stand seeing his weepy, testosterone-free posts popping up on my news feed.