I’m a Black man that wasted a few hours watching and reading conservative media. This is what I learned.

I ask that you read this with an open-mind. A 10-minute read.

Over the past few days there has been intense debate about whether U.S. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh should receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

As you know by now, the heavy debate is fueled by allegations of sexual misconduct that took place 36 years ago from a teacher named Dr. Christine Blasey Ford — in a tale of people from “all-girls” & “all-boys” prep schools meeting up at Beach houses in alcohol-fueled coed underage parties (back when they were only known as Chrissy and Brett).

And as you also know by now, a few days ago Donald Trump criticized Dr. Ford’s version of events alluding to her not knowing the details of what happened in front of a cheering crowd in Mississippi.

Obviously people who are sexual assault survivors (or Trump haters) will look at this with either rage, anger, bewilderment, or simply Donald being Donald. I chose to see this at a different angle: The faces of the people behind him.

I wondered what was on their minds while this speech was taking place. Why they were there? How the hell did they even get there? After all this man has done, how does he still have very strong allies who believe every word he says?

To find the answer, I decided to think like one of them for a few hours. I got into BlacKKlansman-mode.

Now I didn’t go full-Sacha Baron Cohen, but I took some precious time and read articles and watched videos from Trump, his White House Press Secretary, conservative youtube comments, and a sh*t ton more. And now that I’m back from the other side, here’s what I learned:

[blockquote align=”none” author=””]Trump’s base feels like people are coming after what’s theirs, and every attack actually fuels them to be more resilient. It’s literally a war-like “us-against-the-world” mentality out in these streets. If we think complaining or shaming them is going to stop them, you’re actually fueling their own beliefs.[/blockquote]

$10 million, huh?

Just today I read an NPR article that explained how both Democratic and Republican groups are spending millions in ads in key-states where Senators are undecided in Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote.

The article said almost “$10 million was spent on TV ads either assailing or praising him”. Side note: a fraction of that money could’ve gone to education, but I digress…

The article explains how the American Civil Liberties Union spent millions in ads “tying Kavanaugh to President Bill Clinton who was impeached for lying about his Oval Office affair with Monica Lewinsky, and comedian Bill Cosby, now in prison for sexual assault”.

The article also explains how the conservative Judicial Crisis Network retaliated with an ad, saying “The liberal mob and their media allies tried to ruin a good man with smears,” while Kavanaugh “fought back, clearing his name.”

Now what kind of name is “Judicial Crisis Network”? JUDICIAL. CRISIS. NETWORK. Sounds like a 1-900 hotline to me. Some call-to-action-type ish. But that’s where we’re at right now in this damn country.

“I was unfairly accused, myself”

I’ve always said from the moment Dr. Ford came forward that Kavanaugh will still get confirmed no matter what. Why?  Donald Trump is why. This is a man who claims to have been falsely accused of harassment by multiple women (and he could be telling the truth). Trump feels empathy for him.

So instead of looking at Kavanaugh’s situation through an independent lens, he did what almost every single person on this earth does — look at it through his/her own situation. It just so happens that Trump is the president of the United States (watch this interview — crazy stuff).

The common theme in this is how a person who achieves great success gets brought down by a simple accusation — true or not. To put it in context, why should a hard-working individual (privileged or not) who made it in America suddenly lose it all due to unproven claims?

Unfortunately that’s the belief he and his rabid followers have. Trump believes a potential judge’s name and reputation has been smeared because the “left” hates him, and he believes that isn’t fair.

Oh and don’t forget that Trump’s own sister was a federal judge, so he empathizes with the nomination process and how hard it is to get confirmed.

In all, Trump’s support of Kavanaugh will be the driving force behind his eventual nomination no matter what the “left” tries to do. He and his base claim the only thing the left does is “attack and smear” anyways.

Welp.

“All lies. Every one of them.”

This brings us to the White House and their #1 woman-in-support, press secretary Sarah Sanders. Many people have been turned off her ways — but not her rabid supporters.

Now you can sit here and say her followers are lost, and that may be true. But the brutal truth is that she happens to work for the White House, so she does have major clout.

While wasting my precious time I decided to watch a press briefing she did in response to Trump’s critique on Dr. Ford. What she said here aligned with the us-against-the-world mentality that defines this current administration.

I strongly advise you to watch the video above, especially from the 15:33 mark. It truly gives you a glimpse of how Trump’s base thinks.

In essence, it doesn’t matter the types of attacks that come: Gay rights, diversity, police brutality, sexual assault, #MeToo, Hurricane Maria death toll. All of them have one common theme: they are all attacks from the snowflake left who are perceived as weak-minded individuals. And as long as their fuhrer leader Trump rules the land, they will protect all attacks that come their way.

They have to protect their territory, no matter what.

Real comments from real Trump supporters:

What are these comments, you ask? It’s from the video above from Sarah Sanders.

Now I know it’s very easy to be dismissive of these people — but the brutal truth is that by ignoring these comments, we’ve allowed them to fester until they could find their “spokesperson”. And guess who that spokesperson is? You guessed it, Donald Trump!

As Kanye West once famously pointed out a few years ago, “everybody in middle America felt a way [during the 2016 election], and they showed you how they felt. Feelings matter bruh…” (from the 10:35 mark).

From that statement I just quoted above, Kanye was 100% correct — literally almost all of middle America voted red in the 2016 election. See the proof below.

You’re probably asking yourself: “Did this many people really believe in Trump’s words? How the f*ck did I miss this? How did I not see the f*cking signs? Or maybe I saw the signs but never thought it would go this f*cking far.” 

It’s almost like the common story of a high school shooter, one who appears to be a “shy, quiet, bullied kid” but had an evil, darker-side no one saw coming.

What was the common theme with these these school shooters? The parents looked back and regretted that they CHOSE to overlook all the areas of their child’s life that were troubling. By the time they figured it out it was too late.

The same thing happened in the 2016 election: While we made fun and talked sh*t about Trump’s claims & his ways, there was a large, silent segment of Americans who felt the exact same way he did. We just didn’t think they were large enough to put their “spokesperson & hero” in the White House as the freakin’ president. But it happened. We let him in.

So now what do we do? Just vote and take the power back, right? Not so fast buddy…

They see the threats, too.

As a parent, you love your kids (at least I hope that’s the case).

So what happens when someone tries to threaten your child? You go all-out to protect and defend your family.

That’s exactly what’s going to happen in the 2018 mid-terms and the 2020 election. You think Trump’s people don’t watch the news? You think they don’t hear and read about the big blue wave that’s supposedly coming in mid-terms?

Well here’s your answer: A new CBS News article just came out that explained how the attacks on the GOP & Kavanaugh is like “pouring gasoline on the base”. Here’s an excerpt:

A NPR/PBS/Marist poll released Wednesday indicated that the “enthusiasm gap” between Democrats and Republicans heading into the midterms had shrunk to a statistical tie. So after months of Democratic voters reporting that they were far more excited to vote in November than their Republican counterparts, both sides now appear ginned up as Election Day comes into focus.

This could mark a significant turnaround in Republican fortunes. In July, for example, the same poll found that Democrats had a 10-point lead in calling voting in the midterms “very important.” And pollsters and strategists agree that a big reason the GOP is suddenly so fired up is Kavanaugh, who has been accused by numerous women of sexual assault in recent weeks.

Some Republicans originally worried that trying to confirm Kavanaugh after the allegations surfaced would doom the GOP in November. Now, however, Republican strategists say that Democratic attempts to block the conservative jurist appear to have backfired.

“It’s like pouring gasoline on the Republican base,” one GOP strategist, who is consulting on races nationwide, told CBS News.

Boom! And if you still don’t believe me, check out this tweet Trump recently wrote:

The harsh and unfair treatment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh is having an incredible upward impact on voters. The PEOPLE get it far better than the politicians. Most importantly, this great life cannot be ruined by mean & despicable Democrats and totally uncorroborated allegations!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2018

See the common theme? “They are trying to take what’s ours! We must defend our territory by all means necessary.” Yada, yada, yada.

But on the real, it’s truly unfortunate that we got to this point. But on the really real, we missed the signs.

We missed it at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency with the backlash of his White House hip-hop references and affiliations (which I personally think were great & needed to happen).

We missed it with the backlash from fast liberal / progressive changes with tech, LGBTQ rights, etc.

We missed it when Trump had his rallies during the 2016 election.

And Hillary Clinton and her team really missed it for not being more empathetic to the women in Middle America during the election (53% of white women ended up voting for Trump).

We particularly missed it with the social media & youtube comments — especially those youtube videos that talk about conservative issues. Those damn comments are the epitome of what Donald Trump is about, and unfortunately we don’t know who writes them because youtube doesn’t display “the real person” who writes these things. As a result, people can write whatever the hell they want. We didn’t take these comments seriously as a threat.

We overlooked them, thinking what’s right & just will prevail (and it may still eventually happen). But we didn’t take what they were saying seriously — the Fox News videos, Brietbart articles, all that ish. We didn’t care for them — we ignored them.

And look where we’re at today.

So what do we do? How do we overcome it?

So now that I’m back from the other side of reading & watching conservative media for a few hours, I ended up with 5 final conclusions:

1. Anyone who attacks Trump’s base is considered a true threat & fuels them to get stronger.
2. We really f*cked up.
3. Trump’s impact will last for at least a few generations before getting back to “true equality”.
4. If you stand for sweeping change, you can’t be “out loud” with your future political intentions. You have to be silent & stealth in your approach.
5. Trump’s base just wanted to be appreciated all along.

Conclusion 1: Anyone who attacks Trump’s base is considered a true threat.

I already talk about it. So we’ll skip that.

Conclusion 2: We really f*cked up

Hindsight is always 20-20, and looking back we should’ve seen and acted on the signs — just like looking back on a High School shooter’s life (i.e. the Parkland shooter’s life activity).

It isn’t until after the act is done that we look back to see what went wrong.  It appears that’s what happened with Trump’s presidency.

As stated before, had we listened to or acknowledged how Trump’s base really felt, maybe things would’ve turned out differently. Maybe not.

Even Martin Luther King said you have to love your enemies, not ignore them.

I ignored them. You likely ignored them. And now we have a spokesperson that represented who we ignored currently in office. Now we don’t know what to do or how to react. We really f*cked up on that one, unfortunately.

Or maybe this was destined to happen all along. Life is funny like that sometimes.

Conclusion 3: Trump’s impact will last for at least a few generations before getting back to “true equality”.

You may be thinking “once Democrats are back in office, all is well in this world”. Well not so fast, fam.

See it this way: If you lose respect for someone, how long will it take for you to gain it back? Or if your spouse cheated on you, and you stayed in the relationship afterwards, how long would it take for you to trust them again? Would you ever trust them again?

That’s pretty much the lasting effects of Trump’s presidency. As you know, real change comes with changing the laws, and right now the law is in Trump’s hands. As a result, we will likely have a conservative-leaning Supreme Court for generations to come. That’s a generational impact & a Mortal Combat-style flawless victory.

How about all the laws & executive orders Trump signed? As bold as it was to him to pull it off it’s going to take someone bolder to repeal them, and repealing them won’t be so easy no matter if Democrats are the majority or not. Trump’s team didn’t play by bipartisan rules (there was a sh*tload of recent 51-50 senate votes), are the Democrats going to act in the same ruthless way to immediately correct all Trump has done?

I personally think we’ve reached peak diversity in the White House with 2016 Obama. I really do.

I’m not saying it won’t ever get better, but it may or may not happen again in our lifetime.

For reference, read up on Reconstruction, a period of true political diversity in the mid-late 1800s, plus what came immediately afterwards: the Black Codes and Jim Crow, which took around 70 years to fix with effects we still feel today.

Conclusion 4: If you stand for sweeping change, you can’t be “out loud” with your future political intentions. You have to be silent & stealth in your approach.

Gotta catch them by surprise! As protests are great in bringing awareness to issues at hand, true change happens when policies are changed, period!

It’s easier to change a policy than to change someone’s heart & mind about an issue. We’ve been taught from a young age and society how things should go, not how they should be. Changing policies lead to true change.

Due to who’s currently in office and the war-like, defend-at-all-cost mentality of his base, any loud attacks on their party will only be a rallying cry for them to mobilize and protect. These group of people are powerful because, as the data clearly showed from above, most of them are from middle America — the vast majority in America.

To prove my point, the CBS article I quoted earlier also stated that Republicans were initially nonchalant about the 2018 mid-terms, but it all changed when “attacks on Kavanaugh” happened. It mobilized them them folks and their spokesperson Trump provided a rallying cry to “protect their base”.

Conclusion 5: Trump’s base just wanted to be appreciated all along.

Like LL Cool J once said, we need love. Even Trump’s followers. If they felt appreciated this entire time then they wouldn’t be blind to follow someone like Trump when he was coming up.

Now they are in office and don’t want to let go. Ever!

This article doesn’t have a good ending.

Sorry. This isn’t the classic American movie where there’s a great victory in the end. If you are against Trump and his ideology there will continue to be rough times ahead. If you are a Trump supporter (even if you don’t care about his views but love his financial solutions w/ taxes, etc), then you’re in high heaven.

It’s a shame this couldn’t come to a middle ground.

I personally feel that the pendulum shifted too far one way in 2015-2016, then people came and shifted the pendulum the complete opposite direction in 2017 and beyond. Does that mean the pendulum will eventually even out? Maybe, but it may take years, even decades for that to happen.

We’re living in interesting times with a war-like base mentality currently running our country.

Here’s my final note:

When you have people who were ignored over time (as Kanye said), or they get shamed for their beliefs if spoken about publicly, what do they do? Change their ways? Nope. They find other people who feel the same way and secretly mobilize with hardened beliefs. As time passes, they get stronger and stronger until someone decides “the hell with it” and becomes a spokesperson.

That spokesperson has now become the president, and his people will do whatever it takes to protect that spokesperson and his ideologies. Those people represent a very large portion of our country.

That’s what I’ve learned from wasting my damn time reading and viewing conservative articles over the past few hours.

Enjoy your day folks.