We've been waiting in line since before 2 o'clock, and since arriving, the line has extended into the park, around the Hoeschler Fountain and back toward Front Street.
Would you call this group antagonistic? |
The Urban Dictionary includes the following entry under Embrace The Suck --
Verb, military Slang: to consciously accept or appreciate something that is extremely unpleasant, but unavoidable for forward progress.
Staff Sargent: "Hey shit bird! I've got a detail for you, follow me to the back of the latrines." The private gets handed a shovel. "Pour that gasoline and diesel over that 55-gallon drum and mix that shit up and burn it good."
Private: "You want me to burn this shit and piss?"
Staff Sargent: "Someone has to do it. It's gotta get done and it ain't gonna be me, so embrace the suck, private."
* * * * *
One-thousand-ninety-seven days is a long, pain-filled time if you voted for Trump in 2020. You could say it's sucked.
The last four years of the Biden / Harris administration feel a lot like we are the private shoveling shit and trying to make sense of the latest attacks on our safety, freedoms and common sense. We are being told to embrace the suck -- don't believe our lying eyes and ears. Grab your shovel and dig in. There's work to be done, private!
So, we've been asked to accept a lot recently. Inflation, the border, a seemingly endless parade of weird people in government who have been promoted under this administration's DEI movement, colleges more interested in catering to every cultural deformity than in teaching young adults how to be ready for a job, and endless advertisements featuring families consisting of every race except those that actually exist.
Attacks on energy.
If there is one thing I wish I could change in my children, it is this: climate change. Our boys were born in the late 80's and early 90's, so they've been exposed to Al Gore's climate crisis all of their lives. You want to talk about shoveling shit -- there are not enough shovels to get rid of all the lies we've been told about global warming, global cooling or climate change. It's so bad that today my children don't question its truth. Acceptance is a base line item and it goes from there. Electric cars, wind farms and solar panels -- all subsidized failures -- are the result of this indoctrination. But we are expected to continue subsidizing these failures because we have no choice.
Making matters worse are the policies being passed by globalist organizations that will make energy more expensive and less reliable, all in the interest of saving planet earth. Even more scary are their attempts to manage solar radiation and carbon dioxide removal. What will be the effect of new geoengineering technologies like large scale reforestation, carbon capture and storage, ocean iron fertilization, stratospheric aerosol injections, marine cloud brightening and space mirrors? No one knows and we have no guardrails should a country -- suffering from severe drought -- from trying these technologies. Are we ready for that can of worms?
There are also rumors that governments are using weather-altering technologies to alter snowstorms, hurricanes and wild fires in the hopes of using weather modification as a weapon.
I know it sounds like science fiction, but like most things from the future, it eventually gets here.
Attacks on free speech.
It's hard to tell which attack is worse, but freedom of speech and religion are what make America, well, ... America. What started as personal censorship of Trump and his ideas has bloomed into a full attack on anything the left doesn't like. I suspect the left doesn't see it that way, since they pompously claim misinformation, malformation and disinformation. I have a hard time knowing the difference, other than it's not allowed. And it's very one sided.
So suck it up, buttercup.
Regardless, our own government and social media companies, including our nation's newspapers, CBS, NBC and ABC, have thrown off any pretense of objectivity and become the mouthpiece for the Democrat party. Our First Amendment is under attack from Kamala Harris, AOC, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, who simply wish the protections we have under free speech would just go away. They view it as a "major block" preventing government from halting the spread of misinformation.
How convenient. And unconstitutional.
I'm old enough to remember Walter Cronkite, and his "5 o'clock follies," which held government agencies and administrations in check. Today, there is no honesty in reporting -- it's one sided and any reporting of both sides never reaches the pages of our dying newspapers or television screens, Objectivity has faded faster than Joe Biden after 4 pm.
And if you think free speech has dried up quicker than real men in the Democrat party, don't get in the way of newsrooms who have lost control of the narrative. Their staff and readers pull out nose rings, hide their "Socialist" tattoos, and jump ship as soon as management shows any resemblance of a backbone. The Washington Post found this out the hard way when they refused to endorse Kamala for president.
Have you tried searching for positive news on Trump lately using Google, Facebook or Yahoo? Good luck. Start looking after page five, because everything before that is a hit piece on the evil Orange Man. It's the best reason to go directly to a conservative web site like American Thinker, Liberty Daily or Daily Wire and share their links.
Attacks on our borders.
"We have a secure border in that that is a priority for any nation. Our border is secure." -- VP Kamala Harris in 2022.
Since Biden's first month as president, the Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 10.3 million encounters off inadmissible immigrants, with more than 2 million known "got-aways." (You know it's much higher). They have reported massive spikes in assaults, burglary, DUI, drug possession, illegal entry and sexual offenses since 2021 (homicide alone increased from 3 in 2020 to more than 60 every single year since the border was Bidenized).
Instead of doing something to stop it, Democrat mayors and governors offer sanctuary. Democrats define a "sanctuary city" as one with policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. What a euphemistic word salad describing unlawful behavior, that in turn is used to protect and reward criminals living throughout the country.
Somehow, this is Trump's fault. They say he is responsible with his vile rhetoric, calling illegals criminals, sex traffickers and drug profiteers. (Many are.). Or for leaving a broken and unworkable immigration border, when he left office. (Thanks to years of Congressional and judicial resistance.) And most recently, for convincing Congress to not pass the immigration reform bill (as a campaign issue).
Attacks on energy, freedom of expression and a secure border. Are you feeling the pain, yet? Are you feeling like no one is listening to you? Or that our schools, politicians and institutions are under some weird un-American mind meld? Who are these people and how did we let them get here?
Don't worry, be happy. You're not knee deep in excrement. That slime swirling around our bodies is really Russian propaganda.
Breathe. Feel the joy. And go to CNN for the truth.
Team Trump |
The crowd continues to grow, and we have yet to move an inch. The La Crosse Center's doors are scheduled to open at 2:00, but there is no sign of movement this far away. And yet, the crowd remains jubilant and happy. The sun is baking us to a crisp. The temperature has climbed to 83 degrees, which means I am salivating over a patch of nearby shade like a recovering alcoholic spotting his favorite neighborhood haunt.
Liz and I are talking to perhaps one of the more interesting people waiting in line for Trump. Purely by accident we found ourselves standing next to Anne and Didier from Belgium, surely one of the longest trips anyone ever made to see Trump.
"How does someone from Belgium find his way to a Trump rally in La Crosse?" Liz and I ask, shaking his hand.
The bearded, white haired man (dressed in black) answers in a French-accented English which fortunately -- like his answer -- is easy to understand. "Trump is about freedom, and I am for freedom too. Many of the farmers back in Belgium no longer have freedom, so I come to United States to do what I want."
Turns out Didier moved to Iowa five years ago to grow Belgium Blue beef, a unique cattle known for producing extremely lean meat and milk. When he's not breeding cattle, or traveling to local restaurants to convince them to buy his meat, he and Anne run a convenience store near Gutenberg, Iowa. Clearly someone on a mission.
"Sounds like the American Dream," I say, "and a lot of hard work."
"But good work," he says eagerly. "I am happy to work, as long as I have freedom."
In the hour it takes for us to get to the doors of the La Crosse Center, we will discuss climate change, education, immigration, his love for America and most surprising of all, his love for the Green Bay Packers. So much so, that he has traveled to Lambeau Field and kissed the tuff. Now, I'm as big a fan as anyone, but that's something I haven't even done yet.
Twenty minutes later, we are moving. I could be a three-toed sloth and go faster, but it is progress.
Eventually we walk past a woman directing cars into a parking lot for the Central Show Choir. It's someone -- a teacher -- we've known for a long time, as both of our boys were involved in show choir in middle and high schools.
"Hey, good to see you," I say. I can tell she doesn't remember me, until she spots Liz behind me.
She smiles until she sees the Trump hat and buttons. And all the happy people around us. Then it fades as quickly as Kamala's chances in Florida or Texas, or better yet, Joe's memory of where he was earlier this morning.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asks, confused by what she knows about us, and the reality of who we are waiting in line to see. "Don't tell me YOU drank the kool aid?"
"What kool aid are you talking about?" Liz says, before being interrupted by another disparaging comment.
"And Liz, you should know better. You're a woman!"
Liz looks as puzzled, but quickly recovers. "Exactly, I am a woman, and I can think for myself."
As is the case in so many of these situations, we don't have the time, nor the ability to change her mind. As a teacher, who has been indoctrinated by our public school system for decades, her mind is made up and anyone who doesn't see things the way she does, is either stupid or brainwashed.
It's sad to think so many of us can be friends until politics divide us. For years we enjoyed our time together, sharing stories about travel, music and our children. I'm sure the next time we see her walking in the neighborhood, things will have changed. But what can we do?
We've known her liberal views for years, and maintained our friendship. Now that she knows ours, will she be able to do the same?
In a few days we get to vote for who we want as our 47th President. It's a big election and will determine who gets to embrace the suck for the next four years. I am tired of the ads that dominate our televisions and radios. Living in a swing state like Wisconsin means we are loved by politicians and remain a destination for campaign stops. I refuse to believe there is even one voter in Wisconsin who is "undecided." Not possible.
As the private who's being told to shovel shit for Washington, D.C. and the Democrat Party, I'm ready to put down the shovel and receive a promotion. On November 5th, we get the answer.
Sometimes we take our freedoms for granted, I think. And it takes someone from a different country to remind us why we are standing in line -- in this heat -- for hours to see someone who has achieved so much and yet wants to preserve the American Dream for all of us.
Even someone from Belgium.