By Lance Hardwood

How do I say this…

I am problematic. I am a bully. I’m a mean guy. You wouldn’t know it because I don’t like that guy and I try to keep him locked in the box. But, to quote Alice in Chains, “I AM the man in the box.” That person is me, and no matter what I do, he’s there, a step behind me, my shadow.
But I wasn’t always this way. I wasn’t always mean.
Years of bullying for my height, which changed. Years of bullying for my “Jew-fro” hair, which I’ve come to accept and sometimes love. Years of…you name it. I’m not here to place the blame on my past. I’m here to explain.

I can see the silent majority is waking (For the love of God though, stop taking your sweet ass time).

I can see that the tide is turning, ever so slightly.

But here’s the problem, our politicians largely remain the same.
I don’t believe in AOC. She’s not a fighter.
I love Bernie Sanders. But he’s a dinosaur.
Who then will stand for the Democratic party and say, enough is enough.
Jeffries? He’s a bitch and a ball coddler.
Schumer? Talk about a spineless coward, talk about a Zionist shill.
Who then? Who will stand for what’s right? Who will stop what is so wrong with our country?
Psst, I’ll tell you, come closer, it’s a secret.
“It won’t be the democratic party. Full stop.”

See, I’m a bully who very, VERY specifically, likes bullying bullies. I love it. I am that dude who gets the absolute shit kicked out of him and never stops talking crap. After being punched, I will get back up to insult your mother. After being kicked, I’ll grab hold and bite your ankles off.
You will not win in a war of words with me, and when you’ve finally had enough, that’s when I start the actual fight, that’s when I reveal that I’ve actually got a pretty solid left hook; that’s when I kick you in the nuts and bite your ear off.
Why? Because it was never about winning for me.
It’s about sending a message.
It’s about who I am versus who you are, the moral stances I take, and you will never take that from me. Beat me till I’m black and blue, you will never strip me of my character.

That is, unless, you plan on being the bigger, more obvious, more evil bully.

Well, we have a problem then.
Trump and his regime of dipshits are well on their way to being EXACTLY what the stupid, queer, pot smoking, hippy-dippy liberals warned you he was.
Any thinking person should have seen the forest through the trees. But as most of us are aware, we’re dealing with a cult of personality (thanks for making me woke with your catchy choruses, Living Colour). We’re dealing with a populace that has never and potentially will never galvanize and become ‘We the People’.
It’s all talk.
It’s bravado and bluster.
We aren’t worthy of the title, and so, together, we must fight our way back to the top, earn it.
But again, there’s just one problem.
I don’t see anyone fighting; I don’t even see them trying.
I’m watching families ripped from their homes, their cars, from daycare centers, from work.
And what is everyone’s response?
Predictably, it’s the same response we saw when school children were murdered in their class rooms.
Half the population shrugs, and the other half holds a rally, while our kids are radicalized and begin a lifelong fight for justice in their own lives, parents stand idly by and watch, occassionaly cheering, but mostly boo-ing them.
Kids.
Who watched their friends get murdered.
Boo-ed.
There are military men and women who NEVER once got close to the action, and you’ll kiss their asses before you ever give children credit for fighting for their own lives.
“Thank you for your service sir, may I lick your boots now?”
If this describes you, know this, you’re not worthy to lick anyone’s boot.
You’re mud, or something lower than that. Shit, maybe? But not useable, fertilizer shit. I’m thinking, human shit. Essentially useless if it isn’t treated to remove pathogens and contaminants.
We allowed our children to fend and fight for their own lives in schools, and then mocked them when they sought help from the government. We ALL did that, because we ALL watched it happen, and we let it happen, again, and again, and again.
The time for rallies is over.
The time of complacency must end.
If you want your country back. You need to bully up and get ready to beat some ass. Because these politicians, these corporatists, these conmen and slimeballs, they’re not going to hand you back the keys to the country. They’re going to hang on until somebody takes the keys to the castle.
That’s what NO KINGS was about.
And the problem with ALL of this…all of it…is that most of you aren’t well-read, or even interested in reading enough to notice the writing on the wall (I highly doubt any Republican or MAGAt will read this). This type of commentary will fall on deaf ears time and time again, because it’s the written word.
In summary, the powers that be have been playing the game far longer, and they gave us what we need to be complacent, content, happy with our lot in life: they give bread and circuses, entertaiment. Meanwhile, they took control of government via Citizens United. They pay money for more votes, while we all stand around waving our one vote high in the air, as if it matters. One vote, even a hundred thousand votes, doesn’t speak as loudly as a million dollars. We’re asking every politician to be our better angel here. And, shocker, it isn’t working.
“I mean come on, governor, what’s the love of the people against a massive pile of money?”
Yeah, most of you would Scrooge McDuck into that pile of money and tell your city, your state, to go fuck themselves.
That’s the cold hard truth. And here’s the final truth.
That’s why the time of the bully-bully has returned.
That’s why, ASAP, it needs to be ass-kicking season.
We’re late to the party ‘We the People’, and eventually, the party is going to end.
If you don’t rise now, who will win, I wonder?
Will it be the bully-bullies without the power of the people behind them, or the government, with every trick in the book and a massive stockpile of weapons and all the cash in the world to fund them?
Time to choose, Americans…mark my words, it is time to choose.