The Only Thing I Like About Steve Bannon....

I think Steve Bannon is a Neo-Nazi. I’m not a fan of him, Breitbart, or the Trump White House. I disagree with him on virtually every single thing he believes. I don’t like the guy. I don’t mean to write much nice about him.

When I lived in Washington, DC about five years ago, I hated it. One of the things that angered me the most was the image consciousness that prevailed in that city. The suit and tie are so overplayed in Washington that they lose all meaning. Everyone wants to look important and official, even if they aren’t important or official. It’s stupid, and just an excuse for people to pretend they’re somebody they’re not, while not being who they are.

Now, I don’t like wearing a suit. I’m more friendly to it now than I was ten years ago, but I don’t see any need to impress you. I wear suits to weddings, funerals, and events involving U.S. Presidents, but besides that, you’re lucky if you get me wearing a suit coat, let alone a tie and the whole get-up. I’ll either impress you with who I am and what I know, or I won’t. I don’t much care otherwise.

So, why do I bring this up? Well, Steve Bannon does something that really, really impresses me, and would almost make me like him, if he wasn’t all the stuff I said above- he does not dress to impress anyone. He doesn’t care. He looks like any normal, common guy you’d meet on the streets. I think that is actually really cool. If Steve Bannon didn’t run Breitbart and the Trump White House, I’d actually want to shake his hand for this.

As Bannon spoke to CPAC last week, only two things ran through my mind- I hate this guy with a burning passion, and he looks like he doesn’t belong there. The first means I’d like to punch him in the face, the second means I think he’s doing to DC exactly what it deserves to have done to it- bring it down a notch. Enough with the suit and tie game, enough with the appearances of being important, and let’s actually do work there- unless you’re Steve Bannon. If you’re Steve Bannon, I still hate you.

Trump America, Part 3- Broken Government

If a crazy man with a gun is outside of your house yelling about blowing stuff up, you wouldn't typically let that man inside. That's just common-sense. The American voters, or at least about 63 million of them, just essentially did that. Donald Trump ran against the establishment of both parties in Washington, and against the very way Washington, DC runs. He said he alone could fix it. He has come into office and attempted to blow it up.

Let's not pretend this is a normal Presidency, or that we ever should have thought it was. Steve Bannon is the President's counselor, and he has openly talked about "destroying the establishment." They have spent the first ten days signing blatantly illegal executive orders, arguing about crowd sizes, and bashing the press. Why would the American people ever invite this kind of chaos into their government.

A lot of people have decided that the government doesn't work for them. They may be right or wrong, but their perception of a Washington that doesn't work and isn't good is a driver in deciding to "blow it up." You wouldn't allow this type of behavior if you thought Washington got things done for you. Much of this is ignorance, mind you, as much of the world would love to live under the conditions that Americans do, but whether these people are right or wrong isn't what matters here. They feel left behind by their capitol. The result of that is letting the crazy man with the gun into their house.

That Time I Finally Fell for the District...

I acquire tastes, things don't steamroll me. I wasn't a fan of Bill Clinton in 1992. I wasn't a fan of Barack Obama in 2008 (but I voted for him). I hated New York City growing up, until I got to college. I wasn't the biggest basketball fan until Allen Iverson. For me, things have to develop. I don't start out positively on everything I end up liking. It takes time.

Since the election, I've split my time between home and Washington, DC mostly. Some of this was for work purposes, some for pleasure, all of it is kind of surprising. For those that knew me a while now, you know how much I've typically hated DC. I have a real distaste for the elitism, the smugness, the lack of connection to the rest of the country. None of that has changed. What has changed is my liking for many of the other things about DC. The monuments. The metro. The food. Even some of the people- particularly the ones not in my industry, of course. Even when there is nothing to do, a simple walk down the National Mall has amused me, and given me a chance to clear my head and think. "Liking" a place for me has always been about comfort in a place, and admittedly, DC hasn't always provided that. Suddenly in these last two months, on the verge of DC turning into Trump's DC, I feel at peace here, at least for this short time. I feel like my career is here now, and that no longer bothers me. I'm not going away anymore.

I left town today, bound to return home to Pennsylvania. I can't bare being here while the Trumpkins diverge on our capitol to celebrate their hero next Friday. My disdain for them is just too strong yet. I won't be gone long though, as I've finally come around to liking Washington.

The End of Days

I've been in DC for almost a week now, and it is positively one of the weirdest places I have ever been right now. Congress is back in session, giving the town some "normalcy." Yet, there is nothing normal, as the Trump people move in, and the Obama people move out. They have the chairs set for the inauguration at the capitol, and White House Twitter accounts are starting to be "archived." One group of people is having "goodbye happy hours" and being sad, and the other is arriving to take over the place.

Washington is a really, really liberal place. This city hates Donald Trump. For the most part, even the traditional allies in NOVA that make their money on defense contracts despise this man. The mood over this city has been according to those feelings. People are concerned about the amount of damage he'll do, decrying the people coming here for the inauguration, and just generally moping. There's a lot of turnover in this city, and it's not a nice thing right now.

If I had to choose between this city feeling excited for a beginning and feeling like it's an ending, this is definitely an ending. No one has a clue what the mad man our heartland has inflicted on us will do. No one is comfortable with the future. This is not George W. Bush coming to town in 2001, or Barack Obama in 2009. This is a scary time. We are about to be ruled by an idiot.