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Home / World

Raybon Kan: It s 9/11 all over again as insanity grips America

Raybon Kan
By Raybon Kan
Raybon Kan is an award-winning stand-up comedian·NZ Herald·
9 Nov, 2016 04:30 PM4 mins to read

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Donald Trump. Photo / AP

Donald Trump. Photo / AP

Raybon Kan
Opinion by Raybon Kan
Raybon Kan is an award-winning stand-up comedian
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OMG. We didn't think it was possible. Surely 2016 had dumped enough toxic waste upon us. In the year that Prince died, that Bowie died - surely common sense might prevail in one area.

As I write this, it's 4pm yesterday, November 9th. Down these parts, we'd write that as 9/11, and the results certainly have that end of the world feeling.

Before I sat down, I thought I'd be writing how even if Trump lost, there'd be social damage from everything he's said in public. I thought the story might be about him refusing to concede, while his angry militia surrounded the White House. At lunchtime, betting markets were paying $1.16 for a Clinton win. Given those odds, how could Trump possibly prevail? That would be like Ireland beating the All Blacks.

Disclosure: I was not eager for President Trump.

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In my opinion, a vote for Trump is an immoral act.

(Quick list: birther, therefore racist against African-Americans; openly racist against Mexicans, and by extension, the entire continent south of the border; anti-Muslim; anti-refugee; anti-Semitic. In a nutshell - and that's appropriate, because he is a nut - Trump is anti-good, anti-decency, anti-liberal, anti-progress. If I was religious, I might add anti-Christ.)

His fans include David Duke, previous Grand Wizard of the KKK; Ann Coulter, so hideous, she's against women voting; and Rudy Giuliani, who just tweeted: "We cannot let Blacks and Hispanics alone decide this election for Hillary! Everyone

deserves a say. All others, head to polls NOW!"

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To look at their photos, they resemble educated humans, but there's something in their wiring that vehemently prefers discrimination over fairness.

Disclosure: in my opinion, racism is bad. I don't think it's a matter of opinion. Racism is just not fair. But if your bottom line isn't fairness, or if you twist the mirror so the overlord is the underdog, then ... No. I can't see it. Naively, I thought the place we're at in history simply made open racism a non-starter.

But the first black president made that country lose their mind. The long queues to vote, in GOP controlled states like North Carolina, smacked of white resentment at blacks being allowed a voice.

Naively, I thought the Republican Party would be blasted into oblivion, all cred destroyed, after nominating such a candidate. I hoped a landslide was on the cards, given the ethnic changes in America, and that all the Republicans who supported Trump would never show their face again. The GOP would have to rebuild from the rubble as a fringe third party, while Trump moved onto whatever his next scam was, probably a far-right TV network where every pundit wears a mask to prevent spittle hitting the lens.

Discover more

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Two months to get a grip on Trump

09 Nov 04:00 PM
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Media looked the other way on Trump

09 Nov 06:58 AM
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World looks on anxiously as Trump wins

09 Nov 07:30 AM
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Sideswipe: Keeping you informed

09 Nov 04:30 PM

How wrong was I.

At a time where humans are the most educated they've ever been, with more information being more available than ever before, the election has gone to people who spend all their data watching conspiracy videos on YouTube.

This majority of Americans look at their history and want to put Martin Luther King back in his place, so he won't eat at their lunch counters any more.

Nothing makes sense. Weren't we the good guys?

How did we get here?

The moral progress we've achieved, through such difficult decades as the 1960s, has been shat down the gurgler.

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The new president will have on tap a Republican Senate and a Republican Congress. A partisan FBI stand ready as secret police. He will appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule for generations. American women will have to travel overseas for abortions, and every toddler will have a gun.

There's no reason why he won't start his deportations, and start building his wall. America's economy, already built on immoral black imprisonment, will grow with jobs for storm-troopers who scoop up illegal immigrants, and armed forces sent to Iraq to, quote, take the oil.

The liberal media, with its snark and John Oliver take-downs, achieved nothing. Reason and fact, and the naive belief in compassion, were irrelevant. Anger has won, and smug will rule.

How can anyone watch House of Cards any more, given that the world is now beyond satire?

Evil won without a mask. We're all f*****.

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