Why America left a kingdom in 1776 and sought a meritocracy
So that we could stop giving 10-year-old kings the power "they inherently deserved" and start forcing citizens to compete and earn it.
Thoughts from a peach state 🍑 voter:
I wrote this after I canceled my LA Times, NY Times, & WaPo subscriptions. I would have liked to see something like this in the NYT Opinion section in 2024, instead of the twisted-logic pieces they published instead. This year, I grew sick of the mainstream media misrepresenting voters in America. And I wanted to write something from my heart 🇺🇸.
Though I live in Georgia now, I lived in Washington D.C. during Obama & Trump’s presidency. I was one of those early folks who began protesting Trump the weekend after he was elected in 2016.
That Saturday, we held a White House Candlelight Vigel in Lafayette Park. And then I joined a random group of maybe 50 angry people who walked all over the city chanting Not My President.
I quickly learned that yelling “NOT MY PRESIDENT” was very cathartic.
Days after the election, when asked why I was protesting, I told a local interviewer, "I just want to take our city back." DC felt like home with Obama in it. It felt wrong with Trump there.
Sure, because he came to the city, I got to attend the most amazing marches: like the Women's March, the Science March, March For Truth, March For Our Lives, and the George Floyd Protests (and many small, nameless protests in between).
But living in DC during Trump's presidency, I also had to endure being 10 minutes away from some of the most horrific moments. Like Trump teargassing Black Lives Matter protestors in Lafayette Park for a photo op & white supremacists storming the Capitol Building to protest a legitimate election.
The National Guard were brought in from other states and put into the hotel next to our apartment building for both of those moments––only in one case, they came to "protect Trump” from the threat he perceived legitimate BLM protestors to be.
And in the second case, the National Guard were brought in to protect Congress from the threat Trump actually became on Jan 6th.
(And you can bet, that day, the National Guard were brought in way too late).
It didn't feel like home when Trump was continuously assaulting the foundations of our democracy. Trump saw our freedom as a threat. And because we didn't like him, he saw us as an enemy.
His slogan could have just as easily been "Not YOUR President" because his interest in being president was always self-serving.
A few weeks before the 2024 election, Trump interrupted one of his own rallies during chants of "USA" to remark that he saw his hair on the big screen & thought it looked good.
His endless obsession with his own vanity, while having zero interest in taking outside criticism makes him, obsessively, seek out sycophants & grovelers.
Trump wants only those who lie the best and praise him even when he doesn't deserve it (see JD Vance).
And I can tell you for a fact - DC wasn't full of grovelers.
There's a reason Trump spent all of his presidency on a golf course in Mar-a-Lago: DC hates him. In 2016, the city of DC voted for Clinton 91% & Trump 4% - which was the highest margin of any 2 candidates in ANY district across the country except one other time in history.
Across the bridge, in Arlington, VA, Biden won in 2020 by 81%. And this was DURING Trump's administration (when presumably he had filled the government with his own people).
But it wasn't just politics that made the voters in the DMV area (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia) vote this way––it was culture.
DC is home to some of the best blend of world culture in the United States. From embassies & students who come from all over the world, to the most amazing restaurants featuring astounding world cuisine.
Living in DC was like living in one big international airport. 🌍✈️
I heard foreign languages on the street daily. My neighbors were immigrants, my bosses were immigrants. And yes, I'll say it - even my lovers were immigrants.
White supremacy just wasn't appealing to us because we valued world culture too much. From food, to music, to dance, friendships, and love - the world felt like home.
And because Obama appreciated this culture and blended diversity, his administration felt like it belonged in Washington, D.C.
DC was federal but it was also global. Those who lived in DC had diplomatic personalities. We knew that we belonged to a world stage. That we had to be diplomats with not only 50 states & 16 territories, but with 150+ countries across the globe. 🌏
It was woven into our attitudes & way of life.
But we meshed with everybody. We got along with everybody. Because we checked our personal biases at the door. We had respect for people who looked at the world differently. We listened to external criticism because it helped us become better versions of ourselves.
And we saw human beings as humans FIRST - before any other ethnicity, identity, nationality, race, or religion.
And that was Kamala Harris's entire campaign: Diplomatic. Representative of ALL of America's diversity.
She gave dignity & respect to people with different world views; she didn’t see other cultures and countries as our enemy merely because they were different; she welcomed their perspectives because it enhanced her ability to lead on both federal & global levels.
And let's be real - she didn’t want to surround herself with people who complimented her hair. Or praised her before she even earned it.
Kamala Harris, like Obama before her, wanted to ACTUALLY earn it.
I think it’s painfully obvious that both Harris & Obama wanted their self-respect to be legitimate & dignifying. They had (& still have) standards for their own behavior.
When they look in the mirror, they want to strive for and deserve the praise they receive.
And that is a distinctly Washington, D.C. personality. We were all striving to better ourselves.
Our self-esteem was made, not born.
And I ask, what's so wrong with actually earning your self-esteem?
I want you to consider one very critical difference in White Supremacy:
The very premise of that world view is that white people are BORN superior to others while doing zero effort to earn or deserve it.
And I'm not sure why any American would be proud of not growing into or earning their status.
I - as a white, female, American - have always been perfectly happy spending my life trying to be a better person to earn my validation and self-worth.
I had no interest coming into this world with a status already bestowed on me. With genes that did the whole shebang for me.
Because I knew that humans are wonderful precisely because we have the ability to evolve, learn, grow, improve, and be better than we were yesterday.
We, as humans, are not static or fossilized. We're not stuck in a moment of existence.
Our personality isn't fixed.
Our accomplishments aren't permanent.
And somehow, every American (white, black, brown, asian, or in between)––and every immigrant who came half way across the globe to do something different with their lives––inherently understood this premise of existence in DC.
We were competitive, ambitious, striving. We wanted to better ourselves. And we respected other people who did that work.
America left a kingdom in 1776 and sought a meritocracy so that we could stop giving 10-year-old kings the power "they inherently deserved" and start forcing citizens to compete and EARN it.
I never met a person who walked into the room in DC and wanted people to inherently think they were worthy by some genetic designation, rather than their actual hard work––until Trump brought his White Supremacists to the party.
They want to be given power by some inheritance they've invented.
Some made up superiority from gender, skin, or the place they were born.
Trump doesn't want to EARN his status - he attracts people who want to automatically give it to him.
Trump's campaign & his voters are full of people who do buy into the rights of kings... rather than the merits of a president. But that's exactly why Trump is an absolute failure.
Because he never spends a single moment improving his self, his skills, or his campaign.
He chooses not to do what a normal human being would do––which is learn from their mistakes, grow, & improve on their ambitions.
So after 9 years, & many losses, Trump still only walks on the stage repeating the same mantra over & over again: “I’m automatically deserving of it.”
And just like kingdoms were led by the worst people for centuries - we, too, have fallen prey to a poor leader who thinks he should automatically be given the chance to lead again, without lifting a finger to, in fact, deserve it.
This is completely unlike Harris & Obama before her––who both spent their entire careers GROWING.
Harris represents the American Dream precisely because she came into this world without a birth inheritance... and then spent every day working hard to earn it.
If you think leadership is a birth right - you look for kings. If you believe in the American dream: you look for those who are working for it.
Washington, D.C. didn't want America to be a kingdom in 2016 or 2020.
But I want people who don't live in Washington, DC to understand that ambition is a golden rule in American politics PRECISELY so that we have healthy competition and get the best of the best leading this glorious 330-million-person country.
In fact, the founding of America’s meritocracy was based on the concept that we could be led by the best among us––while various Kingdoms in Europe were still caught up in the trauma and the drama of Kings & Queens.
And that’s why nothing about 2024 makes any damn sense. Because those who are voting for Trump ARE the loyal subjects who refuse to take a look at his accomplishments, intentionally.
Intentionally, they ignore his qualifications and his disqualifications equally. And that’s because they want their king to deserve to be there WITHOUT earning it.
And what damn sense does that make in a democracy founded on the freedom to be ruled by ordinary men?––instead of to be led by the designation of birthright from inept kings.
Me? I'm proud to live in a meritocracy, not a kingdom.
I want to know that our leaders rose to the top based purely on merit, rather than a self-designated status from genetics or money.
I like what Kamala Harris says about the American dream. And what Harris shows people they can accomplish when they choose to evolve and grow.
I like the idea that a person is consistently evolving and growing to become the best version of themselves.
And I certaintly want someone who GREW to become a leader… and who will continue to grow before, during, and after their presidency as well.
I just hope there are more Americans out there, beyond the perimeter of Washington, D.C., who also want to see leaders display ambition, evolution, & the ability to learn from our mistakes.
I voted for Kamala Harris & Tim Walz in order to support this glorious meritocracy––where the choice to grow matters & has impact.
& where our leaders believe that America's pride isn't held in our manifest destiny - it's held in our self-determined path forward from here. 🇺🇸 🌎
Originally written October 30, 2024 by Melissa Nadia Viviana
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