Steve Cohen and I made a follow up to Aftermath, for all of the people who voted for Trump who told me they were good people.
For those who want it, the transcript is below.
Since I’ve posted the video Aftermath: 2016, I have been told that good people voted for Trump. I have been told that people who voted for Trump aren’t racist. ..They have gay relatives…Half-Mexican sons…Are disabled themselves…And love and respect women. I have been told they are good people.
(I have also been told that I’m a cunt who should have been aborted and should be raped by ISIS. But I’m sure those are good people, too.)
So you voted for Trump and you say you’re a good person? Prove it. You obviously like reality shows, you voted like you think you’re in one. Pretend you’re a contestant on “So You Think You’re Not a Racist.”
Your first challenge is to clean your side of the street. You want me to believe that white supremacists are taking over your party, but you’re not one of them? Take your party back. You wouldn’t let assholes crash your actual party and then let them stay just because they like cake, too. Denounce the white supremacists. You can start by not calling them “alt right.”
Putting alt in front of anything sounds like they’re doing something cool and unconventional. These aren’t people who believe in a flat tax and enjoy listening to the Smiths. There is nothing cool about painting swastikas on a playground, giving the Sig Heil salute or saying Jews aren’t people. And if you think there is, that makes you a white supremacist, too, and we fought a World War to prove they weren’t good people.
But if you are one of these Trump voting good people, show us. Start a petition saying that you don’t support the appointment of Steve Bannon as chief White House strategist. You don’t support men who refer to any women as a “bunch of dykes,” – which is what he said – because that is hate speech. You don’t support someone who is also praised by the KKK and other white supremacist groups. Say that you’re a Republican but this is not what you’re about. It shouldn’t be that hard if it’s not.
While you’re at it, add Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions’s name to that petition. Many horrible things can be said about his record on race, but it can probably be best summed up by the fact that he was found too racist to be confirmed by the Senate for a Federal judgeship by 1986 standards. You want to make America great again. Seems it was pretty great in 1986 when we didn’t think people who were racist should be judges.
Let your chosen reps know you’re against a Muslim registry. Unless you think it’s OK that we register Americans based on their religious beliefs. All religions, right? Or do you think it’s just OK that we register non-white Americans based on their religious beliefs? That would make you racist and/or xenophobic and since you claim to not be either, come out against a Muslim registry.
And you’re not a misogynist, you just didn’t like Hillary. It didn’t matter that she was a woman. So I’m waiting for you to treat your President Elect’s transgressions like you would treat Hillary’s. Like what about the Trump Foundation’s money being used to help Trump and his campaign? How about Trump making an official phone call to the President of Argentina and 3 days later having his long delayed building permits for his construction project approved? Why aren’t you in the streets demanding that he release his tax returns finally so we know what his conflicts of interests are? I mean didn’t you criticize Hillary for using her foundation to trade favors and misuse funds? Remember those speeches to Goldman Sachs you were so upset about because you thought Hillary was beholden to Wall St.? Trump wants Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary. He actually worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years. In terms of conflict of interest, that’s like hiring a pedophile to be the gymnastics coach. But I’m sure you’re making your outage at this known. Or was Hillary different? Just not different because she’s a woman, different.
Also, if you have LGBTQ relatives, that doesn’t automatically make you not a homophobe. It’s not a get out of jail free card for bigots who enjoy the theater. You need to do some work here, too. Say you do not agree with Vice President elect Mike Pence, who once signed a bill that would imprison gay couples who applied for a marriage license and tried to take funding away from HIV research and use it for gay conversion therapy. Ask the GOP to not role back marriage equality as they have said they want to, and protest the appointment of Supreme Court Justices who will do just that. Tell them you support the Obama administration’s anti-gay bullying campaign in schools and encourage them to continue it. Or are you OK with your LGBTQ relatives not having the same rights as you, undergoing shock therapy and lacking safety at school? You love them, you just don’t care if they get beat up, imprisoned or electrocuted. But you want us to know that you’re a good person. Just not the type of good person who can be bothered to stand up for people you love.
Maybe you voted for Trump not because you like him, but because you’re a Republican and you vote straight down party lines. Then what are you doing to get the word out about reasonable GOP candidates: reasonable being the ones who actually have experience and AREN’T white supremacists or sexual predators? That’s a pretty low bar. It should be easy to find someone.
And this should be a no brainer and I can’t believe I have to say it but would one of you have the courage to say Trump was wrong to mock a disabled man? This shouldn’t be a political thing, this should be a human being thing. You would reprimand a child for this behavior and yet you looked the other way when an adult man did it. Or you participated in the excuses about why it was taken out of context. What is the context for making fun of the disabled? In your opinion as a good person, that is.
Say that all of the 1000 plus hate crimes that have been committed since Trump was “elected,” that all of the people who have said, “we don’t have to tolerate your kind now that Trump is President,” tell us all that these people do not speak for you. You’re probably wondering, “Do I really have to tell you that?” The answer is yes, you do. Because you blew your last chance to tell us that these people didn’t speak for you when you voted to elect Donald Trump to speak for you.
Your side of the street is filthy. And whether you’re lying down in the gutter with the trash or just stepping over it to get into your house doesn’t change that fact. Right now you’re a bad neighbor. You’re letting your trash blow into our yards while you refuse to do anything about it and tell us to just get over it. So be a good neighbor and prove to the rest of us you’re not all the things we think you are. Prove you’re a good person.
Denounce these things to us. And most importantly denounce them to each other. Because your lack of saying something, whether it was in your families, in public or in your own party, is why we’re here. You might be a good person, but I know many more good people who are afraid for their lives and the lives of those they love, and they have good reason. Good people need to ask themselves tough questions sometimes. And friends, we are past the point where any good person should be able to stomach this just because they want less taxes, or someone to abolish Obamacare, or Hillary voted for Iraq, or any of the reasons you told yourself you voted for Trump.
For weeks now I’ve been thinking of this photo of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of African American students to attend classes at the segregated Little Rock Central High School. The photo is of Elizabeth on her way to class, being followed by a group of white people, one of whom was caught mid-yell. That woman’s name was Hazel Bryan. You don’t need me to tell you what she was yelling. It wasn’t “Welcome.”
I think about that picture a lot and most of what I think is, “If you voted for Trump, right now you’re in that photo.” If you’re not Hazel Bryan, then you’re one of the white people standing silently with her. You didn’t yell, “We don’t want to integrate,” but you stood by the people who did and said nothing while they said it. You’re on the wrong side of that picture and the wrong side of history. Don’t stand by the bigots while you say nothing. Stand up for what you say you believe is right and say something.
Hazel Bryan did. She realized that wasn’t how she wanted to be remembered, how she wanted her children to learn about her. She got into activism and social work. She apologized. And she did something.
That’s what good people do.
36 thoughts on “Prove It”
I am so impressed with you have said. Thank you.
You are easily impressed in life.
Tess, I love you funny, I love you cooking, but I NEED and LOOK FORWARD to your political brilliance!
I am so angry and deeply offended by Drumpf supporters and I can’t put into words what I am feeling, but you can.
Thank you!!!!!!!
There is nothing brilliant about this hate mongering ill informed bigoted garbage. Watch my response, it’s better. https://youtu.be/gSZnEC1wtHM
Chandler: There is nothing brilliant about you trolling every single fucking commenter on here. It’s sad. It’s what sad people do.
It is a better choice than supporting the Most Incompetent Corrupt Recalcitrant Egotistical Arrogant Power Hungry Foul Mouthed Foul Tempered Thieving Lying Politician ever to Run for the Office of President.
You *are* referring to Mr. Trump, of course, aren’t you, Tim Haupt?
Mi hija, you need a short, commentary spot on an cable or national news network to keep up these wonderful commentaries. Keep up the good work!
BARF. Watching her video made my IQ drop by 10 points.
Nobody cares that your IQ dropped to 18 from 28.
Terrific idea — get her on TV. Good people who voted for Trump—and there are some—need to hear this. We all need to hear this.
You are a horrible human being.
My response: https://youtu.be/gSZnEC1wtHM
I’ll take “Things this dude says to his own reflection in the windows of the women’s yoga studio he loiters around until they call the cops on him” for $500, Alex.
I have friends who are good people and voted for Trump. I’m wondering how they are feeling about his agenda and his business, his mixing business and government by including his children in both the WH and in business, by not divesting himself of his business as previous presidents did, by cabinet picks who will endanger our water supply with endless pipelines full of crude oil and tar sands oil—by everything he’s done in the transition.
How do you feel now? Glad you voted for this bigot, with a cabinet full of billionaires, instead of a woman who had the gall to own a private email server?
What’s wrong with a cabinet full of billionaires? Isn’t money at least one measure of success? Would you rather he staffed his cabinet with Community College teachers making $50k/ year?
“Isn’t money at least one measure of success?” << It's one measure that someone *could* go by, if they thought that more money = better. But in things like science, no amount of billions replaces actual fucking knowledge of a subject. A better measure of success might be not spending all your time obsessing over a successful woman and commenting on every supportive comment here. Take a hint, dude. She's just not into you. Accept rejection, man up, and move on.
You are wonderful and yes,it’s very comforting to know that there are people who are incensed and outraged by this man-made catastrophe!! You are so right that good people like you and,hopefully, me,must stand up against people who are chomping at the bit for some evil,twisted reason to destroy our country!! God help us all.
Chandler- I know you probably voted for Fat Orange Boy,that is,I assume so,judging from your intelligent, thoughtful responses! So lots of money is a gage of leadership qualities in your estimation?? Lots of people win lots of money in Powerball drawings every year-have you seen some of these folks in TV press conferences?? Would you judge some of these people as possessing leadership qualities? I’d ask about some of other requirements you have or effective leadership qualities, but I don’t think I want to know…….
Superb. Brave. Absolutely necessary. Thank you Ms. Rafferty.
Dear Ms. Rafferty: Thank you so much for your plain speech about the results of the 2016 election. I am especially pleased by your emphasis on the great part misogyny played in the election. Misogyny was a major factor in Hillary’s loss, glossed over lightly by the MSM and the chattering class. America is populated by a shameful number of people–both men AND women–who hate and degrade women, who consider them to only be sex tools, breed animals for the species, baby sitters, cooks, cleaning ladies, etc. The idea that a mere woman could be president is unbearable to these people. Will this American spiritual malaise ever end?
Hi Tess .I agree with most everything you’ve said in both videos . That being said, I take offense to the big FUCK YOU to 3rd party voters and Bernie Sanders voters in the first video . We were never friends on facebook to begin with , so I can’t unfriend you . Honestly I didn’t know who you were until your video went viral. Thank you for dividing and fracturing the democratic party ever further than it has been . I’ve voted democrat since I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1981 , donated and campaigned for Obama .I left the party just days before the convention in Phila. when Warren endorsed Clinton last Aug. I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary and Jill Stein for president . Reason being Hillary’s lack of interest in Black Lives Matter addressing privatized prisons, standing by the Native American water protectors at their sacred burial grounds at Standing Rock ND and confronting big oil, confronting big banks, Wall St. and big pharm companies . If she would have spoken out after she won the primary in Aug , she would have earned these votes from the Sanders and Stein people . …but she didn’t. She listened to the polls and just laid low and played it safe. She thought she had it in the bag and that is not the fault of 3rd party voters. That is Hillary Clinton’s fault. And as a Caucasian American man with an African American boyfriend , I think she was late coming around and changing her stance for gay marriage in 2013….but that may just be me. I’ll follow the lead of Bernie Sanders , Tulsi Gabbard , and Keith Ellison and other progressives and call out the establishment Dems. Like you, I haven’t been one to mince words myself and I’m rather relieved we can drop all this political correctness horseshit too. Being a native Philadelphian we never just quietly take a fuck you from anyone ….so I’m going to sign off with a big FUCK YOU TOO Tess and keep on making those rad videos
oh… I forgot to mention our differences on the 7 countries our military has been involved in. Hillary never spoke too much about defunding these wars or peace talks.
Love this! Keep it up & put me on your email list. If there wasn’t any bad language in here I would love to share this with my kids!! 🙂
Just LOL you spent all this time and you really didn’t say anything, in fact you really proved that your just regurgitating neat little coined phrases and hot buttons but just some rambling how you’ll be ok cause you’re from California. Well if you’re going to be O.K. Mrs.. sixth largest economy in the world, why don’t you sit down and STFU. ….”all a spectrum and your on it.” Duh I mean we’re all on a spectrum of some sort. When in the fuck had the KKK been relevant except to try and incite emotion for gain. They have been gone forever . ” even the Germans were warning us about this guy.” You mean the one German who lives on the west coast that said something about Trump?? So this douche speaks for his whole country. Your fear mongering totally baseless speech really did just waste a part of so many people’s lives that they will never get back. Keep up the great job of not contributing shit and trying to fit in so you don’t have to have a real career and can keep selling the garbage you spew out of your cockholstet.
Bill,I think the reason you think Tess didn’t say anything relevant or substantial is because you’re too blindly ignorant to understand it!! It’s not this lady’s fault that she just calls it the way she and many,many of us see it and you just get your little Trump-like thin skinned feelings hurt!! Excuse us for not wanting to see our country transformed into a militant, unfeeling,hatemongers paradise!
No, I do not have to prove a god damn thing to you. I have work hard to understand your side, and you don’t do a damn to understand my side. So why I the hell should I prove a thing to you when you just call me a “evil idiot”? No matter we on the right (for you) do it never good enough. I don’t care you what you think me or other like me. I am going to live the I know how to and hope that good enough (not for you).
You are as candid and amazing as ever!!!
Thank you for so boldly and succinctly delivering the message so many of us feel from our toes to our nose during this transition. I’ve seen nothing positive in history to compare it to (although I’ve got plenty of brutal and wicked history that comes to mind when I think about our President Elect), and feel like it’s going to present us with an entirely new World history lesson. Your words are vital; how you convey your feelings…phenomenal. You are a true beauty, my dear. Much love…❤
This is great. Thank you.
Wow, love it!
This should played on the air waves everyday.
You have anger issues. Your are guilty of what you’re projecting on others. Get help.
You are wonderful and yes,it’s very comforting to know that there are people who are incensed and outraged by this man-made catastrophe!! You are so right that good people like you and,hopefully, me,must stand up against people who are chomping at the bit for some evil,twisted reason to destroy our country!! God help us all..
You made this follow-up at the behest of your “Friend”, Steven A. Cohen, a Hedge-Fund Manager and the 30th richest person in The United States, with a net worth of US$13 Billion, and YOU want to talk about how “filthy” my side of the street is, and how bad Goldman Sachs is?
Is this satire?
I get mistaken for Steven A. All the time, but never any of the dividends.
Not satire, your side of the street is still filthy.
I’m still learning from you, as I’m improving myself.
I definitely liked reading all that is written on your site.Keep the stories coming.
I loved it!
You are one of America’s most articulate and ardent patriots. Thank you.