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SBF
@SBF_FTX
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@SBF_FTX
9) At the time, those events felt isolated, and the losers' responses reassuring. Perhaps we be more worried when the cracks begin to show.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
10) I don't know whether 2000 was the beginning, or 2008 was, but by 2012 it was undeniable. Trump--at that point mostly an afterthought--ran on a platform of pretending Obama wasn't born in the US (remember that?). Democrats saw Republicans as sowing lies and discontent.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
11) And they were! But of course that's not the whole story. Republicans had a growing list of grievances, too. Sometimes those didn't play out in public, but behind the scenes there was growing frustration with the emergence of what came to be called 'cancel culture'.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
13) Weinstein was canceled; but also a charity I used to work with refused to attend a conference because a proposed speaker who had since been disinvited had written a middle-of-the-road comment on a Facebook thread once. Complain about one and you're shown the other.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
14) The frustrations grew, in both directions. The 2016 election was bitter; really bitter. I went out to canvas in suburban Pennsylvania the weekend before the vote. Every door I knocked on was the same.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
15) The person was angry at those knocking on their door, distrustful of the process, and clearly hated both Trump and Clinton. An outsider was coming to confirm their support for a candidate that they were at best holding their nose to vote for.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
16) Often they'd refuse to say who they were actually planning to vote for. Not that it mattered; by that time there were enough Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter yard signs that you usually already knew.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
17) And so began the most unpleasant and spite filled four years of culture I've lived through. A lot has been said about the former president's antics during his term. But of course there's another side to the story.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
18) I've felt fairly alienated from both parties recently. Democrats said that Trump had no plan for COVID, gave no leadership, was costing American lives, and failing to fight the disease. And they're right.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
19) Republicans countered that Democrats were dragging out the pain, wrecking havoc on the economy for a year while failing to either squash the virus or live with it. And they're right, too. Neither side really acknowledged the truth: that you had to make a hard choice.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
Replying to
@SBF_FTX
20) And at the climax, Trump himself got COVID. His behavior was bizarre and true to form, taking the opportunity to shill some companies and hold meetings with fake props at a fake desk. And he didn't give the speech I would have, if I were him.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
21) Because if you went on CNN, you would see an entire page full of attacks on Trump, for getting COVID, and for not being careful enough. Which, ok, sure, but there's another narrative here, too. Which is that Trump did what leaders do.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
22) He got COVID because he prioritized running the government over his personal safety. And then he left the hospital early. Because he was the President of the United States of America, the leader of the free world. The world wasn't got to stop spinning while he was sick.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
23) And so he chose to lead, and uphold his duties as president (and, you know, whichever random drug companies he was into that day), even if it meant risk to his own health. I don't know. I'm not Trump's biggest fan, but that was the day I was most proud of him.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
24) Anyway, we reap what we sow. And after decades of sowing distrust in each other, we were left with our darkest moment: a part of the country violently storming the capital and invading the senate because they didn't believe the results of the election.
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SBF
@SBF_FTX
26) And so as we transition to the 46th president, we have to work to heal the divides in our nation. But more importantly, we have to treat each other in good faith, so that we can prevent these divides from forming in the first place. Good luck,
@POTUS
.
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