Nice, but Not Nice

In this day and age, it's easy to get published. Maybe you have to go through Amazon and self-publish, but you can do it and keep control of your intellectual property. But sometimes, you can be stubborn like me, and insist on trying to get traditionally published. I tried to do this with a collection of political essays I wrote before, during, and after the 2016 election. It was a long shot, and I knew it. There were essays in there that I would have been uncomfortable showing my bartender. But I forged ahead with the thought of, why not? Well, an editor at the publishing house I submitted to told me why not. I was too nice!

I called the current resident of the White House a slew of nasty and mean names, but I was too nice. I used the passage that he was a cheeto-dusted, urine-soaked snowflake, and somehow that was too nice for this person. Can someone please explain to me how that is too nice? I mean, even when I wrote the words it felt like it was going too far. Surely, that level of meanness needs to stay within the White House walls or on Breitbart.

Now, before someone comes along and says that I'm upset that I got rejected, let me reiterate: this book can still see the light of day. Nothing is stopping me from putting it out myself. When I told my friends that I was writing it, they were all chomping at the bit to buy it. Also, even if I don't put it out as a whole book, I can release the essays in single-form on Amazon. So, no, the rejection doesn't bother me in the least.

What does bother me is this incivility that the country has been catapulted into. It's easy to lay the blame on Trump or Obama, depending on what your political beliefs are. The truth is that this trend did not start with either of those politicians, though. If I knew when it started, I could write political textbooks and retire from all of the reprints that would surely follow. It's lazy and ill-informed to lay the blame on any two people's feet. Unless it's Paul Ryan; then I say we go ahead and blame him and Nancy Pelosi for everything.

On a serious note though, you can't even have a civil discussion about today's current issues with someone that has different views than you. More times than I can count on my fingers and toes, the word "libtard" has been thrown at me when I say that I think he is not doing a good job, never mind the fact that I know some Republicans/conservatives who believe the same as I do. The very fact that I believe that this man is unacceptable to hold the highest office in the land somehow means that I have a mental deficiency.

Even a former friend (I removed her from Facebook, and suddenly that meant we could no longer speak) would use language like that. When I asked her about it, she said only idiots voted for Hillary, and you know that she was serious because her boyfriend said so. It's not one-sided, though; I've seen and noted liberals slinging just as much nastiness at a "deplorable." For a side that preaches love and tolerance, there doesn't seem to be much for their conservative counterparts.

And maybe that's the problem with my book. No, I do not like Trump. I never have and never will. I will never vote for him and likely would never support his policy agenda. However, I don't think that every Republican, every conservative, is worthy of vitriol and condemnation. Because at the end of a real conversation, I think what we would learn is that we all agree on what the issues are; we just disagree about the solutions. Even the man whom I once said I wished I could pull the toupee from his head and shove down his throat with the bad spray tanner that he uses.

See? Nice, but not nice.