Who are we?
The "American Experiment" is entering a dangerous part of the laboratory
We the People elected, by majority, an adjudicated rapist convicted felon and misogynist President of the United States of America.
That isn’t a hyperbolic statement designed to make the bad sound worse than it is. It is cold, hard, objective truth.
We the People elected a man who promises to exact “retribution” on his political enemies, will be a “dictator on day one” of his administration and has vowed to pardon “political prisoners” whose crimes include ransacking the United States Congress, smearing shit on its walls and severely beating American police officers who swore to protect the Constitution of the United States.
We the People, with eyes wide open, voted for mass deportation, continued erosion of women’s health rights and climate change denialism.
We the People have, in our collected wisdom, decided to abandon our allies in Ukraine, give the middle finger to NATO and stand aside if Israel chooses to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth because it makes for nice oceanfront property.
We the People heard the dire warnings of Trump’s own Vice President, Chief of Staff, former lawyers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Republican senators and George W. Bush’s hard-right Vice President, his former Attorney General and dozens of military leaders and decided it didn’t matter because eggs and gas are a buck more expensive than they were four years ago.
We the People heard there is a plan to eliminate the Department of Education, put the vaccine skeptical, bear butchering black sheep of one of the country’s proudest political dynasties in charge of public health and give more big fat tax cuts to the richest Americans with no heed of what it will do to the deficit and are OK with all of it.
I will stop short of accusing We the People of openly embracing fascism. First of all, it is abundantly clear the vast majority of Americans have no idea what fascism is beyond a nominal awareness of “those bad things Hitler did.” Secondly, a true fascist is disciplined and decisive in carrying out a wholesale takeover of all facets of government and civil society. Trump is obviously too addled and lazy to do so, although we need to keep an eye on some of his enablers.
As a financially secure, middle-aged, empty-nester, white guy in a red state, a Trump presidency - provided he doesn’t stumble his way into a nuclear war or second Great Depression (neither 0% possibilities given Trump’s “leadership” proclivities) - may actually prove to be a material boon to me and my family. That doesn’t mean it’s good for the rest of America, though. And it certainly doesn’t bode well for American democracy.
I truly, sincerely hope that I and other “Never Trumpers” (a clan I have been a proud member of since being a Spy magazine subscriber in the 1980s when they took the then-Democrat Trump to task for racism, grifting and general awfulness) are Chicken Littles. I’d gladly trade being wrong if it means a second Trump administration won’t be an unmitigated disaster of anti-American demagoguery and retribution that upends decades of bedrock institutions. But I’m not holding my breath.
But today, one day after the most dispiriting election I can recall, I’m just tired. So tired of seeing my fellow Americans gleefully embrace an autocratic clown.
Right now, I don’t want to be part of We the People. Because We the People just colossally failed.
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All I will say is - I couldn't agree more.
Thanks Tory, for being brave enough to tell the truth.