Nothing is inevitable.

I have been trying to articulate my thoughts around what we are experiencing at this moment in our democracy.  

My detestation of Donald Trump did not begin in 2015 when his lard ass descended on his gold-plated escalator to a staged MAGA  photo op in the lobby of his “tower”; it began many years prior.

My career began with a corporate position in Southern New England in the mid-1980’s. About the time Trump was beginning to stretch his social wings in New York City. Studio 54 was all the rage. I remember every couple of weeks it was another “Robin Leech: Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous!” segment on Trump “...conquers Manhattan!” in something gold plated or super-lux limo, or “Entertainment Tonight” on Trump’s latest. I thought him in the same light as Jim and Tammy Faye Baaker; frauds who just live in the limelight. It was… obnoxious then (and is today). I (still have) distant relatives who live in Manhattan. The consensus then was “He’s trying to hard, but the reality is he’s a con man and we (Manhattanites) expect him to flame out in a few years.”

 Even Divine knew shit when she saw it.

He was never someone I ever wanted to aspire to; when I saw him, I saw the gold-plated facade. He made a couple of runs for the POTUS in the late 90’s. Again, never gave him much thought. Then Obama began rocking the Democratic and political landscape; first with the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, then his ascension to be the Democratic front-runner in 2008. Trump showed his true colors starting in 2006 by insisting that Obama was not a birth-right citizen (does sound familiar?) and forced him to provide a birth certificate (he did). On that, Trump stoked the racial fires that had been slowly burning in our country, using every platform he could to spout his garbage, and since Trump, of himself, was a political unknown, the country became fascinated with “a man who ain’t afraid ta’ speak his my-und!”. His toxicity was like the blue light in a bug-zapper. And the GOP flocked, unflinchingly, to him. McConnell not allowing the appointment of a SCOTUS in President Obama’s last term was a culmination of what was to come under Trump as he rose to prominence in the GOP.

The Democrats put Hillary up against Trump; yes, on hindsight, there were missteps. Stupid errors in key states, the wrong messaging. But she never stood a chance as she remained the Statesman and stayed to the high road. Trump was never a politician but was the master of Twitter and social media outlets and pulled out all the thuggery stops. Foreign influence (now proven) played a key roll in distributing disinformation against Hillary, along with the sensationally hyped drumbeat of “Benghazi!” and “Her Email servers!”and James “Good Lordy!” Comey. Not to mention “Pizza-gate”, which sadly, pushed several of my Democratic and gay acquaintances over to MAGA (where they are still firmly ensconced, and I no longer consider them acquaintances).

And that brings us into Trump1.0. He took the advice of “Senior Washington Advisors”; GOP think-tank advocates who pushed him to install “guard rails” in his administration. Voices of sanity to the public for this politico newbie; though his first White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, insisting that they worked from “Alternative Facts” only helped to lay out things to come. Thankfully, Covid-19 reared it’s head, leading to the meltdown of his administration with their inability to deal with the pandemic or the global supply chain fallout. Enter Joe Biden.

We know where Joe’s four years got us; his was a noble and honest administration. Joe inherited a pandemic, a destroyed economy and high unemployment, not to mention a weaker global standing. All challenges that he rose to and excelled at resolving. But his age… There was no denying his age and mental acuity. Biden considered the odds of him besting Trump in a rematch, listened to his party advisors, many of whom were of his vintage, and stepped aside, elevating Kamala as the front-runner Democratic candidate.

Kamalas was a good campaign. Honest. Joyful. Adult. Clear messages for those who chose to listen to them. Good policies, again, for those who chose to read them. Supposedly the wind American needed in her sails. That just was not to be.

We now have Trump2.0, which has hit the ground as “The Revenge Tour”. The Senior Washington Advisors have been replaced with Mar a Lago sycophants, "Project 2025" architects (VP Vance) and tech billionaires with Elon Musk quickly rising to the top of the heap. To Trump, money (and loyalty) is everything; it is power. For the mere paltry sum of around $280M (literally chump change for Elon) donated to the campaign, Musk and his team of young foundlings have been granted unfettered access to the US Government, to all of our data – Social Security numbers, birth dates, tax records. And to the FBI. They have already dismantled USAID which, as it turns out, was previously investigating Musk’s Starlink for interfering with communications to Ukraine at the start of the war. In the immediate, there are stop actions against Musk imposed by two Federal judges (one a Trump appointee). 

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
-- Brandolini's Law, also: The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle

We have passed that inflection point in American democracy. Coming out of the 2024 election, I decided to sit… to observe and not knee-jerk react. I am watching the watchers; SPLC, the ACLU, labor unions, etc. Given that three Trump appointees reside on the Supreme Court, I don’t have a good feeling about anything sticking. For me, I am going to keep blogging with the understanding that, regardless, my 1^st Amendment rights still apply. I don't fear the Gazpacho Police showing up on my door. And I am going to keep searching for the good fights, perhaps even sharing good news. 

I keep going back to the quote by Tom Nichols he wrote in the Atlantic shortly after the 2024 election;  "Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight."  

I so want to believe that. Much of Nichols statement has proofed out. I just hope we can save our democracy and our citizens from this rogue president.  

Thank you for putting up with my ramblings for a Monday, but as Yellowdog Granny would put it;

   

Rade