All legal and political issues aside -- which admittedly is a huge reach -- the biggest source of my resentment is that, over a year and a half after leaving office, Trump continues to clog up my TV screen, news feeds, and almost every other conceivable place to put my eyes and ears. And for all the wrong reasons.
All legal and political issues aside -- which admittedly is a huge reach -- the biggest source of my resentment is that, over a year and a half after leaving office, Trump continues to clog up my TV screen, news feeds, and almost every other conceivable place to put my eyes and ears. And for all the wrong reasons.
Like the smell of an offended skunk, there is literally no escape from this man's words and actions. It is our American reality show culture at its worst, and we are an unwilling captive audience. It is more than just "how can we miss you if you won't go away?". It is "how can I respect or admire you if you make yourself so easy to loathe?". Each day a little more, there is nothing to respect or admire, and there is no end to the reminders of it. Mommy, make it go away.
Pardon my crudeness, but I personally still feel like I have a case of political blue-balls. In 2016, much as I was eager to be rid of his obnoxious voice and punchable face, there was something else I was craving even more than this.
Because back then, Trump had nowhere near the support among the party and its establishment that four years of the Presidency would buy him. I was actually impressed by the initial vigor of the Never Trump movement. For a moment, it renewed my faith in humanity. Maybe all those Republicans I derided for years weren't so bad after all. Losing *that* election would have almost certainly put a quick end to the Trump experiment.
And that's what I was looking forward to the most. First would have been the appetizer: the moment when the Republican Party blamed him for losing a very winnable election and giving them President Hillary Clinton. Having made the most promising field of Republican candidates in a generation look like a bunch of unelectable dopes on his way to costing them the presidency, he would have been among the most hated people in Washington, on both sides of the aisle (even if some Democrats might have been secretly happy that he sunk the Republican ticket).
But then would have come the main course.
The moment when the Republican Party was forced to take a good look in the mirror and realize what it almost enabled. The 2012 autopsy report would have been vindicated, and our political machinery, for all of its flaws, would have chewed up and spat out this rancid human pork rind. The talking heads of right-wing media, at the very least, would have had a decision to make - double down on Trump's bile and attempt to grow his movement into something that might eventually become politically viable (if dangerously unmanageable) at the national level, or use their influence to push back and expand their tent toward the center.
The upshot may very well have been a healthier Republican Party. There still would have been a large chunk of Americans - primarily fundamentalist Evangelicals and assorted tinfoil-hat loonies, who felt resentment toward the American mainstream and the political establishment. But with luck they'd have felt discouraged and crawled back into their comfortable middle class existences, their brief foray into civic engagement having failed to deliver the necessary gratification to justify actually bothering to vote again. As for the increasingly toxic "pro-life" movement, having the court stacked with justices uninterested in their decades long project of overturning Roe vs Wade would have dashed their efforts before their eyes, forcing them to embrace the power of persuasion over coercion.
Furthermore, the American left would have been in a far better position to be clear-eyed about the growing toxicity of social media and the progressive illiberalism being fed by our obsession with identity politics. Having come so close to the unthinkable, but without the actual threat of Trump to occupy our priorities, the navel gazing and soul searching that took place in 2017 might actually have produced something worthwhile. All of the media visits to midwestern diners and rural enclaves might have engendered actual sympathy instead of the resentment that resulted from Trump's support continuing to grow as his conduct worsened.
All of this was going to be soooo great. I couldn't wait. Six years later, I'm still waiting. But now it's going to be a little different. So be it.
My coping mechanism is whenever I see him on tv, I turn off the sound and overdub it with my (NC-17) impersonation of what he'd say if he had no filter. I'm pretty good at it by now. Only Jamie Foxx and the Howard Stern guy are better at it. It's fun, you should try.
And not only does he command our attention, he still has a massive cult following that threaten to drag us all down with them. That's why we still have to pay attention to him. That any sane person would still support this obscenity of a human being after January 6 is what frightens me most.
Actually, it's probably going to help us in the midterms, because trump-fatigue is a great reminder of where the GOP wants to take us. Those Independents and moderate Republicans who might have wanted to vote for GOP due to economy, etc., are now rethinking because they do NOT want a trump return....
All legal and political issues aside -- which admittedly is a huge reach -- the biggest source of my resentment is that, over a year and a half after leaving office, Trump continues to clog up my TV screen, news feeds, and almost every other conceivable place to put my eyes and ears. And for all the wrong reasons.
Like the smell of an offended skunk, there is literally no escape from this man's words and actions. It is our American reality show culture at its worst, and we are an unwilling captive audience. It is more than just "how can we miss you if you won't go away?". It is "how can I respect or admire you if you make yourself so easy to loathe?". Each day a little more, there is nothing to respect or admire, and there is no end to the reminders of it. Mommy, make it go away.
Pardon my crudeness, but I personally still feel like I have a case of political blue-balls. In 2016, much as I was eager to be rid of his obnoxious voice and punchable face, there was something else I was craving even more than this.
Because back then, Trump had nowhere near the support among the party and its establishment that four years of the Presidency would buy him. I was actually impressed by the initial vigor of the Never Trump movement. For a moment, it renewed my faith in humanity. Maybe all those Republicans I derided for years weren't so bad after all. Losing *that* election would have almost certainly put a quick end to the Trump experiment.
And that's what I was looking forward to the most. First would have been the appetizer: the moment when the Republican Party blamed him for losing a very winnable election and giving them President Hillary Clinton. Having made the most promising field of Republican candidates in a generation look like a bunch of unelectable dopes on his way to costing them the presidency, he would have been among the most hated people in Washington, on both sides of the aisle (even if some Democrats might have been secretly happy that he sunk the Republican ticket).
But then would have come the main course.
The moment when the Republican Party was forced to take a good look in the mirror and realize what it almost enabled. The 2012 autopsy report would have been vindicated, and our political machinery, for all of its flaws, would have chewed up and spat out this rancid human pork rind. The talking heads of right-wing media, at the very least, would have had a decision to make - double down on Trump's bile and attempt to grow his movement into something that might eventually become politically viable (if dangerously unmanageable) at the national level, or use their influence to push back and expand their tent toward the center.
The upshot may very well have been a healthier Republican Party. There still would have been a large chunk of Americans - primarily fundamentalist Evangelicals and assorted tinfoil-hat loonies, who felt resentment toward the American mainstream and the political establishment. But with luck they'd have felt discouraged and crawled back into their comfortable middle class existences, their brief foray into civic engagement having failed to deliver the necessary gratification to justify actually bothering to vote again. As for the increasingly toxic "pro-life" movement, having the court stacked with justices uninterested in their decades long project of overturning Roe vs Wade would have dashed their efforts before their eyes, forcing them to embrace the power of persuasion over coercion.
Furthermore, the American left would have been in a far better position to be clear-eyed about the growing toxicity of social media and the progressive illiberalism being fed by our obsession with identity politics. Having come so close to the unthinkable, but without the actual threat of Trump to occupy our priorities, the navel gazing and soul searching that took place in 2017 might actually have produced something worthwhile. All of the media visits to midwestern diners and rural enclaves might have engendered actual sympathy instead of the resentment that resulted from Trump's support continuing to grow as his conduct worsened.
All of this was going to be soooo great. I couldn't wait. Six years later, I'm still waiting. But now it's going to be a little different. So be it.
LOCK. HIM. UP.
The road not taken - for an entire country.
As long as Trump generates $$$$ in ad revenues, for-profit 'news' sites will keep him on air.
My coping mechanism is whenever I see him on tv, I turn off the sound and overdub it with my (NC-17) impersonation of what he'd say if he had no filter. I'm pretty good at it by now. Only Jamie Foxx and the Howard Stern guy are better at it. It's fun, you should try.
But he doesn't have a filter!
And not only does he command our attention, he still has a massive cult following that threaten to drag us all down with them. That's why we still have to pay attention to him. That any sane person would still support this obscenity of a human being after January 6 is what frightens me most.
Actually, it's probably going to help us in the midterms, because trump-fatigue is a great reminder of where the GOP wants to take us. Those Independents and moderate Republicans who might have wanted to vote for GOP due to economy, etc., are now rethinking because they do NOT want a trump return....