Anxiety today

Hanging out here at my dad's house there's usually some news program or other on the TV, and so I'm absorbing a lot of the coverage of Former President VonClownstick's American Bund Hate Rally at Madison Square Garden yesterday. I'm glad to know that people started streaming out of the arena after all of his opening acts of racist asshats gave way to the main racist asshat, but it's still—even now, nine years after this putz entered the political fray—difficult to wrap my head around the concept that so many tens of millions of American citizens are eager to put this aspiring despot back in power, even after suffering through the multiple disasters of his 2017-2021 term.

I mean, Trump is a loathsome criminal idiot that leaves more destruction in his wake than a category-5 hurricane or 9.9-scale earthquake, but he's one guy; his immediate circle of enablers and cronies and puppet masters are a relatively small group.

The number of people that have voted for and will vote for him again? Not small. Some of them are true believer Nazi types, but most? Unlikely. It's a damning indictment of the manipulability of the American people and a troubling look at the real power of propagandists.

I would so like to believe that the results of next week's election will be a profound repudiation of the hate and ignorance Trump and his cult represent, but last time—in the midst of a pandemic he enabled, a crashing economy he orchestrated, a diminishment of this country's international reputation that runs counter to the very "We're Number One" attitude the Republican Party used to exude through its pores—seventy million people voted for him. In a country of 350,000,000 with 240,000,000 eligible voters that might not seem like too troubling a figure, but fewer than 160,000,000 people bothered to vote at all. So that 70,000,000 figure is scary as hell.

Those 70,000,000—and the 80,000,000+ that didn't think it worth their time to cast a ballot—need a reminder of what the Trump term was like.

Fortunately, JoJoFromJerz has posted a bit of a recap, a personalized "Last time, on The Trump Administration Horror Show..." that is free for all to see. I share a few bits from it here.

I remember waking up every single morning bracing for the new crazy. What had he done? What had he said? Who had he attacked, mocked, demeaned or made fun of? What new layer of awfulness was on display that day?

I remember what it felt like to watch Republican after Republican, bending the knee to a bully. Excusing an idiot. Watching them accommodate, embolden and excuse the worst behavior possible. Watching them abandon democracy for a wannabe despot. Genuflecting for a mind-numbingly stupid, autocrat-curious, reality tv star who painted himself orange.

He’s fucking orange.

...

I remember feeling perpetually trapped inside an insane asylum with a monster. I remember feeling like there was no escape.

I remember feeling as if half of the country had lost its damn mind. That people I loved had lost their damn minds. Like I was surrounded by racists and sexists, bigots and xenophobes.

...

I remember watching the country turning on itself. George Floyd’s murder. Kyle Rittenhouse’s murders. I remember it feeling like we were being ripped apart from the inside. All while a madman held court from a goddamn golf course.

I remember living in fear. What crazy person might call me to say they were coming to “Paul Pelosi” me next?

I remember watching him send our National Guard on horseback to tear gas protestors in Lafayette Square. Watching him shaking a fucking Bible that wasn’t his in front of a boarded up church. I remember feeling helpless and hopeless. All the fucking time.

JoJo's best description of the Trump years, though, was this: "I remember feeling like we were all trapped on the inside of a two-year-old’s tantrum and we didn’t have any fucking snacks."

We can't handle another tantrum.