2017: The Year Donald Trump Made America Great Again
I'm serious, folks. If you're reading this because you know me, you probably know that I loathe this bloated cretin with every fiber of my very fibrous being; with every last fiery ray of a thousand burning suns. I hate him so completely that honestly, some days I think about little else. BUT. I gotta give it to him. Dude *has* made American great again. Ohh, not in the way he thinks he has. In the way he surely wishes he hadn't.
Donald Trump has unwittingly brought us together as a nation aghast. That's right - this tangerine-tinted dickwhistle has united the majority of America (and the world) against him, which is no small task. The grit and ferocity of this new bond between us is palpable. It's us against him. Against his racism, his tyranny, his lies, his cruelty, his greed, his dimwitted brutery. His Mother. Fucking. Treason.
The reasons people hate this man so are myriad. And very personal. He pushes buttons in all of us that resound with varied frequencies of rage, trauma, and helplessness. I know sexual assault survivors who quake at the sight of him, at the mere rasp and crackle of his voice because he is everything their abuser was and he is proud of it. Some folks are made to re-live the vicious bullying of their middle school years every time he tweets, because Trump is nothing if not a Bully. For me, with his boastful, windy grandiosity, Trump is an uncanny stand-in for the animal who saw to the financial and emotional ruination of my family for nothing more than greed and sport. Trump speaks to all of our wounding differently, but boy is he loud. We all feel it, and we feel it together. And we are fighting the fuck back. This man does not represent us. This man is not the Best of America. This man is not our President.
Look, I'm not an idiot. Our country can suck as hard as anyone's. I am not glossing over the crushing savagery against our Native People that quite literally put us on the map - or the systemic suppression, enslavement and abuse of our minorities; the gluttony, waste and excess that define us to the world (all very Trumpish pursuits, by the way); I am not ignoring the atrocities of police brutality or the corporate corruption that sullies our collective soul. Not at all. I am simply saying that for the *most* part, the tenets of American society are basically good and right and fair - we cock up spectacularly, and we learn as we go. There is animus, but there also honor. There is apathy, but there is also, now, awakening.
To be clear and fair, I am not a political scholar. I am not an historian. For fuckssake, a year ago I would have been hard pressed to tell you the difference between the House and the Senate and quite honestly I really hope you don't ask me to do that now. I am a middle-aged white woman and I haven't had a whole lot to complain about, like ever. As most of us did, I, too, greatly enjoyed living through the Obama era - which basically amounted to an 8 years-long Slow News Day. No scandals, no pussy grabbing, no name calling or tantrum throwing. I mean, YAWN. With that gracious, elegant leader at the helm I literally never once woke drenched in the night unable to breathe, or frantically checked my phone for Endtimes Alerts. Never gave myself gastritis from panic and shame and dread. Not once. I trusted him. So much that if I'm being honest, I barely paid attention.
But Trump. Trump has made America pay attention again. He has made America vote again. He has made us remember that America as we know it was forged in the fires of Revolution. He has reminded us that Resistance is not just our right and privilege as Americans - it is also our duty. With his rhetoric he has brought us together to remind us to rise up. With his tyranny he has challenged us to fiercely fight for our democracy. With his absurdity he has called upon us to salvage our dignity. He has made activists out of oafs. He has made warriors out of would-be victims. He has made demonstrators out of derelicts (and I firmly count myself here). He has hijacked America and in so-doing recharged our collective can of whoop-ass. Donald Trump has Made America Great Again, despite his very best efforts. He has occasioned us to Revolution, and we have heard the call.
We're coming for you, asshole. And it's going to be glorious.