Half a Fascist Nation

Over the past four years, I've fantasized about how I would feel at this moment. How I would react once realizing the Trump presidency was coming to an end. I imagined being unable to contain my elation, literally running and screaming and dancing like Gene Kelly. I thought for sure that was how it would be. Instead, I feel relief. And not the comforting relief, like when you pass a test you didn't study for or when you make it to the restroom just before you're about to soil yourself. I'm talking about the kind of relief like being pulled from a car wreck before the vehicle explodes.

And, like a horrible car wreck, this is where we are at: We just got pulled from the wreck. The past four years have been the car rolling and flying and smashing and breaking and all we've done so far is survive it. What's to come is the trip to the hospital, the surgery, the recuperation, the body cast, the pain medications, the physical therapy, the x-rays, the medical bills. We're just getting started with the hard part. I saw some people posting on social media the final shot from Return of the Jedi where the protagonists, having finally defeated the Empire, embrace each other, smiling amongst the Ewok jubilee. I didn't have the heart to tell them that, if the trajectory this country has been on lately is the STAR WARS trilogy, we're only at the part where R2-D2 & C-3PO flee the Blockade Runner in the escape pod.

I'm not just referring to reparations of all the destruction Trump has wrought, either. I'm talking about the soul of this country. One only needs to look at the election results to see how much work has to been done. Check out this map. This is how the Presidential Election of 1984 turned out. As you can see, Reagan absolutely trounced Mondale. And Reagan, while popular, certainly wasn't a dream candidate. Neither was Mondale an offensive maniac nor a colossal screw up. How could an election during such an optimistic time be so one-sided, while an election of literally Democracy vs. Fascism be as close as this one was? People could feign ignorance in 2016 because Donald Trump, despite shamelessly behaving like the morally-bankrupt insane idiot he is throughout his entire campaign, had not illustrated how truly unfit he was for office until he was in office. But close to half the country wanted to do it all over again. That's a huge problem.

It's not just a huge problem because such a large percentage of the population liked tyranny and enthusiastically wanted more. It's a huge problem because Donald Trump has laid the groundwork for a smart fascist who knows what they're doing to step right in and pick up where Trump left off. And this candidate will be welcomed with open arms. I promise you the GOP is working on that right now at this moment and will continue to for the next four years. PLEASE read this article by Zeynep Tufekci at The Atlantic for a detailed summation of this concept.

It was clear that Trump was always nothing more than a battering ram for the Republican Party. A blunt instrument to see what they could get away with. And easily discarded once his usefulness was spent. Turns out they could get away with a lot. Probably more than they suspected. I must say that I'm pleased my paranoid doomsday predictions turned out to be on a Y2K bug level of inaccuracy. I'm surprised, too. I figured given the indifference shown after Stormy Daniels, the Mueller Report, and actual Impeachment, there's nothing the GOP wouldn't do to keep Trump in power, including contesting the results of a clear cut election to the point where the Supreme Court decided in his favor. “Screw the voters and the whole concept of Democracy.” Guess we finally found the line that Trump enablers were unwilling to cross. I've never in my life been so happy to be wrong.

Although, I suppose it's worth pointing out, the Trump Administration is not over yet. In keeping with my car wreck analogy: If the election results are us being pulled from the wreckage, Inauguration Day will be us having made it to the hospital safely. At the very least, don't be surprised if there's a lot of self-sabotage between now and January 20^th. Ever since the Clinton years, Republicans have been more adamant about the failure of Democrats than their own successes, even to their own detriment. Remember a few years ago when some Conservative judges were voted out and they responded by commuting the sentences of several criminals and just letting them loose purely out of sour grapes? Yeah, expect a lot of that. Even just petty stuff like Trump pissing on the Oval Office carpet is not outside the realm of plausibility.

So, where do we go from here? That's a long and complicated conversation that probably has no end. All I can say is I hope intelligent, pragmatic, honorable people make the decisions from here on out and and never give up. One way to start is to give the election process a complete overhaul: Abolish the Electoral College, enact automatic voter registration, make Election Day a national holiday, and have nationwide mail-in ballots.

Whatever happens, this much is true: We can't rely on the government to take care of us. We can't even rely on the police to protect us. So, we'll have to look after each other. Don't let small things slide. Don't let ignorant declarations go unchallenged. Don't accommodate hate as just a “difference of opinion.” Don't normalize absurd madness. Hold people accountable. Maintain integrity. Demand integrity from others. And never, ever give up. Because the bad guys sure won't. We haven't won. We've merely pivoted.