Tag: Trump

I Do Worry About the Government

Yesterday I wrote that I was not too concerned about life because I’ve survived a lot. That is a lie — I am very concerned with what the US government is currently doing. I don’t care if Elon Musk is trying to save us money — he has no right to have his fingers in the government agencies to begin with. The end does not justify the means. Trump’s executive orders make him an autocrat and the US a dictatorship.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I don’t know where our government is. I don’t know why Congress hasn’t stepped in and prevented Musk’s plundering of information. If there is no way to prevent this, there are fatal flaws in our government based on trust of a president. What’s stopping a president from ruling by executive order? Nothing, apparently. Trust has eroded, and chaos isn’t far away.

I realize I have to live in-between these moments, within the chaos, and find joy outside the news. I try my best.

Post-Trump Stress Disorder

Some writers (see here) express the notion that there is a post-traumatic stress disorder prevalent in the US which has comes from living in the country under Trump. I can believe it, given the daily spew of vitriol and lies, the call to violence and bullying, and the inability to escape. 

Certainly, our citizens are facing the PTSD symptom of arousal — a constant vigilance against future harm. This seems appropriate as a response to the grinding down of our psyches. This will not go away immediately as Biden takes office, because PTSD takes months, if not years, to go away. Biden is taking over a shell-shocked country.

I anticipate a year where Americans are wary of what the government will do, a pessimism about government, a feeling of a heavy weight on our hunched shoulders. 

Doubled by the burden of COVID, we in the US are grouchy and protective of ourselves. We need to find a way to take care of ourselves, by taking time to ourselves, finding an absorbing activity, spending time with our roommates and pets, and thinking outside ourselves. 

We need to be good and merciful to ourselves, and to others. The long nightmare will fade away.


A Return to Hope (Inaugural edition)

 So today’s the inauguration of President-elect Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. It has been a harrowing four years under the Trump administration, filled as it was with right-wing jingoism, bows to white supremacism, and actions which targeted vulnerable populations, delicate natural landscapes, and at times, the very soul of a democratic nation.

I had thought Trump’s reign would be over sooner. Each new outburst made by Trump on Twitter made me wonder if the vice president would invoke the 25th. Each allegation — collusion with the Russians in the 2016 election (disproven), quid-pro-quo maneuvering with Ukraine (probable) petered out in the legislature. Shaming us on the world stage — there is no mechanism to get rid on him in that case, but I at least expected that people would turn away from him.

They didn’t, and I feel this is an indictment of the American people.

I don’t know if they were attracted to Trump’s lies or his xenophobic cruelty; I don’t know if they identified with his wrapping himself in the American flag or they felt his bumbling, ranting speeches were “like them”. But they didn’t shrink away from his threats, his tacit acceptance of white supremacists or his bullying. In the recent election, almost half the US supported him. This lingers as a source of fear and dismay. 

But now Biden will be installed as 46th President of the United States. There is hope, although Biden has a lot to undo and a somewhat limited time to do it in. Some things, like the rise of white supremacy in the US, may take years to undo. Other things, like battling COVID, may be difficult. I pray that we can heal from the Trump agenda and all its hatred. 

Where I stand (not with Trump)

 In case there’s any question of where I stand:

I want to see President Trump impeached for inciting sedition. 

It’s too late for the 25th Amendment (relieving Trump of duties because he’s unfit for duty) because that would just absolve him of what happened at the Capitol on Wednesday. He could claim insanity and avoid prosecution.

Trump needs to be prevented from trying for another term in 2024, which would happen if he were impeached and convicted. I’m not against Republicans per se. I’m against seditious Republicans, and that includes Cruz and Hawley.  There is a process for addressing grievances, and a Congressman (or even President) doesn’t always get their way. You don’t order a mob onto the Capital just because you don’t get your way.

I’m not arguing anything novel, anything nobody else has thought about. I’m not that genius, I’m not a policymaker, I’m not a pundit. I’m an ordinary American scared of what I’ve seen. 

Yesterday’s Coup Attempt

 I don’t really want to write this today, because I already have nightmares from the events at the US Capitol yesterday, but it needs to be written:

Yesterday’s insurgence at the capitol was an attempted coup led by our outgoing president, who irresponsibly egged on a mob to do his bidding and then pretended that he had not. 

The US has always prided itself on being “too good” for anti-democratic actions, yet many of us far away from Washington DC saw what was coming. With a demagogue for president, one who has shown little inclination toward anything but megalomania, this was inevitable. But it turned out worse than we thought. 

It’s scary living in the US right now. It’s less scary, given that Congress has affirmed the electoral college vote, but I’m afraid we haven’t seen the last of these traitors given that both houses and the presidency is Democrat for the next two years.

I hope someone sees fit to invoke the 25th Amendment (removing a president from office due to unfitness to serve) even if it’s only 13 more days till inauguration. 

I wondered how I would take watching a mob-rule coup attempted. Now I know. 

Justice for All

“… with liberty and justice for all.”

This is why I think the announcement of formal impeachment proceedings against President Trump is good news. Clear evidence exists that President Trump has colluded with foreign entities for the purpose of influencing elections, which is an affront to the democratic process in the US. It is the job of the president to keep the nation’s good, rather than his own desires, in mind. 

Some would argue that the democratic process in the US isn’t very democratic, and they would be right. The need for a huge “war chest” to run for president restricts all but the wealthy and famous. The Electoral College exists as the remnant of a system where only white male landowners could vote. Polling places are cut disproportionately in areas where less-wealthy blacks live.

However, Trump’s apparent attempt at manipulating Ukraine with an eye to collusion and the earlier suspected collusion with Russia, if proven, are major subversions not only to the electoral process but to the security interests of the United States.

Americans know this — at least the majority of Americans who have not bought into the cult of the bully Trump. And they want justice for all, not just the rich and powerful.


Empathy in an Age of Hatred

Last year in November, I participated in NaNoWriMo — until the presidential election. To a nation’s horror, 45 — many of us do not say his name — won the election, and the concept of empathy toward those not white, male, and Christian seemed to die overnight. Hate speech immediately blossomed like black, fetid flowers;  Latino/as, Moslems, women, immigrants, liberals and anyone with empathy were targeted with jeers and threats, and sometimes by physical violence.

I did not win NaNo last year; I couldn’t write after that day. The world I fought for — where each person’s uniqueness was valued — seemed to have died overnight. I felt my life was imminently in danger, because once I had been targeted for violence for being different. Many people — those who hadn’t answered their traumas with aggressive hatreds — kept on keeping on in those days while cowering within themselves. Those with aggressive hatreds rejoiced. Others ignored the Nazi flags and assumed that since the world would be alright for them, everyone would be fine.

Many writers, it turned out, have had trouble writing in the aftermath of the last presidential election. In the internet article Writing Fiction after Trump (2016), written in the aftermath of the election, the author interviewed several literary writers about writing post-election. Many, like me, struggled, with one author, James Scott, expressing that he couldn’t pull up the empathy to do so.

I eventually got back to writing, after I quit cowering under my bed — figuratively, not literally. I talked myself out from under my bed because the white supremacists and the pussy-grabbers and the so-called rebels wanting to take the country back to slavery needed someone to stand against them. I write, and have always written, to oppose hatred of those who are not like us.

To show empathy, with the best of my words, with the best of my skill, with the best of my humility, is why I write.

Tuch, B. (2016). Writing fiction after Trump. Available: http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/writing-fiction-after-trump-how-do-writers-d [October 7, 2017].