I wish you could've won your war too! This blog post reminds me of my own despairing frustration about my war on gun violence. I've written 7+ posts on gun violence (I quit counting), begging people to embrace gun safety. While we're making minimal gains in that area, it's not nearly enough. We had a shooting at the Texas State Fair a week ago and it barely made the news because no one was killed.
Back to your post. One of the biggest problems is that this fire-breathing dragon is getting help from some of the villagers who insist that the dragon will save us all. The dragon will eventually go away but the villagers? We're stuck with their ignorance and evil.
Sadly, I could do this same round-up with the guns and murder stories I've written over the years. I've lost count, and I don't remember the last time I wrote one. With each new massacre I felt as if I'd said it all. How may times could I repeat the same story, with only the names and locations changed?
You're right that our biggest worry will be the people still carrying these banners and these lies. They're our biggest threat, yet we're supposed to forgive them and try and get them on our side. I won't do that. They'll have to come to me for forgiveness. And even then, I'd never again trust them.
I'll never trust them again either. Clearly, they were like this before and DJT just gave them permission to say the quiet part out loud. There needs to be a reckoning. I don't know what it should look like but we must let them know this kind of behavior/thinking is not OK.
Absolutely. My biggest fear is that there will never be any kind of meaningful accountability, where those people actually suffer for their sins. If we let them get away with all of this, there's really no hope for us. They'll just keep doing it.
You've done a fantastic job of saying what I don't have the words to say. Thank you. From the day, Donald walked down that escalator to declare his candidacy, I have lived in horror. I kept thinking surely people will see what I see, or certainly now his latest "stunt" will make a difference. But no!!
Your point about the role the media plays looms large as part of the problem. Why is he getting so much air-time? Why did I have to watch his motorcade go to the courthouse in New York? Why did he have a motorcade? Yes, the quick answer is turn off the television - but the underlying question remains.
As Misty says, the war on gun violence is another one of those conundrums. I don't understand - the facts tell the story, but little changes.
I just can't bear to watch the constant publicity our supposed journalists keep giving Trump, knowing all it does is inflate his already humongous ego. The motorcades were the last straw for me. I rarely watch those programs anymore. They're consistently silly in a time of grave peril.
Mona, You know how desperately we were cheering you on from this side of the border! He is a soulless, complete aberration…as are his followers. We wait with bated breath for the day when this POS no longer walks this earth. He is a total blight on humanity and your country is in danger with every breath he takes. May his days of spewing hatred be limited by KARMA. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 ❤️❤️❤️
I know as Canadians you were both baffled and shocked, and I can't thank you all enough for your support during those terrible years. I can't dwell too long on how much Trump has gotten away with. It's like watching a perpetrator doing a crime every day, then screaming to get law enforcement to do something, knowing after a while that nobody is coming.
I honestly never thought this sort of thing could happen in my country.
I don't think you failed at all. While all your writing in the early days of Trump didn't prevent him from getting elected, you surely planted seeds on many people's minds. One of the hardest parts of activism -- which is what I consider your anti-Trump writing to be -- is how slow moving progress is. It's hard, most of the time, to see a direct connection between instances of activism and the cumulative impact that those actions have on progress. You did good work. And you continue to do good work. You have not failed. 💚🙏🏼
I'm feeling better already! Thank you! 💕 You're right that progress is slow moving, what with two steps back for every step forward, but, thanks to stubborn activists, all has never been lost.
Yep, I had to be careful as a high school teacher at a conservative school to not say TOO much publicly (so there were a lot of allusions on my blog), but I spoke up on my FB page from the moment he came down the escalator. And the cost of his presidency to my relationships has been too high.
Shout it, Sister Ramona. You aren’t alone in feeling the way you do. The greatest threat to our national security and I maintain to our mental health is DJT and his cronies.
Biden is running a close second in the blight department. His actions at the moment are truly shocking. Brinksmanship on so many fronts that it keeps me awake at night, cuddling my grandchildren as they sleep, and increasingly, by the day, worried about their future. Americans need to rid themselves of the parties that put forward such evil candidates for power.
I left the Republican party over that guy. Ever since DJT was even an option for president, my "jerk meter" was going crazy. I kept looking around at people who loved him and the media who ate up his antics thinking, "Are you guys seriously not seeing this guy? He's so transparent and he is not serious about this job or being a Republican." To me it was like he was still in his reality TV show. And when he became president I wasn't shocked by any of his behavior, because it was classic, entitled snotty rich business guy behavior. As a writer I couldn't have created a better villain. I'm still blown away that he's still here and that people have set him on an altar that we know he won't give up without a huge, ugly fight. I'm so worried what he's done and egged on, appealing to the basest of human emotions. I just keep thinking, "you'll know them by their fruits" and he is poison.
Good for you for putting up a fight. You did more than most of us. As I get older, and gain more perspective, I may be becoming cynical, or more realistic, or both. Looking back at all the protests in which I've participated, the petitions I signed, the letters to the president and the local paper, I am struck by how hard it is for any one person to make an impact, to stop a war, to right a wrong. It strikes me that we are like a school of fish or a flock of birds, and one fish or bird breaking away is not enough to turn the rest. Most of the world follows the crowd, the herd instinct, the beaten path. Short of doing something dramatic and truly newsworthy, there is little that one person can do to force a change. Setting yourself on fire, unfortunately, is a one-act protest. No encore. Power corrupts, and a lot of people are attracted to the corruption of power, viz, Donald Trump. If numbers are to be believed, about half of Americans are drawn to a demagogue, a strongman, a bully, and a cheat. It's shocking and at first we tell ourselves, they just don't understand who he really is, but they actually do. They understand him perfectly, and he understands them. They want a leader who insults immigrants, despises the poor, hates the educated "elite," and puts on a show every time the camera is on him. We live in a world where half of America votes for the basest reasons to protect the loss of privileges they never earned, to protect themselves from having to compete with newcomers on the basis of who works the hardest, who is really the most competent, instead of the birth color of their skin. Trump understood, as evil geniuses before him have done, the ability to push the buttons of such people, and to play them like a violin. All it takes is the absence of any integrity or ethics, merely the desire for power, at any cost. The surprise to me is not that we elected Trump, but that there haven't been more Trumps. We have had bad presidents before, but none like him in the last 100 years that I know of.
Nothing I can add to anything you've said so eloquently. What sickens me most is that Americans who vote for Trump do in fact know exactly who they're voting for, and they're okay with it.
Trump is the worst so far, and my hope is there will never be another like him again. I'll never be able to figure out those millions who are still willing to vote for him. I know their reasons but it still makes no sense. They're thrilled when he thumbs his nose at government, never quite realizing they couldn't survive for a single day without the actions of big and small government. So foolish!
I wish you could've won your war too! This blog post reminds me of my own despairing frustration about my war on gun violence. I've written 7+ posts on gun violence (I quit counting), begging people to embrace gun safety. While we're making minimal gains in that area, it's not nearly enough. We had a shooting at the Texas State Fair a week ago and it barely made the news because no one was killed.
Back to your post. One of the biggest problems is that this fire-breathing dragon is getting help from some of the villagers who insist that the dragon will save us all. The dragon will eventually go away but the villagers? We're stuck with their ignorance and evil.
Sadly, I could do this same round-up with the guns and murder stories I've written over the years. I've lost count, and I don't remember the last time I wrote one. With each new massacre I felt as if I'd said it all. How may times could I repeat the same story, with only the names and locations changed?
You're right that our biggest worry will be the people still carrying these banners and these lies. They're our biggest threat, yet we're supposed to forgive them and try and get them on our side. I won't do that. They'll have to come to me for forgiveness. And even then, I'd never again trust them.
I'll never trust them again either. Clearly, they were like this before and DJT just gave them permission to say the quiet part out loud. There needs to be a reckoning. I don't know what it should look like but we must let them know this kind of behavior/thinking is not OK.
Absolutely. My biggest fear is that there will never be any kind of meaningful accountability, where those people actually suffer for their sins. If we let them get away with all of this, there's really no hope for us. They'll just keep doing it.
You've done a fantastic job of saying what I don't have the words to say. Thank you. From the day, Donald walked down that escalator to declare his candidacy, I have lived in horror. I kept thinking surely people will see what I see, or certainly now his latest "stunt" will make a difference. But no!!
Your point about the role the media plays looms large as part of the problem. Why is he getting so much air-time? Why did I have to watch his motorcade go to the courthouse in New York? Why did he have a motorcade? Yes, the quick answer is turn off the television - but the underlying question remains.
As Misty says, the war on gun violence is another one of those conundrums. I don't understand - the facts tell the story, but little changes.
I just can't bear to watch the constant publicity our supposed journalists keep giving Trump, knowing all it does is inflate his already humongous ego. The motorcades were the last straw for me. I rarely watch those programs anymore. They're consistently silly in a time of grave peril.
Mona, You know how desperately we were cheering you on from this side of the border! He is a soulless, complete aberration…as are his followers. We wait with bated breath for the day when this POS no longer walks this earth. He is a total blight on humanity and your country is in danger with every breath he takes. May his days of spewing hatred be limited by KARMA. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 ❤️❤️❤️
I know as Canadians you were both baffled and shocked, and I can't thank you all enough for your support during those terrible years. I can't dwell too long on how much Trump has gotten away with. It's like watching a perpetrator doing a crime every day, then screaming to get law enforcement to do something, knowing after a while that nobody is coming.
I honestly never thought this sort of thing could happen in my country.
I don't think you failed at all. While all your writing in the early days of Trump didn't prevent him from getting elected, you surely planted seeds on many people's minds. One of the hardest parts of activism -- which is what I consider your anti-Trump writing to be -- is how slow moving progress is. It's hard, most of the time, to see a direct connection between instances of activism and the cumulative impact that those actions have on progress. You did good work. And you continue to do good work. You have not failed. 💚🙏🏼
I'm feeling better already! Thank you! 💕 You're right that progress is slow moving, what with two steps back for every step forward, but, thanks to stubborn activists, all has never been lost.
Yep, I had to be careful as a high school teacher at a conservative school to not say TOO much publicly (so there were a lot of allusions on my blog), but I spoke up on my FB page from the moment he came down the escalator. And the cost of his presidency to my relationships has been too high.
Shout it, Sister Ramona. You aren’t alone in feeling the way you do. The greatest threat to our national security and I maintain to our mental health is DJT and his cronies.
Biden is running a close second in the blight department. His actions at the moment are truly shocking. Brinksmanship on so many fronts that it keeps me awake at night, cuddling my grandchildren as they sleep, and increasingly, by the day, worried about their future. Americans need to rid themselves of the parties that put forward such evil candidates for power.
I left the Republican party over that guy. Ever since DJT was even an option for president, my "jerk meter" was going crazy. I kept looking around at people who loved him and the media who ate up his antics thinking, "Are you guys seriously not seeing this guy? He's so transparent and he is not serious about this job or being a Republican." To me it was like he was still in his reality TV show. And when he became president I wasn't shocked by any of his behavior, because it was classic, entitled snotty rich business guy behavior. As a writer I couldn't have created a better villain. I'm still blown away that he's still here and that people have set him on an altar that we know he won't give up without a huge, ugly fight. I'm so worried what he's done and egged on, appealing to the basest of human emotions. I just keep thinking, "you'll know them by their fruits" and he is poison.
I didn't read your article because your headline said enough.
Okay.
Good for you for putting up a fight. You did more than most of us. As I get older, and gain more perspective, I may be becoming cynical, or more realistic, or both. Looking back at all the protests in which I've participated, the petitions I signed, the letters to the president and the local paper, I am struck by how hard it is for any one person to make an impact, to stop a war, to right a wrong. It strikes me that we are like a school of fish or a flock of birds, and one fish or bird breaking away is not enough to turn the rest. Most of the world follows the crowd, the herd instinct, the beaten path. Short of doing something dramatic and truly newsworthy, there is little that one person can do to force a change. Setting yourself on fire, unfortunately, is a one-act protest. No encore. Power corrupts, and a lot of people are attracted to the corruption of power, viz, Donald Trump. If numbers are to be believed, about half of Americans are drawn to a demagogue, a strongman, a bully, and a cheat. It's shocking and at first we tell ourselves, they just don't understand who he really is, but they actually do. They understand him perfectly, and he understands them. They want a leader who insults immigrants, despises the poor, hates the educated "elite," and puts on a show every time the camera is on him. We live in a world where half of America votes for the basest reasons to protect the loss of privileges they never earned, to protect themselves from having to compete with newcomers on the basis of who works the hardest, who is really the most competent, instead of the birth color of their skin. Trump understood, as evil geniuses before him have done, the ability to push the buttons of such people, and to play them like a violin. All it takes is the absence of any integrity or ethics, merely the desire for power, at any cost. The surprise to me is not that we elected Trump, but that there haven't been more Trumps. We have had bad presidents before, but none like him in the last 100 years that I know of.
Thanks for weighing in, Carl, and welcome!
Nothing I can add to anything you've said so eloquently. What sickens me most is that Americans who vote for Trump do in fact know exactly who they're voting for, and they're okay with it.
Trump is the worst so far, and my hope is there will never be another like him again. I'll never be able to figure out those millions who are still willing to vote for him. I know their reasons but it still makes no sense. They're thrilled when he thumbs his nose at government, never quite realizing they couldn't survive for a single day without the actions of big and small government. So foolish!