We're Screwed
As an essential act of self-care, I limit my exposure to Donald Trump. I have an intensely negative response to hearing that awful man’s voice. It’s deeply triggering.
Due to Trump’s time in office, we have a culture-wide case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Trump’s presidency was traumatic. I will never forget the overwhelming feeling of dread I experienced on election night in 2016 when it became agonizingly clear that the American people would rather elect an insane con man with no relevant experience than an over-qualified woman.
I knew that things would be bad, but I didn’t realize just how bad they would get. I didn’t realize how surreal and apocalyptic Trump’s time in office would be or how worshipful and delusional his cult would become.
Because I hate the sound of Donald Trump’s voice and literally everything else about him, I had no interest in watching the first presidential debate. Nothing good could come of it.
Yet my wife, who, it should be noted, is always right, convinced me that we should at least watch some of the debate. What if I was so dazzled by Trump’s performance that I decided to switch sides and support the disgraced, twice-impeached felon?
I don’t think we made it five minutes into the debate before we decided to watch something less depressing instead, namely a Netflix documentary series about the final days of Jonestown.
I’d hoped for the best with Biden. He was a lifelong politician who had ascended to lofty heights. Sure, he was old and diminished and less than ideal, but so was Trump.
From the moment he shuffled onstage, Biden was in trouble. He was the seemingly senile, doddering old codger of the Republican imagination. It was painful. It was sad. It was hard to watch.
Biden was so feeble that he made Trump, a man more or less his own age, seem like a confident, vigorous young man in full command of his faculties when he’s anything but.
Biden seemed much older than his eighty-one years while Trump, a senior citizen who eats nothing but fast food and never exercises, seemed younger and more coherent than he actually was.
It was a horror show. If he remains the nominee, I will vote for Biden, but the defeated, confused man debating Donald Trump did not inspire confidence. Biden has done a solid job as president, but the optics for the evening were terrible.
It only took a few minutes of watching Joe Biden be destroyed by Donald Trump to realize that we, as a nation, are completely fucked. We’re screwed. The situation is dire, and it is only getting worse.
I cannot see Joe Biden winning the 2024 presidential election. I fear that his bumbling will give Donald Trump the sacred electoral landslide he delusionally was convinced he had in 2020.
Biden did so badly that a man who was recently convicted of THIRTY-FOUR FELONIES came off as more presidential than the man currently occupying the White House.
It once again feels like the bad people are winning. It feels sometimes like the bad people have already won.
I don’t know if I can handle four more years of Donald Trump being the most powerful man in the world. Trump is going to see his likely electoral victory as a mandate from God that the American people agree with everything he says and that he should have unlimited power and not the inevitable consequence of the Democrats running a uniquely weak candidate against him.
Trump’s policies proved disastrous. Roe Vs. Wade was overturned, something that I never imagined would happen in my lifetime.
But beyond Trump’s actions as commander-in-chief, there is the tremendous psychological cost of elevating a hateful, bigoted bully to the highest of heights.
It’s not about “mean tweets.” It’s about rewarding cruelty and sadism.
I have no idea how to turn this around. At this point, a Trump victory seems inevitable. Getting convicted of 34 felonies and getting caught on tape bragging about groping genitalia as a greeting did not kill his chances of becoming president. I don’t know what will at this point.
I’m a pessimist by nature. It’s hard for me to be optimistic when everything seems to be going in the wrong direction in a terrible hurry.
Trump has made it clear that a second term in office would be like his first term on steroids. He has shown us exactly who he is and what he believes in, yet we’re on the verge of electing him president a second time all the same.
That reflects terribly on an American public that barely survived his first term in office yet is horrifically intent on bringing Trump back to a place of prominence he never should have held in the first place.
Nathan needs teeth that work, and his dental plan doesn't cover them, so he started a GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-nathans-journey-to-dental-implants. Give if you can!
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