I'm scared shitless.
Seriously.
We are at a juncture in America. A terrifying one. A crossroads, with one avenue leading to (God willing) a lush meadow of regrowth and hope; the other straight off a frigging cliff with barbed wire below.
The President's assaulted the United States from inside every major institution, gleefully taking a jackhammer to the foundation of each. Public health, the Constitution, Obama Care, policing, education, etc, etc ad infinitum.
The speed at which everything has imploded has been mind-blowing.
By the time he's gone (gentle reminder, Donald: check an actuarial table) nothing will be as it was. In the meantime, with Barr, the equally sociopathic henchman-at-the-ready, it's only a short bunny hop from where we are now to mass incarcerations. Think I'm exaggerating? No secret has been made of the administration's admiration for dictators who practice that form of control.
I know some of you are thinking, 'Oh Erika, lighten up, stop focusing on such negative things.' (I know this because you've actually said it to me.) But for the past 4 1/2 years I've felt like Cassandra, the mythical character granted the ability to see what was coming and cursed with the fact that nobody believed her. (She was left muttering prophesies into her early model Greek shopping cart.)
Ever since Super Tuesday last time around, when I announced that Trump was going to win, certain family members (you know who you are) jeered. My certitude came from having studied Jim Jones, in college. Normal people with life-sized problems followed him, believed he would deliver them. Then, once the decompensating monster got the buy-in, they were done. It was all cognitive dissonance.
'Of course Father (that's what they called him) has our best interest, at heart. Otherwise, I wouldn't have uprooted my family and taken them to the jungle to be abused by him'.
Our President has intuited the murderous cult-leader's playbook. (I'd say he's read about the steps involved but, you know.)
The more outrageous the demands, the deeper the self-delusion and rationalizations for devotion. Think I'm catastrophizing? There are more than 200,000 Americans dead in the past seven months that Trump has instructed his people to just write off. And they have.
Here are the things I comment about into my own shopping basket:
--Nearly half the country is willing to snatch free lunch from their own kids' cafeteria tray in order to stop somebody else's from eating, too.
--Social media, the anti-Etch-a-Sketch, holds on to peoples' opinions, and will spit out screenshots whenever asked. All the times you liked a pro-democracy comment are still there for the record.
--The Constitution is composed of ideals that are not universally shared. By a longshot.
--Oh yeah, and:-Every last one of his dangerous followers is armed and eager to follow orders.
So, stop putting a happy-thought spin on the legible writing on the wall. Face reality. Vote. Get others to vote. State your allegiance to decency. Get ready to take to the streets if he loses but won't leave the White House. Be prepared to fight for Democracy. For our children and theirs. We must never, ever go gently into fascism. #Resist