I reflect upon the election.
I am feeling very good. And, as is the proclivity of my psychological dynamic, I have spent some time evaluating how my feelings have changed because of the election.
Years ago I outgrew depression as a reaction to life’s events, so it isn’t that I’ve been depressed. I have been in the sort of rage I’d be feeling if someone forced me into a movie theater that played nothing but horror movies. And made me sit there, watching, for two years.
I wonder if this is true for you: I’m finding that although the appreciation of our national horror remains, the horror itself seems to have been pushed to the periphery. Although repulsion at Trump and his government of perverse mediocrities and thieves has not faded, I am unable and unwilling to look at that face and hear the garbage that pours out of its mouth.
When TV news commentators run a video of Trump yammering and ask their pundit guests what they think of the yammer, I either mute the TV or turn to my classical music station.
Can’t do it. Why should I pay attention to a minor character who is not an active entity called “president”?
We don’t have a president. We don’t have a government, except for the courageous professionals who are still behind the lines manning the agencies upon which we all depend for our lives and health. Although the VA has so fucked up, GIs have not received their housing allowances due to a, uh, glitch in the system. (Remember the trio of Mar-A-Lago Trump pals who basically bought the management of the VA as a hobby?)
But I’m not going to list the disasters caused by an administration of incompetents and crooks. A number of pro bono civil rights and ethics organizations are keeping that list, and suing. Regularly. Every day.
We will survive this degradation of our government. We will. We will see it eventually as an abnormality, a malignant hiatus landed upon us as a fierce reminder of what government is, and our civic responsibility to protect it by voting.
To further whet your appetite for democracy, here are a few senators who will be up for re-election in 2020:
- Susan Collins, Maine.
- Lindsey Graham, North Carolina.
- Joni Ernst, Iowa (she can go back to castrating pigs, her previous job, and given that three of the four House seats in Iowa just went Democratic…)
- Cory Gardner, Colorado–who just said something really, really stupid about election “fraud” in the Arizona senate race and all sorts of people are saying he’ll be defeated in 2020.
- Tom Cotton, Arkansas.
- Jon Kyl, Arizona. He says he won’t be running in 2020. Since Sinema just took one of Arizona’s senate seats, anything could happen here.
- Thom Tillis, North Carolina, who recently said his major focus is helping veterans. See above link re how the VA has fucked up GI benefits.
And not least at all:
- Mitch McConnell, Kentucky.
The only possibly vulnerable Democratic Senator is Doug Jones, Alabama, and I’d never bet against him.
