By Butch Freedman
I didn’t watch the ‘state of the union’ address. Bev and I never even considered it. We knew it would be awful and ugly, which by all accounts it was. A typical Trump diatribe, filled with scapegoating, anger, and lies. A New York Times headline stated only, “He debased this country.” And when asked what the best part of the long-winded speech was, two other writers said only, “When it was over.”
I’m no political savant, but I still could have predicted most, if not all of the toxic words our mad king dribbled out. Even the sight of him now makes me immediately sick to my stomach. The man is vile. But he’s also dangerous. And no sane person in this country will rest easy until he’s brought to heel. There’s no point in listing all of the horrors he’s wrought, all of the corruption, the assaults on basic decency. The return to acceptable racism was apparently in full display at last night’s shameful address. These days it’s the Somalis who are taking the brunt of his xenophobia. Next week there will be another scapegoated minority. Even in his dementia, the man is a bully. My father suffered from dementia in his later years. It was hard to watch in a number of ways, but, surprisingly, Dad became a much kinder, sweeter person. He smiled more than he ever did when fully cognizant. Our demented preident only becomes more of his awful, nasty self. And now, in his stumbles and ramblings, he’s not even amusing. Only a sad clown.
It’s difficult to stay optimistic about our country these days. The specter of all those cowardly republicans standing and cheering at every fact-checked lie, every grandstanding baseless boast, makes me want to find a place to hide away for the next three years. But I’m afraid that’s not a practical option. Instead decent people everywhere have to stand up, resist, make clear our opposition to the madness. But, most importantly for now, we must make damn certain that the mid-terms are held in a fair election, and that every one of us who sees what is going on gets out to vote and brings along everybody else who they know. It’s crucial. It’s our best defense against autocracy. The polls, if they’re to be believed, and I think they should be, tell us that a large majority of the electorate are fed up, need relief, want to restore at least some of the norms and dignity of what used to be. If there is a fair election, we will win in a landslide. We need to stop living in this waking nightmare.