“Donald Trump is a dick.”
That’s now become my walk into the house after work greeting. “Donald Trump is a dick.” And that’s when I’m feeling charitable. It’s not unusual for the adjective to be a
vulgarity. Maybe I shouldn’t Google the
news at work. Maybe I shouldn’t peek at
Facebook at work. Maybe I shouldn’t
listen to the news in the car on the way home.
Then I might come home with a cheery, “Hi.” Of course Donald Trump would still be a
dick.
“Donald Trump is a dick.” That’s disgust working. Disgust has been putting in some heavy duty
overtime during the past two weeks. And not just with me. According to a recently released Gallup poll,
Trump broke new ground. He reached a majority
disapproval rating in record time – a mere 8 days. Here’s how Trump stacked up against real, err,
I mean, other Presidents.
Days until
achieving MAJORITY disapproval from @Gallup
Reagan: 727
Bush I: 1336
Clinton: 573
Bush II: 1205
Obama: 936
Trump: 8. days.
And why not? Trump is, as Forest Gump’s mama used to say,
like a box of chocolates. You never know
what (stupidity) you’re going to get. .
Here’s some of the most recent foolishness.
His “celebration”
of Black History month in which he read from a script. He did mention Dr. Martin Luther King. Unfortunately the sum total of Trump’s
remarks on Dr. King centered on the story that Trump had a bust of Dr. King
removed from his office; which of course led to a diatribe against the
press. In a 12 minute talk that should
have been about Black History, Trump puffed himself up for all but about 30
seconds. Black History got kicked to the
curb. But Trump did manage a small nod
to history. He mentioned Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves and impregnated
Sally Hemings.
At
the National Prayer Breakfast Trump took another moment to promote himself by
asking for prayers for the ratings of Celebrity Apprentice, taken over by Arnold
Schwarzenegger because “it’s been a total disaster” since Trump left the show.
That, America is your President. Not mine by the way. If you want him you can
have him. There is absolutely no
instance in which this person will not promote himself, usually at the expense
of others.
So now you know why I come home with a weary, “Donald
Trump is a dick.” What’s your own
version?
Despair shows its dreary self in the quiet of our
darkened bedroom when I awaken to wonder when this national dumpster fire will
finally go out. Despair makes its
presence known when I think about a Republican Party that’s run amok, enabled
by a bollixed, bellicose President.
Despair shrieks in the night that white supremacists and the extreme
right are emboldened by a President who campaigned and thrives on hate,
division and fear.
And of course there is fear. It skulks in the recesses of troubled
thoughts. Fear has been rising with each
passing day of threats and bluster. I
always thought that George W. Bush was a swaggerer but Trump makes Bush look
like a tree hugging peacenik. Despair feeds fear and fear spawns those nagging “whats.”
What more violence will ensue from the far right?
What rights will be squashed?
What irreparable environmental damage?
What retribution will come from a power drunk, anger
fueled, thin skinned President?
Whither the poor, the elderly, the people of color and
the marginalized?
And there’s that little matter of war. What can we expect from a President who tried
to intimidate three world leaders in a matter of a few days? What do we expect from Michael Flynn, a man
with a history of shooting from the hip?
America has been in more wars than I care to count during
my lifetime but none of them seemed to threaten the homeland. I wonder what we get with Steve Bannon,
Michael Flynn and Donald Trump? How far
does a GOP Congress go along with that thorny trio? And what does a Bannon driven Trump do with
his own war making powers?
While I disagreed with the recent Middle East wars I
never felt there was a threat to the homeland. It was something half a world away that the Bush Administration tried to keep an arm's length away from the voting public. I've never felt the uncertainty that my parents felt in
1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Oh, I remember seeing their concern as they watched a world on the brink
on our big black and white console TV. I
remember a schoolmate’s family building a bomb shelter under their house. But I was young enough that I didn't appreciate how close to the edge we were. I don’t know that Americans have recently
felt the unease that dangled over the nation in the days of the Cold War.
(Unless you count the paranoia of the snake oil drinkers who are a afraid of a
5 year old Syrian kid who went through 3 years of vetting before entering
America). For the first time in my life, I'm feeling an unease that we're approaching an uncontainable crisis.
Yup, Donald Trump is a dick – and worse. And he’s our dick, like it or not, for four stinking
years. And it’s only been two weeks.
And what makes it all the more depressing? It feels like
President Obama has been gone for a decade.
Posted by Paulie - San Francisco CA
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