One Term or Bust

Recently, one of my neighbors admitted that he found Hillary Clinton so odious as a candidate that he actually voted for Donald Trump.

He gave me all the standard talking points about her past misdeeds and how she could never be trusted. Then he asked me to give the president-elect “a chance.”

I was incredulously to put it mildly and response was immediate and straight to the point: Not going to happen.

Truth be told, I gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt for the last 16 months. And in all that time he confirmed my worst fears: he is a xenophobic narcissist that is equal parts snake-oil sales man, egomaniacal robber baron and petulant sociopath. The president-elect is the gift that keeps on giving, but ultimately the joke is really on the American people.

In the last 16 months, Trump has made a mockery of our electoral process and has prevented any kind of serious political debate about the real issues that our nation must contend with. And worst still, he has successfully divided our country with his fear mongering and late night tweet storms.

However, my greatest grievance against the usurper-elect is the four years he is going to steal from America. Four years that our country cannot afford to lose. Four years of GOP maneuvers that will attempt to undo all the gains of the last eight years. Four years of trying to check the attacks on our constitutionally protected rights, and freedoms. Four years of trying to make Trump a one-term aberration in our nations history. Four years of fighting for the heart and soul of our nation.

Perhaps we’ll get lucky.

Perhaps the GOP will come to see Trump as a severe liability and decide to impeach him. Or perhaps, in an uncharacteristic moment of clarity, Trump comes to the realization that he really is unfit to do the job and resigns. I seriously doubt that would ever happen, but who knows, stranger things have happened.

Or perhaps a huge asteroid suddenly appears out of nowhere, smashes into our planet and wipes out human civilization and the universe takes no notice. Admittedly this last point is purely wishful thinking on my part. 

At any rate, I have no reason to give Donald Trump “a chance.” In the last 16 months he has made himself perfectly clear … people like me are not a part of his vision of America. Inclusion and tolerance are foreign concepts to the tweeter-elect, and all his supporters would do well to remember that point. Instead of draining the swamp, as he pledged during his campaign, Trump as been filling his cabinet appointments with a rogues gallery of deplorable’s that would give the villains of Batman a run for their money.

 One doesn’t need a crystal ball to guess what a Trump presidency will bring to the poor and working class in this country. However, a perfect example of what is to come can be seen in North Carolina, where the Republican controlled legislature staged a political coup, undermining the incoming Governors power, and refusing to repeal House Bill 2, or the “bathroom bill,” a discriminatory law that has led to an economic boycott of the state by many business organizations and artist such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. 

I and all the other people that Trump has spent the last 16 months attacking and vilifying can take comfort in the following thought: for the next four years, barring any impeachments, WE THE PEOPLE get to tell the Usurper in Chef that he is not a part of our vision of America.

Democracy in action … gotta love it.