Looking Back on 2017: Furious, Forlorn, and Faithful.
Furious. I ranted, donated, blogged, Tweeted, and Facebooked. I signed many petitions, spoke out, called, and e-mailed my federal and state representatives. Forlorn. Trump is still president. Republicans passed their tax plan— legislation that’s riddled with loopholes and adds an estimated $1.47 TRILLION to the debt. Faithful. The Democrats reclaimed multiple seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, the House, and the Senate. I had the privilege of voting for Danica Roem, our first openly trans delegate. Danica won! My hope that our better natures will prevail is validated. “Faithful” won in the end.
2018: The scandal and subsequent fallout will be the BEST!
I recently watched HBO’s Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge. Hunter S. Thompson reported on the 1972 Presidential campaign (Nixon (R) vs. McGovern (D)) for Rolling Stone. Post-election, Thompson compiled his many notebooks into Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72. The book revealed President Nixon to be a profoundly damaged man. Thompson would know. The father of gonzo journalism was a brilliant writer and a complete whack job.
In his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas voice, Johnny Depp (who else?) reads passages from Fear and Loathing that describe how terrible a person Nixon was. As I listened, I thought, “holy fuck. Replace ‘Nixon’ with ‘Trump,’ and you’d never know Thompson was writing about a different president, almost 50 years ago. Then, I thought “no, Trump is much, much worse.” Nixon’s actions were criminal; Trump’s acts are criminal, treasonous, and possibly insane.
Trump (or his minions, with Trump’s tacit approval) conspired with a HOSTILE FOREIGN POWER in a massive cyber-attack against the U.S. Sounds like a clear case of treason to me.
Mental health experts suggest the president’s erratic, nonsensical actions indicate he’s mentally impaired. Indeed, the president seems oblivious to why taunting North Korea is a BAD FUCKING IDEA!
Pundits debate 25th Amendment remedies. However, upon Trump’s removal from office, we get Pence the bigoted zealot. If Pence is removed (Russia investigation), we get Paul Ryan, and Paul Ryan is no Gerald Ford. So, which do you prefer:
A) Nuclear holocaust.
B) Religious law ala The Handmaid’s Tale, or
C) Unrestricted, Randian capitalism?
I’ll leave you to ponder our national existential crisis; I’m off to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas again.