Two Years Later<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been more than two years since Donald J Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0Two years of America being on a constant knife-edge, worrying about what the next daily crisis would bring.\u00a0\u00a0Two years where our sensibilities have been dulled:\u00a0\u00a0to lying, to cruelty, and to institutional racism.\u00a0Two years of adrenalin and fear, of less sleep and more \u201cshock and awe\u201d at the lengths the Administration would go to change America into their \u201cAmerica\u201d (hard not to spell it without a \u2018k\u2019.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can relate to those folks who say they haven\u2019t slept right since election night, 2016: me neither. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two years ago at the urging of my niece Leslie, I began to do my part to resist the Trump Administration.\u00a0I didn\u2019t want the actions of the President to be normalized.\u00a0\u00a0I hoped that by writing, I could explain them in the context of what should be \u201cnormal\u201d in a real world without Trump.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, as a history teacher I wanted to bring historical context to current issues, and, as the power of the new \u201cFederalism\u201d grew, I hoped to serve as a guide to what those Court appointees might decide.\u00a0\u00a0And finally, I tried to advocate for positive change, and \u201cresist\u201d the negative changes going on all around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was supposed to be a once a week thing, and originally it was going to be more of a podcast than an essay (yes you\u2019re right, I really don’t like the word blog \u2013 I think of that as a diary or stream of consciousness kind of thing.) However, like all things dealing with broadcast, I found podcasting takes a lot of production time to do correctly. What I wanted to do was get my ideas out, so it was the traditional essay format that won out. It ain\u2019t the Federalist Papers <\/em>but I am trying!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0As events occurred, and I grew more accustomed to writing.\u00a0\u00a0It moved to every other day, and now, almost every weekday.\u00a0\u00a0In the past two years there are over four hundred essays in \u201cTrump World,\u201d more than 300,000 words (or a 600 page book \u2013 though that\u2019s not coming!!!)\u00a0\u00a0Originally it was just for \u201cfriends,\u201d both through email and later on Facebook.\u00a0\u00a0But then things got more involved, and now besides the original dozen or so friends who still get the \u201cNew Post on Trump World\u201d emails, there\u2019s 450 subscribers (including several with \u201c@rt\u201d emails \u2013 that\u2019s Russia Television) and all the folks who read on Facebook.\u00a0\u00a0In the past several months essays have been read over one thousand times each month, by folks in over forty countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I know that people are reading. I also know that there are a whole lot of folks that disagree with what I\u2019m saying. Most read it and move on, a few make comments and want to discuss. And an even smaller few have been enraged by what I had to say. A couple have become so hostile that I have had to \u201ccut them off\u201d from access to my writing. I\u2019ve been called \u201cdisgusting\u201d and a \u201ctraitor\u201d \u2013 but I\u2019ve also been called a \u201cliberal\u201d and a \u201cDemocrat\u201d \u2013 labels I\u2019m quite happy to accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So two years in, on the day after Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union Address, what is the state of the Resistance?\u00a0\u00a0In the \u201cwin\u201d column; the Affordable Care Act is shaken but not broken, the House of Representatives is under Democratic control, we aren\u2019t in any new wars (nor out of any old wars), and the Mueller investigation and the \u201cSovereign District of New York\u201d are still investigating away.\u00a0\u00a0In the \u201closs\u201d column; Trump is still the President of the United States, the tax giveaway has depleted Federal funding and exploded the deficit, the Courts are filled with members of the Federalist Society, and the ideas that we took for granted, like the US being the leader of the free world and protector of the defenseless, are no longer guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still have hope that President Trump will be shown to have done so much wrong in the election of 2016 that he will be removed from office, but if not, we can endure.\u00a0\u00a0Our nation is even more durable than we thought: we have survived the first two years, we can survive two more if necessary.\u00a0\u00a0Either way, the \u201cResistance\u201d must make sure that the outcome of the 2020 election puts America back on the right course, to really Make America OK Again (or MAOKA \u2013 hashtag that!!)\u00a0\u00a0We cannot allow the internecine fighting of 2016 that so damaged Hillary Clinton\u2019s election to occur again.\u00a0\u00a0We must be on guard for the \u201cfifth column\u201d of Russian social media or electoral intervention, and we need to recognize that others, including those in the US, will have learned from the Russians of 2016 and will try to do the same things.\u00a0\u00a0The enemy may be within this time, rather than without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I\u2019ll keep writing, both to express and to persuade. Maybe I can find some more conservative friends who are willing to recognize that while they don\u2019t agree with much of what I espouse, they are willing to do anything to avoid the past four years. If not, we all need to show up and make a difference, every time the polls are open. That\u2019s not just resistance, that\u2019s taking command of the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"