Republicans probably don’t want to hear this but as I ponder the immense hassle that will be required to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, I am reminded of nothing more that the torrent of emotions I had when I realized that I’d have to put up with at least four years of a Trump presidency. I just find it crushingly depressing that we’re going to be stuck in some fucked up world for months and months, if not a year or more, as we try to prevent this virus from killing millions of people. I know I will eventually adjust to this and find a way to keep living in a way that doesn’t make me intensely unhappy, but I only have confidence in this because I achieved it after Trump was elected.
Having Trump as our president was every bit as unthinkable to me as it was to be living in a country on near-total lockdown. I couldn’t seriously entertain the idea that Americans might deliberately self-inflict such disaster on themselves and the polling data gave me no real reason for concern. In the two years prior to the 2016 election, not once did Trump poll ahead in my home state of Pennsylvania. When he won nonetheless, I had to go through a long period of adjustment. The worst part was how it made me feel about my fellow citizens. The second worst part was the realization of what I’d have to endure and that it would take so long to get to the point where we could rectify the situation.
But I slowly came to terms with the fact I was going to be going through a thoroughly unpleasant daily grind. And, as I sat down, day after dreadful day to plow my way through, I discovered that what I thought would be intolerable was actually something that I could endure.
Right now, I feel claustrophobic and stir-crazy and incredibly unhappy, but I know that after a few weeks these feelings will begin to subside. In fact, it won’t be as bad as it was with Trump because, with him, I had to fight off the feeling that I was allowing his administration to feel normal. I know that our social distancing isn’t normal. I know that we’ll happily abandon it as soon as we are able. Maybe we’ll even learn to organize our society in a way that is more sensible and robust so that something good can come out of this. This is better than the situation with Trump, because I constantly worry that he is breaking things that will not be fixed.
So, as bad as this is, it’s still not as bad as Trump getting elected.
Wow. I read that headline and said “that is nuts.” Then I thought a bit and read your essay and realized I share your feelings on this. What Trump killed in getting elected was something worse than terrible mishandling of a crisis that will get a lot of people killed. His election killed my faith in America and my fellow citizens.
Just look at that picture of him or recall his mocking of a man with disability and you know he is an evil bastard and will do nothing for you unless he benefits at least as much.
Yup. And we got this shit-fest in the bargain.
I couldn’t agree more. I recall election night. I stayed up until all hope was gone. My family and I suffered through it, unbelievable as it was. I don’t ever want to feel that way again but every time I see this man I cannot understand how he got elected. What sort of people did this to me and are continuing to do it? And now he is about to kill many of us, maybe me and others of my loved ones. Maybe I should be happy that he seems to be taking it seriously. But I don’t believe it. His narcissism won’t ever allow that for long. I know Moscow Mitch and his friends will continue to honor their master in chief. And praise him still as a prophet.
One of my daughters was dealing with a bunch of adolescent MAGAts who were bragging about how they were going to be able to rape girls if Trump got elected. Said daughter required a lot of reassurances on that morning of 11/9/2016 that the laws were still intact and the cops would still enforce them. Comforted her enough to make it to school. The drive to work afterwards was the longest one of my life. Needless to say, I doubt any of us is really the same. As for me, I coped by taking it out on anyone who had anything to do with Trump getting elected, from voting Comrade Jill Stein, to sitting it out, to Demexiting, to well actually voting for Trump. Whatever it takes, I guess. But I’m getting tired. Very tired. This year cannot end fast enough. The thought of knowing people who won’t survive COVID-19 is close to the last straw. And yeah, Trump hasn’t got a clue, nor does Moscow Mitch. We are truly a clusterf*** nation now.
Meh…are you really going to still feel that way when people you know start to die? Because, bad as Trump’s election was, nothing changed in the real world. Everyday life went on the same as before. That’s not the case here.
For me, this feels like the culmination of the dread I felt when Trump was elected. The worry that something could happen with that moron in charge, and then everything really could break down. At the time, this was just an abstract idea. Now the things I feared on that day are not years away, but weeks away.
See, this is a subset of the first dread, which is why the first dread was worse.
While I agree with Booman, I think knowing that 42% of the country has seen how deplorable Trump and his minions are and yet still support him is even worse than both.
“The worst part was how it made me feel about my fellow citizens.” Amen. I honestly hate them and I feel no remorse for it whatsoever.
So maybe now’s the time for me to share what came into my mind at that certain point in the evening of Election Day 2016 when like millions of my countrymen I started getting the sickening realization that Trump was about to become our next president.
It was simply unbelievable … and yet it was happening. I had something very clear in my mind, but I couldn’t put it into words. It took me a while: It was like we were witnessing a miracle … except a miracle is something good — this was the exact opposite. What do you call that? I just couldn’t think of a way to say it in English, only in Yiddish … Gots mishpet af Amerike … God’s judgment on America.
I mentioned this to one small group of friends a day or two later in an e-mail discussion that was not started by me. Nobody responded. I probably didn’t mention it to anyone else except my wife.
There is an expression “Got un zayn mishpet iz gerekht” — God and His judgment is correct. Not that any of us deserved this. But you can’t blame Trump’s election only on the Republicans. It was the logical culmination of everything that’s been fucked up in this country since at least November 22 1963, but really way before that. It’s just that in the early 60s things had started to look up. In fact, I just realized something — it was the same kind of shock that hit me then —except I was a lot younger. Same shock, but not the same interpretation. That wasn’t God’s judgment, that was coming straight from hell.
But yeah, things are changing all right. When Newsweek has its cover story argue in favor of Sanders’ Medicare for All, things are changing.