I'm Struggling to Write About What Is Taking Place in Our Country
I scream, but to be honest, I am getting hoarse.
I haven’t been writing as much lately. I used to produce one article and sometimes two every day. Of the thousands of articles I have written over the past few years, the vast majority of them are written with passion and a sense of urgency. I used to feel that if I didn’t get these words onto “paper,” and before the eyes of my fellow citizens of the world, then calamity would strike.
Well, guess what. Calamity did strike. A large portion of our country demonstrated last November several things: They are hopelessly selfish, and eternally intellectually lazy, if not outright stupid. The massive coalition of the silly, independents, libertarians, Arab-Americans, students, some Black Americans, some Hispanic Americans, and even a handful of gay Americans rejected Kamala Harris by either not voting at all or casting votes for Donald Trump. Now, six months after he has retaken power, many of those dopes are “shocked” at how bad he is.
I wrote before the election, and have written many times since about, “What did they expect?” Why would anyone expect that, as bad as he was during his first term, he could do any better if given a second term? Donald Trump didn’t seek mental health help after his effort to overthrow the U.S. government failed on January 6th, 2021. He didn’t meditate and align his body and mind in an attempt to become a better and kinder human being. He rotted like pus in a wound for four years, spewing venom and hate, while focusing all of his efforts on profiteering off his role as head of the Republican Party.
Trump retook the White House after running a campaign of hate and open promises to turn the country into an authoritarian-style government with him as dictator. While Trump has hit his ceiling for development in terms of being a future Putin, the transformation of our society, thanks to an army of people behind the scenes carrying out the fascist coup, proceeds unabated. The transformation will have the kind of lasting effects that a mass shooting has on the survivors. Some people who survive shootings in supermarkets and movie theaters (and churches, schools, fast food restaurants, night clubs, parks) find they can’t ever go back to those places without experiencing PTSD.
Since January 20th, we have seen the kind of assault on our government and freedoms that one would expect from an occupying power. I have written many articles comparing this moment to many similar ones I saw in Russia from 1992 to 2022. I have demonstrated how this moment is remarkably similar to the Germany of the 1930s, and how the refusal to draw on that historical resource is a testament to ignorance. Most conservatives and, oddly, some on the far left refuse to accept that we are in our Germany 1933 moment, heading rapidly for our own “enabling act.” Whether or not such an act is ever passed, the Republican-controlled Congress enables the rot to take place.
As I write and scream like a living version of Edward Munch, the events of yesterday, with all of my rage, indignation, and desire to resist the coup, inevitably get washed away like my son’s sandcastles, which he constructs too close to the shoreline. Today, I woke up to read about how the Justice Department is suing the University of Virginia, demanding that the university president be fired because the university’s DEI programs are not being dismantled quickly enough.
Then, I listened to how the so-called Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said these words:
“President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history.”
There is nothing I can write to express how f****** insane that assessment is. And yet, the “retarded” brains of the the MAGA cult is being seeded with this lie, and soon enough Trump’s disgusting face will appear on Mount Rushmore or some other rock face.
Steve Bannon has consistently told anyone who will listen that if we are overhwhelmed by shit, we will eventually stop complaining about the shit itself and focus more on the smell, or the stains it leaves on the carpet. The shit, however, will remain floating endlessly around us and because it’s so much, we just wade through it. That’s how I’m beginning to feel.
The Justice Department no longer protects Americans but prosecutes anyone not aligned with the MAGA cult. The Defense Department is turning its resources against American citizens and leaving us vulnerable to enemy attacks. Homeland Security, what can I say? It’s fascism.
You see where I am going with this? I find it an exercise in futility to keep writing about what happened yesterday, knowing that what will happen tomorrow or the next day will be worse. And like a good sourdough starter, tomorrow’s consistency depends on today’s proper feeding of flour and water. The behind-the-scenes army of fascists carrying out Trump’s coup is methodically feeding it with precise amounts of chaos to ensure that, sooner or later, any budding resistance will be overwhelmed and then crushed.
We are here because Joe Biden didn’t quit early enough. We are here because of a lot of stupid and lazy Americans. We are here.
I am struggling, like I am sure many of us are. I just needed to express this state of mind to you all. Now, I will do my best to keep up the fight.