The Mad King

Since first dipping his toes into politics, Donald Trump hasn’t been taken completely seriously. In my heart, I feel like Trump threw out the idea of running for President as a lark, but when the Republican party laughed at the idea he got mad because who were they, or anyone, to tell him he couldn’t have what he wanted.

Trump is a man ruled by his desire and his greed. He sees, he wants, he gets. And he has done those things because he has been enabled by systems that protected him because of his family name, because of his wealth, and because of his standing. You can’t just have famous, rich, White men be punished like a commoner. 

Even into his second Presidency, too many didn’t take Trump seriously, or take him at his word. He has shown who he was – a man who doesn’t respect women, people of color, minorities of any kind, immigrants, or the poor. He is a man who serves only himself and expects everyone else to serve him. He has insulated himself much better this second term with even more true-believer sycophants who have their own axes to grind and prejudices to feed. All of this is under the American flag and under the banner of “Christianity” so that people don’t dare question it, lest they be unpatriotic or un-Christian. 

He wasn’t taken seriously enough, and here we are. 

It’d make you laugh if it weren’t so horrifying. 

His Christian soldiers who scream “what about the children?” and want to shake the Bible at anyone they see as not holy enough are committing blatant idolatry with their near worship of Trump, but none will admit to it. They live in a fantasy where there are enemies everywhere, they are being discriminated against (in a country that shuts down for Christmas and Easter, etc., sure), and they believe that Trump is some sort of god-king savior and not a rich old man out for revenge. 

We are four months into a four-year Presidency, and he is already floating the idea of illegally running again because “people are asking me to run again.” No, they aren’t. He just doesn’t want to relinquish power. And why should he want to? He has forced the Republican party to become the Trump party, and they do as he wishes and remain on their knees until he is done with them. Why leave? He holds not just the nation but the entire world in his power. He may be a puppet of Putin, and a clown to his fellow dictators but he has changed the world in just four months. 

For the worse. 

And where do you start deconstructing it all?

I know many people looking away from it all because how do you take in this much hate and fear? How do you take in this much horror? There feels like little we can do to fight back, and to stand up. Especially with the threat of American citizens being sent to another nation’s forever jail. But we can’t look away completely. 

We don’t dare too because then things will get even worse. 

It’s crushing to know how many support the actions of the President, but then they also happily lie to themselves. People pulled from the street and sent overseas to die in a prison for an opinion are “terrorists” and “deserve it.” People who lose their jobs because an unelected rich man who is working for the government on a lark sees their work as “wasteful,” well, darn it, they don’t deserve to work anyway! People being outright told that discrimination doesn’t exist, even as they suffer from it actively, well, those people are racist against Whites!

The spin is hard to keep track of, but it’s easy to spin everything your way when no one opposes you, your party Amens you, and your followers believe everything you say is literal gospel. 

We keep expecting the Democrats to do something to resist in ANY way, but they have no spine for it. No heart for it. We are seeing how many are like the old guard, like Pelosi, and just cashing checks from a job. Sure, they may not win the day, but they can resist. They don’t have to rubber stamp every insane cabinet choice. It’s as if so many of them are saying – oh, just wait, he’ll screw up and THEN we’ll have him – as if this is an old timey mystery novel. The Dems, especially Biden, are so beholden to how things WERE done and SHOULD be done that the Republicans have lapped them. They were hiring thinktanks and people to tear apart the republic while the Dems were infighting and doing everything they could to resist the likes of AOC and the “new Dems.” 

Once, upon a time, the antics of Greene and Bobert would have relegated them to the rear pages of the news, but they are still in office and as strong as ever. The idea of using permanent detainees of a death prison as a backdrop for clownish PR would have been insane but it’s commonplace now. Again, people are being pulled from the streets by unmarked, secret police that serve only the President and are being disappeared for vague reasons, no show of proof, and are extradited overnight. There’s a reason they do it so quickly, and it’s because there IS no proof. It’s all a sham to get rid of people. 

The United States was a nation that once bragged about being a “melting pot” and welcomed the world to its shores. We offered “the American dream,” and while we have always looked at immigrants with a weary eye, we still welcomed them. No longer. We are for Americans and Americans only. But only the right kind of Americans. Not the rest. 

Every day brings more horror and more insanity. 

Rigging the financial markets for personal gain?

DONE!

Banning books because they may upset someone?

DONE!

Letting unelected, untrained people rifle through our national underwear drawers for change?

DONE!

Cutting funding to arts and education?

DONE!

Telling States that they need to be in charge, only to make demands of them and threaten them?

DONE!

Killing safeguards that protect workers and nature?

DONE!

This Presidency serves one master, and it’s Trump. And Trump cares only about money. He could be retired and enjoying time with his son and grandkids. He could be making a legacy of love, of giving, of anything, but instead he wants more, more more. America is a buffet and he’ll never be full. He’ll just soil himself and keep going because no one tells him “no.” 

The President used to be a figure people aspired to be. It was a rank that we looked at with awe and wonder. Sure, we rarely agreed with Presidents, and lord knows they are messy, messy people, but there was respect for the office and the power. Not anymore. It’s yet another private golf club where Trump can rig the matches so he always wins. He is a liar, a crook, and worse, but our nation doesn’t care. He’s OURS, after all. 

And the hell of it all is, I don’t know what to tell you. 

There’s no easy way out of this. 

There’s no way this doesn’t destroy businesses, lives, families, and our standing as a nation. There’s no way we get out of this unscathed. Trump has sold his soul and the soul of the nation for nothing more than some power that will be gone as soon as he dies. 

What can happen, though, is that the Dems can start resisting. They can start saying “no.” They won’t win the day, but they can fight back. They can remake the party into one that can beat Trumpism. People can open their eyes and support, financially and vocally, the things they love and need as Americans. We can all keep making art and music that matters to us and sings the songs of the unseen. We can keep loving and supporting one another because we need to stay connected and strong. We can fight back as we’re able. 

For my part, I got my friends together to resist in our own way. We put an anthology called “A New Liberty” out and all proceeds go to Planned Parenthood of Michigan. 

It’s a great book and a needed cause. 

I hope you’ll support it and support other creatives fighting back in our own way.

This is a horrifying time, but it’s worse if we just lie down and let it happen. 

Stay strong.

Stay strange. 

…c…