So we are a mere six weeks out from a midterm election here in the United States. Normally this would not be an event of note. Normally we wouldn’t care that much. Normally turnout would be scrapping the bottom of the barrel. However we are now living in times that can be described with many adjectives and normal is not one of them.
The primary reason for this is simple: Donald J. Trump. By all classical standards, he is a dumpster fire of a human being. In the best case scenario he was friends with the world’s most infamous child sexual predator for well over a decade. In the worst case scenario he aided, abetted and maybe even participated in the rape of children. I can’t tell you that the worst case scenario is accurate. I can’t tell you it isn’t. That’s because during campaign, Trump teased people by suggesting he might release the Epstein related materials to the public if elected, refused to do so until his hand was forced by a veto-proof super-majority in both chambers of Congress. That law should’ve been the end of the discussion and the files, properly redacted of course, should’ve all been released.
They were not properly redacted and a huge number of them were not released. Congress has for the most part turned a blind eye to this. Congress (aka the Legislative branch) is supposed to act as a check and a balance to the Trump Administration (aka the Executive branch). By turning a blind eye to this they are abdicating their own power in exchange for keeping an ever more tenuous grasp on the dwindling portion of their power which still remains.
However we are just getting started. Trump has violated every possible portion of the oath he took upon taking office. Trump has betrayed this country. Trump has squandered decades of goodwill bestowed upon us by our allies. Trump has used his position to maximize his own personal gain. Trump has abused the power of office to seek revenge over a long series of personal grievances he has with numerous governments, organizations and individuals. Trump has waged wars and wasted the lives of foreign nationals and our own volunteer military for no stated reason that makes even a lick of sense.
The truth is that Donald Trump cares about nobody but himself. He is a malignant narcissist. No I’m not qualified to make such a diagnosis. But others who are actually qualified have done so and I’m deferring to them. Trump embodies a unique amalgamation of all of the very worst qualities that humanity tends to try and suppress. Until now that is.
As if that wasn’t enough, Trump has managed to find a way to make this even worse. He is openly attempting to steal the midterm elections. He has attempted to do this by attempting to get rid of mail-in voting. He also attempted to do this previously using voter suppression tactics embedded in the SAVE act which even his chief toadie, Mike Johnson, couldn’t manage to get passed. Not even the GOP could hold their nose long enough to get this steaming pile of fascist and autocratic shit passed.
But it won’t stop there. Nope. Trump cannot accept a loss for the midterms. He will not stop. We’ve already watched him attempt to stage a coup the last time he was on the losing side of an election, and I have absolutely no doubt that he’s willing to go to this length again. This time it will be far worse though. Instead of a bunch of loud mouth MAGA morons gathering at the capital, the motherfucker has an army now. He has been training ICE in American cities by having them terrorize their fellow citizens and has allowed them to operate with complete impunity. He has even gone so far as to deploy the national guard against their fellow citizens in an attempt to suppress protests and peaceful dissent.
Donald Trump does not believe in Democracy. It bears repeating that he is a malignant narcissist. He only believes in himself. What makes this situation even worse is that it has become rather obvious that he has begun a trip down the road of dementia. Just read his Truth Social feed. He’s a fucking mad man. Nay… that’s the wrong term. He has now become our Mad King, or at least, he’s very close to getting there.
He can be stopped. But time and opportunities are running out. The first step is to crush him and his party of spineless power hungry craven enablers in the midterms. Yes I hear you. The Democrats aren’t much better. They have sit back and let most of this happen while making only pittance attempts to push back. They have been and continue to be a terrible opposition party. In addition Jeffries and Schumer are terrible leaders and basically akin to infamous UK Prime Minister who allowed Hitler to run rampant: Neville Chamberlain. Individually there are some great Democrats. However on the whole they are weak and somewhat craven. Nevertheless, we have no better option. It’s not enough to oppose Trump, we need to unify those efforts and the Democrats are the best avenue we have for that.
Editor Jay Note: If Trump is still somehow on the ballot in the election after this one (directly or indirectly), it won’t be worth voting again as it will be for show and the freedom represented by having an election will have been lost. Even barring that the chances of me voting for a Democrat after this election are basically zero. I’m tired of voting for a half-hearted opposition that goes nowhere. They exist merely to point out how bad the Republicans are. In the not so distant future we can and must do better.
However no matter how overwhelming the victory, the Democrats winning won’t be enough. Once Trump is crushed, he’ll retaliate. The bigger the can of whup ass that is unleashed on him in November, the worse his response will be. There are a lot of people out there who think that once he loses the midterms, he’ll either slink away or suddenly lose the radiating glamour that keeps all of his enablers in line. This is naive and it will not play out that way.
On election day I expect to hear about ICE terrorists and National Guardsmen being strategically deployed to polling places in at risk voting districts in an effort to quell anti-Trump turnout. If and when that doesn’t work, I expect he’ll immediately declare fraud on the night of the election, likely even before all of the polls close. I think after that things will likely escalate quickly. Possibly in the form of FBI raids on state election commission offices in an attempt to seize control of the ballots.
Once that is done, the subsequent “recounts” will of course reveal massive amounts of make-believe fraud and Trump will declare victory. He will also declare war on all of those who legitimately opposed him or attempted to “steal” the election.
We are on the cusp people. Trump does not care about you. He doesn’t care about us. He doesn’t even give a shit about the members of his MAGA cult. Everybody to Trump is either an element that benefits him in some current or future transaction or their existence is irrelevant. If your existence is irrelevant to him, he has no problem tossing a black bag over your head and dropping you off in some country you may not even have heard of before that moment. He has shown us this. He was done this to our fellow citizens. We have let it happen.
We should be ashamed. The ascension and continuing reign of Trump is the most sure sign yet that our country is on the decline. We are spiraling the proverbial toilet. We could stop this, but until we start being honest with ourselves about where we are at and how badly it’s going, that’s impossible.
I won’t speak much to the cult (aka MAGA) that continues to feed his black hole of an ego. They are clearly delusional but there isn’t much I can do about that. I will however say to any of them who happened to read this and make it to this point: It is never too late to do the right thing. It is never too late to make a better choice. Be honest with yourselves and do the right thing by abandoning Trump. Don’t do this by staying home on election day. Do it by voting for the opposition. Deny him both your vocal and your silent consent. We are better than this. We includes each and every one of you.
What’s that I hear? “Jay has Trump Derangement Syndrome”. No, I don’t. The actual derangement lies somewhere between pretending the world has gotten better under Trump and pretending that Trump hasn’t shown us just how terrible he actually is multiple times each and every day for what seems like a lifetime now. If you are still onboard with Trump, you are the one suffering from derangement. You can change this anytime you’d like. Only the truth can set you free.
One last thing I’d like to leave wayward conservatives, who happened to read this far, with is the following questions: What do you actually believe in? Whatever it is, Donald Trump doesn’t believe in it. What are your principles? Whatever they are, Donald Trump doesn’t abide by them. What good would you like to see proliferated throughout the world? Whatever it is, Donald Trump isn’t going to be the one who spreads it. That’s because Donald Trump doesn’t believe in anything other than satisfying whatever impulse he happens to be consumed with at the moment. Conservatives on the whole used to be principled people. I respect principled people. While I can’t claim to always agree with your principles, we could at least try to talk and discuss things rationally. Every once in awhile we would even make progress. I miss those days.
I used to have conservative friends. I don’t anymore. January 6th marked a breaking point for me with the handful of them I still had on my contact list after suffering through Trumps first term. I asked each one of them what they thought about that event and their responses were universally disappointing, and thus we parted ways. I still wish them all the best and I hope to rediscover my long lost friends somewhere down the road. I miss them.
That having been said, the truth is that we won’t get rid of Trump by wishing he’d go away. We won’t get rid of him by voting him out. He has no intention of relinquishing power ever again. If we want to regain it, we will have to take it. What form that reclamation takes remains to be seen. Perhaps we’ll talk more about that in a few months after the shit really hits the fan.
Until then: Stay strong, stay safe and stay sane.