The Path To the Bottom

So many people tell themselves quietly and share with others publically a simple grave thought:  It will necessarily get worse.  Donald Trump will do something before long that will be even more upsetting, than all the things he’s done in the past.  And like some bullied kid at school the next message necessarily follows:  It won’t matter.  He’ll be forgiven for that too.  At that point in the echo, I tell myself or others that there will be a line.  There will be a “Sir, have you no decency?” moment that signals the end of the nightmare. 

I don’t believe it happened Saturday, when Charlottesville was terrorized and Trump equivocated.   We already knew he’s a fascist sympathizer.  But Saturday, Mr. Trump most assuredly took a few gamely steps downward on the path to the bottom of his Presidency.  Two-dimensional tough-guy who is soft on . . . Nazis.  Nearly impossible it was, to watch as the Nazi sympathies of the President of the United States were in such flagrant display.  Shame on the President.  Shame on anyone who continues to associate themselves with that man.  The Chinese word is “国耻.”  Indeed.  Donald Trump, Trump Administration, you are a source of national humiliation. 

Like many parents, I tried to explain this to my children.  This is a new level of depravity for the current administration.  The Nazi Party, you see, was categorically evil.  People have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in the United States.  But when people terrorize and murder other people exercising those rights, they are criminals and worse, they are the malignant antithesis of everything noble about the nation. 

Like many parents I’m not sure I did the topic justice.  But I suppose they could tell I was upset and offended and sad, and maybe that says more than words.  I told them, as I had during the election cycle that if we were home I would take them to a protest.  I would take them to a march-on-Washington.  I would show them about freedom of assembly and freedom of speech in this fashion.  And we wouldn’t be terrorized into thinking that such places are necessarily dangerous and to be avoided, as that’s what the Nazi’s want.  And that’s no doubt what Heather Heyer told her mom at some point before last Saturday, as well.

Yes, I believe it will get worse again.  He will get worse.  We have more indignities to stand through with this man, before his momentum is finally arrested. 



Monday, 8/14/17