This November a new generation of young Americans will vote for the first time, including Donald Trump’s son, Barron. Trump has been on the scene for nine years now. As Barron’s BFF Bo Loudon says, “I’ve supported ‘President’ Trump my entire life,” — meaning since he was nine and yes, if you’re 18, nine years is your entire life for all intents and purposes. Besides those two, will be many millions more. This is all “normal” to these kids. It’s normal to have vulgarians who use profanity in the halls of Congress when they’re not pushing conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers and forest fires. It’s normal to have a pillow manufacturer spearhead the delivery of legal paperwork directly to the Supreme Court to “overturn” a “stolen election.” All this blatant abnormality is now normal. This is the price that we have already paid for the GOP’s malfeasance in putting the TV game show host on the top of their ticket. So what indeed are we going to tell our children?
— Rob Johnson (@llccar1) June 11, 2024
This is the new normal, right here. This is a man, who will turn 78 on Friday, and who has the mind of an adolescent boy. And this is the best that the Republican party can come up with by way of a candidate to lead our nation in its highest office.
FUCK RIGHT OFF you fat, lying, twice impeached, insurrection-inciting, treasonous, felonious, porn star raw-dogging, hush-money paying, Russia-colluding, Putin-loving, Constitution-defying, classified documents-stealing, Adderall-snorting MOTHERFUCKER!!
pic.twitter.com/qKPeKI9ilc— cαηα∂α нαтεs тя☭мρ (@Trump_Detester) June 8, 2024
This is also the new normal. The minute this story broke a few days ago I knew that this is where it was headed. It’s a no brainer. This, right here, is why the country is in the mess it’s in.
And that is how it has been from the first day, when Trump came down the escalator with Melania, dressed in virginal white, to the sounds of paid extras cheering. It was a farce and a hoax then, it is an even bigger farce and a hoax now. COVID killed over 1.1 million Americans. That was due to Trump botching it. He knew of the existence of the virus in the world since the previous October, October of 2019. He had already gutted the pandemic response unit in the White House, figuring that they were unnecessary and he could rehire them in a minute, like they were cleaning ladies at Mar-a-Lago. Wrong.
America has paid a hefty price for the Trump era, on so many levels. But it may well turn out to be that the heaviest price of all is the destruction of civility and norms in our public discourse and in both chambers of Congress. Back in the 50’s, after Joseph McCarthy took his bash at undermining faith in American institutions with his Red Scare, commie-under-the-bed tactics, he was finally asked, “Have you no decency, Sir? At long last, have you no decency?”
That was a wake up call. That was heard on some level, perhaps by the better angels of our nature, as Lincoln put it. And that was the beginning of the end of McCarthy and his witch hunt era. McCarthy ended up holed up in an office building in Washington, D.C. with a blonde, a gun and a case of scotch. He couldn’t live in an apartment or house because so many people wanted to kill him. Great way to live, huh? He died not too long afterwards of cirrhosis of the liver.
Trump is cut from the same bolt of cloth and he won’t have a good ending either. His “end” is not going to stop at the polls in November — although it must stop there, or it will be our end, collectively. I believe that after he loses and the other three criminal trials take place that he will be convicted in all of them. And then we’ll see justice be done. Finally.
But as to the larger issue, can America ever go back to its pre-Trump status? No. I say so definitively because a pickle never goes back to being a cucumber, the genie never goes back into the bottle. We have gone through a transformation here. I believe that, in the fullness of time, we can make changes and better ourselves. Self improvement and growth is always possible and should be our goal.
But there is no living down of Trump. This is now a part of American history, like Nixon and Watergate except much much worse. He is part of our identity. Once again, my favorite quote: “It’s almost impossible to believe that he exists. It’s as if you took everything that was bad about America, scraped it off the floor, stuffed it inside an old hot dog skin. and taught it to make noises with its face.” Trump is our collective underbelly. Trump is the Republican id. Trump is the ugly American. He represents the worst of the worst at their worst. And this is what we’re going to have to explain to our children. Because if we don’t, then this is not only who we were during this era and who some of us are now, this is who we’re going to stay. And then America as we know it will be gone.
Forcefully and transparently truthful article, Ursula. Logical and well written. It’s going to take time and effort to get this hideous stain out of decency, if it does not want to be an accepted part of the ‘normal fabric’ of the younger generation’s politics.
“…can America ever go back to its pre-Trump status? No.”
OTOH, we had some sort of civility before tRump, although diminished after Newt Gingrich’s 1994 BS. And that period after McCarthy and after Nixon put the dolts back under their rocks for a while. But they’re always there. Remember the biggest rocks they came out from under in 1861-65? Maybe we need bigger and heavier rocks.
“Maybe we need bigger and heavier rocks.”
Dropped on them from greater heights?
Let’s get over our hubris about how goddamn smart the homo sapien species has convinced ourselves that we are, versus the rest of the animal kingdom. I wouldn’t worry about a little thing called politics, economics, etc. If Trump manages to repeat his 2016 steal, and the fossil fuel industry is greenlighted to step on the unregulated gas so to speak, we are doomed. That’s a scientic fact. There is a tipping point of no return somewhere out there. We will go extinct, so tell your children we didn’t have the guts to stop it, and good phucking luck with the little time they will have left before we become Venus. Dark? Suicide always is. Heroin addicts know the end will come someday if they don’t stop. We evidently are addicted to material comfort no matter the cost. We are a culture addicted to fantasies of fame and fortune no matter the cost of a new SUV every other year. We are now, evidently addicted to lies that comfort us versus the realities that make us uncomfortable. The bill will come due quickly once this lying fascist steals power so billionaires can have bigger yachts, houses, and bank accounts. We have ONE PHUCKING SHOT TO STOP IT…ONE. There weren’t multiple D-days…only ONE. VOTE. That way you can tell your children you stopped it by being a true member of global humanity and you VOTED FOR BIDEN AND DEMOCRACY. VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Dead On!!!
The magats have done one good thing–they have shown just how untrustworthy and unreliable social media has become. There are people posting on these asinine platforms who admit they are posting bullshit and yet the magats swallow it all as if it were Von Shitzinpants’ teeny weeny penis. Now, magats aren’t going to learn the lesson since they are incapable of learning anything but hopefully others who visit s.m. sites now know they cannot trust anything that comes from these platforms. xitter isn’t dead enough yet so hopefully this will stab it, hack it, and bury the remains in a deep and dark hole and cover the hole with reinforced concrete so it never escapes. and good riddance to putrid garbage.