Two years ago I was shocked that the American electorate fell for a lying flim-flam man to be the leader of their country. It was only later I would learn of the involvement of a foreign nation in helping sow the sentiment via social media that helped elect the 45th President. But, all that Foreign Country did was sow the sentiment. The sentiment was there, the hate, the fear, the greed. That realization was a cold blow after eight years of Obama and hoping a new era had been ushered in. Little did I know the hate had simply been brushed under the rug and was just waiting for some hot air to blow it back into the open.

In those two years, my worst fears of his administration have come true but a hardy 40% of the electorate continued to support this President, meaning I was out of touch with a large percentage of Americans. I could understand 15 – 20% because hating anyone, not like you has always been an American passion but 40% alarmed me. The flat out lying every time he opened his mouth is incredibly bizarre.

If President Trump’s torrent of words has seemed overwhelming of late, there’s a good reason for that.

In the first nine months of his presidency, Trump made 1,318 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day. But in the seven weeks leading up the midterm elections, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims — an average of 30 a day.

 The love affair with totalitarian governments while being confrontational with traditional Democratic allies were more signs for me that our President would simply like to be Putin and not Reagan. 

Even after they destroyed thousands of families who came here only seeking asylum so they could send a message to those who would make such a trip. Stay home or we will rip your family apart. We are not the answer to your trouble. You’d think Christians would have been appalled.  I was wrong, these asylum seekers were brown and poor weren’t after all Citizens so do unto them whatever you feel like because evidently, the New Testament was all about protecting National borders. Who knew?

Even after White Nationalist after White Nationalist commits murder and mayhem in his name. 

n Monday, an attorney representing Patrick Eugene Stein, one of three men convicted of plotting to bomb Somali refugees, filed an explosive memo in U.S. District Court in Kansas. Stein, his lawyer argued, should receive a more lenient sentence because he was inspired by then-candidate Donald Trump. “The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful, and contentious presidential elections in modern history,” attorney Jim Pratt wrote, “driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president.”

Anyway, unless you live under a rock you already know all of this.  What I had hoped was that our country would have come to their senses and that these midterms would be a referendum on our Presidents corrupt to the core administration.  Checks and balances were restored to 1/2 of the legislative portion of our branch of government when the House was taken back by the Democrats. If Speaker Ryan had done his job, had treated Trump like he would have treated Hillary Clinton, the checks and balances would have been working but when the Legislative branch does nothing, the system does not work. That was the least outcome I desired, and I got that. But I didn’t’ get enough and the thought-provoking writer Sarah Kendzior summed up eloquently how I was feeling last night.

If the midterms were a test of the country’s character, Americans failed | ⁦@sarahkendzior⁩ continues to speak with clarity and nuance; refreshing in the onslaught of takes on the election, and the socio-political state of the US in general https://t.co/xEpVsOrSTU

— Sarah Jankowitz (@SarahJanks) November 7, 2018

We gained something yesterday, and for the first time in two years, I feel we may be back on the path toward the hopes of Lady Liberty that our country constantly strays from whenever someone feels the need to fan Nationalistic fears.

As a child, the New Colossus poem written for Lady Liberty spoke much more to me than any constitution. We were the good guys. At least I thought we were. The reality is that we were never as good as we thought we were. We have always had the folk that Sarah Kendzior writes about except now we seem to have all of them at the same time.

Our national character is bifurcated anguish. Our national character feels like it’s possessed by every hellish ghost of American history: white supremacist patriarchs, gilded age swindlers, paranoid McCarthyists, Know-Nothings and Klansmen and con artists and terrorists. These dark impulses were always there, as American as the impulse to form a more perfect union and to fear nothing but fear itself. Nowadays, maybe we fear ourselves the most.

New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Anyway, my gratitude goes out to every person who actually works at making the American Democracy a thing. I’m not a doer but I sure admire those of you who are.

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