June 3, 2017
It is an article of faith that humans are complicated beings, capable of both great good and devastating evil. We are taught that no one is all good or all bad and that even the most flawed human beings have redeeming qualities. Trump and his administration contradict that benign view on an almost hourly basis. The vindictiveness, dishonesty and cruelty behind every decision, large and small, are confounding. We vainly search for a shred of human decency or morality, only to come up empty, time and time again.
We think, “Trump values loyalty,” only to realize that with him, it is a one-way street. He demands fealty and delights in embarrassing and slighting those who, like Sean Spicer, debase themselves for him on a daily basis. We think, “Trump loves his daughter, Ivanka,” and then we remember how he has sexualized her and ignored her (alleged) pleas to remain in the Paris Accord. Trump’s dishonesty is so comprehensive that he can contradict himself within the same paragraph.
We search for any indication that Trump and his closest advisors are capable of putting the needs of the American people before the needs of their own balance sheets, but find none. Our credulous media reaches to find something positive to say about Trump and his villainous coterie, leading to absurd articles such as the recent piece deeming Ivanka the “most powerful Jewish woman in America,” completely ignoring such consequential women with actual legally specified power such as Justices Bader-Ginsburg and Kagan or Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. It is an exercise in futility to search for evidence of an appreciation for nuance from this administration. They wield policy like a blunt instrument with which to club all but a favored few.
It is difficult to find parallels to this administration’s unrelenting destructiveness outside of the mythical worlds of superhero films or religious texts. The struggle to make sense of the bewildering onslaught of calamitous decisions is enervating and it is easy to feel like powerless spectators to a particularly dark installment of the Batman franchise. That is what Trump, Steve Bannon and their minions are counting on. They hope that we will be too despondent to keep marching, to run for office or even to go out and vote. We cannot afford to cede what authority remains to this mob of miscreants. We still have power and if we want to keep it, we have to exercise it.
MARCH: Today, Saturday, June 3, 2017. March For Truth, Washington, D.C. and various locations around the country
VOTE: Tuesday, June 6, 2017 for Jim Johnson in the New Jersey Gubernatorial Primary
MARCH: Sunday, June 11, 2017 – National Equality March for LGBTQ folks and allies Washington, D.C. and cities around the country
VOTE: Tuesday, June 20th, 2017 for Jon Ossof in the Georgia 6th Congressional District Runoff Election