Reflectiions

I've written elsewhere about thinking I had retired from political dissent until the Orange Obscenity won the presidency. I know I wasn't the only person to be profoundly shocked when the results of the 2016 presidential race were announced. Shock quickly turned to alarm, and finally outrage. 

The very thought of Donald Trump, one of the world's most obnoxious and toxic personalities, in the Oval Office turned my stomach. I'm a retired journalist, but I've not read a newspaper nor watched a TV news program since the 2017 inauguration, because any mention of Trump made me angry and disgusted.

I knew I had to find some way to express my rage, or I would explode. On February 1, 2017 I launched the Trump Alphabet Project on Facebook, inviting everyone to come up with a daily adjective to describe Trump, beginning with A and running through the alphabet. It was a bit lighthearted, but provided an outlet for a surprising number of people. There were some among my "friends" who were already into the Trump Kool-Aid pretty deep, who expressed their displeasure--some with surprising acerbity. I was surprised and a bit saddened, but it was clear that lines were being drawn.

About the time we hit T I was still seething, and knew I had to find another outlet. The world of blogs and blogging was foreign to me, but it seemed a reasonable way to express my anger in essays of some length, so I looked up my old buddy Diogenes, and on February 28, 2017 we inaugurated the Vox Populi blog, of which he has over time become the principal writer.

That run of Vox went through November 3, 2018. It was mostly anti-Trump, but also looked at other subjects, including the unpresident's confrontation with Bashar al-Assad, the policies of the Democratic National Committee, and a four-part piece on the dangers of stored nerve gas.

Following the 2018 election we went dark, feeling that we had finally said all we had to say at the time, although our anger had not entirely subsided. We returned, perhaps fittingly, on April Fools Day of this year when it became clear that Trump and his actions (I can hardly say policies) were becoming increasingly dangerous.

At the time we supported Bernie Sanders for president, believing that his brashness and chutzpah would counter Trump's bluster. When Bernie left the primary race we shifted our allegiance to Joe Biden, not without misgivings. We have said many times that Democrats, and particularly the DNC, play too nice, and need to counter the Republican fire with fire of their own. We thought that Joe Biden was too mild to excite voters.

We were also skeptical of his choice of a woman, regardless of race, as his running mate. We knew that Hillary had won the popular vote in 2016, but we also knew how militant Trump's followers had become, and were afraid the choice of a woman would hurt Biden's chances.

We we wrong on both counts; decency trumped belligerence, and Kamala Harris turned out to be the perfect choice. During the candidates' victory speeches I felt a weight lift off me. I know what a cliche that is, but it's the best metaphor to describe the feeling. I still feel the lightness and excitement that came over me watching the spontaneous celebrations taking place in several cities. America was happy again.

In his victory speech Biden quoted the hymn "On Eagles' Wings." It was a good choice in that context, but the hymn that's been running through my head is "Once To Ev'ry Man and Nation." Here are the lyrics of the first verse: "Once to ev'ry man and nation/Comes the moment to decide,/In the strife of truth and falsehood,/For the good or evil side;/Some great cause, some great decision,/Off'ring each the bloom or blight,/And the choice goes by forever/'Twixt that darkness and that light."

We, the people of the United States of America, have made the choice for light and turned away darkness. I genuinely believe Trump to be an evil force; we've not seen the end of him, but we've removed him from power. As he himself predicted, we've turned a corner.

Going forward I expect we'll be considering the unpresident's actions at least through January 20, but I foresee a lot more time looking at the positive developments of the transition period.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Richard Brown, 11/10/2020