~a column by Colleen O’Brien
The thing about Trump that offends me most is not Trump himself – difficult to tell myself because of his childish obnoxiousness, his physical rudeness, his quick oral nastiness, his illiteracy about the country he lives in and especially the Constitution it lives by, his braggadocio, his petty cheating, his vicious lack of heart – it is this: No one in charge in this country has had the courage to charge him with lying in such a gross and constant steam it has turned half the country against the other half. Is this not liable behavior worse than shouting fire in a crowded theater?
Trump is the never-shuts-up enemy within. Many of us know this, people without authority have known it…but why is it that not one of them has managed to shut him up . . . starting with the legacy press, who simply printed everything he said, without comment or explanation on their part?
Oh, he’s been impeached twice, but the Republican Senators – spineless or only plain greedy – reneged on indicting him. He swaggered back to his golf tee, bolder each time.
Even his 34 felonies did not happen until it was too close to the election to make him pay all the money, go to prison and be shut up.
I still do not understand it, any of it. I think the psychologists and psychiatrists have explained it – too late for anyone to do anything about him, though? I don’t think so: Why not now, today? What’s the delay?
Maybe it makes no difference at this late date anyway. The damage is done, and few smart people can figure out how we’re going to become the “united” states again, no matter who wins the general election. Since the Republicans are so masterful at Gerrymandering, we’ll just all live together like extremely odd-shaped puzzle pieces, speaking to no one next door, but waving to the house two doors down, where the puzzle pieces are the same as mine.
Sounds weird and inconvenient, but we do it now – we have become accustomed to it in neighborhoods, in our families, at work. A country split asunder but living cheek by jowl, ghosting those adjacent to us, tiptoeing carefully around to get to the ones we can speak to honestly.
A troubling end to what we thought we were working toward – a solid coming to terms with one another; agreeing and disagreeing; coming to sane and friendly conclusions – a new world order of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Not this time around; how many centuries before we come close again to those three innocent letters – D E I – that so inflamed the trumpsters?
