~by Colleen O’Brien
The past 20 months did me in. I was both hopeful and frightened about the Midterms—hoping for liberal seats taking over the Senate and House, fearful of the military and ICE at voting sites.
At 5 am on Wednesday, Nov. 4 – with the vote count going on for up to two to four weeks in some states – Democrats, both ordinary and Social, and Independents have won 20 seats in the House and seven in the Senate.
These newly elected folks may save the country.
We can now take to task, and to jail, Trump and all who have behaved like they’ve either been physically whipped by Trump or bribed beyond their wildest dreams.
During all these months, I was looking for a charismatic leader who would round us up and tell us what to do.
I found a few really good speakers: Josh Turek in Iowa sounded like a real person and gave me hope; Rob Sand, also in Iowa, made sense as a non-radical, pragmatic low key; Sherrod Brown in Ohio was easy-going, sensible and had been in the Senate before – great guy; Ashley Acton, running for governor of Ohio with needed plans for the citizens of that state, withstood mean, horrible ads by her opponent; Obama, of former presidential fame, encouraged us and behind the scenes taught people how to work at good politics, but he did not lead us. Senator Schumer, House minority leader Jeffries and the rest of the Senate and House talked and did nothing: milk toast all of them.
The lack of a charismatic leader was disheartening if not paralyzing. Trump and his criminal money grabbing, his cruelty in applauding the thuggery of ICE, his starting a war with the bombing of a girls’ school, his killing of innocent fishermen in the Caribbean, his creepiness to women . . . and toward the end, to men and their butts. All of it made me dread the morning news.
Each day it was one more mean thing he’d done – chain sawing 150-year-old trees – 470 of them; ruining the symmetrical beauty of the White House; gilding everything he touched; chumming with Putin; saying ugly things to reporters; lying about the war, the economy, the price of gas, who his friends were, what a genius he was…. It was awful.
I suppose it will remain so for the next two years if we don’t get rid of him soon.
The Midterm results have been a lesson for me. Have hope in people, Col. It was us, the people, who saved us in the end.
So, it will be us who take charge of what happens to those who have no respect for the law and no concern for others, let alone history, or the planet or other countries and the varied peoples who live on this planet, in our country and every place else.
The people of America, as irritated in the year 2026 as our forebearers were in 1776 with an inept, greedy, stupid and cruel guy in charge, revisited the first words of that Constitution and are taking them to heart:
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, [re]establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide [wisely] for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves AND OUR POSTERITY . . . .”
We have stepped up to shake off the unbelievability of a Trump in our country and brought to life those very first words of a Constitution devised to be altered, updated with the centuries . . . and the brand-new idea of what “We the people” actually means. Then and Now. Congratulations, America. We may survive the worst administration in the history of our country and proceed into the future with the enlightened idea of pledging to our country and “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
