How To Move Forward When You Can't Even Breathe

This is the hand we’ve been dealt by an electorate drunk on propaganda, misogyny, and rage.

Kamala Harris supporters at Howard University, DC. Image: Angela Weiss/ABC

by Justin R.

It’s been a week since cruelty and rage secured yet another victory. The monsters have won and they have promised a future of violence and sadism and lawlessness. They’ve learned the lessons from Trump’s first four years of corruption and they’re prepared to go further, faster and destroy as much of America as they can as quickly as possible.

So how do you move forward when you can hardly breathe?

I cannot tell you how to feel. Or how to process this. Or even that you should. That is for you to decide in your own time. It may take a week. It may take a month. You may decide to walk away for the next four years, unable to cope with the enormity of it all, although I would urge you not to do that. Looking away only means you will not see the train rushing towards you or a loved one until it’s too late.

But I can tell you this: this is not the first time we have been here. Cruel and malicious people have taken control of this country before. They have enacted their selfish agenda and inflicted great harm on the people and politics of this nation more than once. 

It never lasts. The weak and the stupid and the vicious always destroy themselves. The same rot that brings them fleeting victory inevitably causes their downfall. They cannot stop it any more than a moth can stop itself from flying into a flame and burning to death. 

Republicans don’t govern. Because they can’t

Republicans, especially modern Republicans, are inherently corrupt and incapable of governing. They cannot govern because their base of rabidly racist cretins elect fellow rabidly racist cretins, but also because the core of Republican ideology is that governing does not work.

That means even the elected Republicans whose family trees have branches will not govern. They could if they wanted to. Republicans 60 years ago governed. Not always with zeal or sincerity but they didn’t actively go out of their way to let the country burn until Reagan. Even Nixon created the EPA while launching the War on Drugs.

Since then, every Republican president has worked to undermine the rule of law and the constitution. They’re very good at it but that also means they’re very bad at everything else. International crises? Botched. Natural Disaster? Made worse. Pandemic? Half a million dead. Economic collapse? Utter panic.

For the last two years, Republicans controlled the House and could not pass a single budget of their own. They couldn’t raise the debt ceiling to avoid an economic catastrophe without help from the Democrats. They couldn’t even fund the government for a few months without Democrats doing most of the work for them.

It’s important to understand that while Republicans campaign on the message of “elect us, only we can fix it!”, in reality, they are loathe to fix anything, ever.

That is what we are facing for the next four years. A daunting task, to be sure. But a somewhat predictable one. Republicans will take Joe Biden’s miracle economy and destroy it. They will botch every natural disaster that occurs, as they did during Trump’s first term. They will make a mockery of foreign relations and alienate all of our allies, as they did before.

This will not be a popular opinion but we better pray Donald Trump doesn’t pardon himself and then quit six months from now. Or have a stroke. Or choke on a Big Mac with extra ketchup. Why? Because his replacement, the Silicon Valley backed neo-fascist JD Vance, is more dangerous than you can possibly imagine.

The coming chaos

Within a year, Elon Musk and RFK Jr. will have worn out their welcome. Steve Bannon will be in jail. The White House will be rife with infighting and all of the chaos and palace intrigue that Trump thrives on. In this context, “thrive” does not mean “flourish” or “to do well.” Trump thrives on chaos the way a cancer thrives by killing its host. Republicans will want a smooth, well-oiled fascist machine dismantling the government and the rule of law.

Trump finds smooth and well-oiled boring. That’s why he turned the last four months of his campaign into a circus. He will do exactly the same thing to the country because that’s all he knows how to do and as his mind continues to disintegrate at an accelerating pace, Trump will undermine everything his own fascist government is trying to accomplish. And the more people like Elon Musk try to control him, the more Trump will lash out in petty temper tantrums. One does not contradict the Mad King.

The hand we’ve been dealt

Republicans have let a toddler take control of their party and rode his racism and misogyny to power. Now they’re stuck with him and so are we. But even as they douse our nation in gasoline and light the match, take comfort in the fact that Republicans will be ordered to set themselves on fire for Trump’s amusement too. And they’ll do it because they have no choice. 

It’s not an ideal situation but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt by an electorate drunk on propaganda, misogyny, and rage. This is what they wanted and now they get to reap the rewards of slitting their own throats.

When it’s all over, Democrats pick up the pieces, like they always do, and put it all back together, like they always do. Maybe next time, the imbeciles who joyfully elected a convicted felon, rapist, traitor, deranged man-child, and confessed pervert will just stay home in shame and leave us the hell alone.

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