Goodbye 45, Hello 46

Did you always think you'd survive the Trump years?  I mean, right from the start?

I did not.  I was particularly vulnerable when Trump was first elected, having just had surgery after a year and a half of a growing illness.  It was serious.  I was a bit unmoored.   

Do you know I never watched Hillary Clinton's concession speech?  And I never will.  I watched all of those debates.  Those awful, degrading debates where Trump created misogynistic spectacles and the media gloried in it. 

Finally someone was going to put that bitch in her place.  Something the ne'er-do-wells in the media had been unable to accomplish for decades, despite their most malicious efforts.  Oh, Chuck Todd was so happy.  And Matt Lauer...Lauer "interviewed" Don the Con on the latter's private plane during the campaign.  And I do use the word loosely.  

Melania was standing there. It wasn't an actual interview.  It was a drooling pervert panting over a woman whose nudes he had probably jerked off on, and practically high fiving her equally perverted husband.  

Lauer attacked Hillary every chance he got, and considering his position at the time, chances were many.  But he never took her down, and now he got to watch "The Don'" slap that bitch around.  Stalk her around the stage.  Threaten to put her in chains and throw her in prison.

He must have had at least one hand down his pants.  But he wasn't alone.  

I watched all of  those debates because I felt I owed it to Hillary, but by time the concession speech came, I had been cut open and sewn back together, and I was so tired.  

America took the worth of a life long conman who bragged about grabbing pussies and of a woman who dedicated her life to public service and especially, to improving the lives of children, and they said yeah, I'll ride the con and see where that gets me.

Well, this is where it's got you.  

I've seen Trump's pardon list but I haven't really read it.  Steve Bannon is the banner name apparently, but who knows what other less well known slime is slinking around the list. 

Steve Bannon is the kind of man who makes you so grateful they haven't invented scratch and sniff internet yet.   He brings new meaning to one of my favorite slurs "stinkass".  I mean, I use stinkass to describe most well-known Republicans, and now I may have to retire it.  The way you retire a number when a legendary sports star leaves the game for good. 

Not that I think ole stinkass is going anywhere for good.  I'm sure he'll be up to nefarious, white supremacist type plottings with his orange buddy for years to come.  Until mortality, which we all share, has its final, cold say.  As it always does.

Do I feel optimistic today?

Well, I never really wanted Joe Biden, but I also thought just about anyone could beat Trump, on account of you know, he did turn us into the covid shithole of the world and never actually worked?  But turns out that shit doesn't matter.  That's old-fashioned thinking, a work ethic and accomplishments and all.  Now, all you have to do is hate a lot of groups of people, like the bitches and black and brown people, and you are good to go with so many millions of Americans.

So many millions.  Millions more in fact, than voted for Trump in 2016, before he turned America into The Walking Dead.   It's a fact that Trump got millions more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016.  That's an important fact that cannot be forgot.  And it is a fact.  I am a liberal and I accept evidence-based conclusions.  

Millions more turned out to vote for Joe Biden, but most GOP voters don't believe that fact.  And it doesn't matter how much evidence you show them, because their cousin Becky saw some shit on the internet and, well, you know.

So anyway, I was wrong.  Not just anyone could have beat Trump.  So while Biden wasn't what I wanted, he was what I needed.  The man who could beat Trump and save me from another four years of horror.  And it was a horror.  No it doesn't bother me when MAGA's call me a snowflake.  It was a horror for me because real damage was done to real people.

He locked babies in cages.  Many of them will never be reunited with the parents who love them because we don't know where they are. 

And that hurt me.  That hurts me.  And I am not ashamed.  Why doesn't it hurt you?  

You should be ashamed. 

So now today we go forward with Joe Biden, and my God, Kamala Harris (yay!).  And so; am I optimistic?  Am I hopeful?

Not really.  Because Trump is a moral monster and he received millions more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016.

Because his cultish followers stormed the capital and attempted to find and murder the line of succession and overthrow the government. 

Because I am aware enough to understand this is a reprieve, and I don't really know how short a reprieve it is going to turn out to be. 

But a reprieve is something you know?  I mean, if God forbid you have cancer and it's bad, but then it goes into remission and the doctor tells you it will likely return but you have a reprieve.  It could be ten years, it could be only two, but you have a reprieve, what do you do?

You celebrate that reprieve.  You enjoy life.  You treasure your days.  

No, a reprieve is nothing to scoff at my friends.   A reprieve is a reprieve and I am grateful for it.

Thank you Joe Biden.  You're not what I wanted but you're an old white guy who made enough people comfortable and delivered me a reprieve.  

I'll take it.