The Peaceful Transfer of Power - or why I will not use the term "president" for tRump

I talk a lot about how the peaceful transfer of power every four to eight years makes me all woozy and happy and shit.  And I mean it.  Even when it was a president I didn’t particularly care for, I would remind the complainers that the US is unique in our ability to just hand over the keys to the White House.  “Here you go, buddy.  Good luck.” From a global standpoint, this doesn’t happen often enough. Other countries are justifiably jealous of our process.  Hooray for us!

When I mentioned that bit about presidents I didn’t particularly care for, I was of course mostly thinking about George W Bush, who was kind of a doofus.  I’d already lived in Texas with him as governor.  He was definitely a doofus governor, but his duties weren’t particularly taxing.  I don’t think he was that serious about it.  He went for hours-long runs every day, I guess in an effort to get healthy after all those years of drinking and cocaine and so on.  I think he rediscovered Jesus, too.  Now plenty of folks along the streets of Austin look a lot like Jesus, but good for Shrub, I say.  In my military years, I was considered an expert at getting doofus senior people the fuck out of the way in order for real work to be accomplished, especially during deployments.  “Sir, you need to get out of here and go do some Officer Shit.  We’re busy as fuck and I’ll tell you later how good we made you look.”   The smart ones would go do Officer Shit, and I usually did make them look smarter.

Anyway, yeah, a few presidents along the way I did not care for.  Shrub was one, but I also worked under Reagan and Bush the Elder.  I even voted for them.   This turned out to be a mistake.  Not the only mistake I ever made - but big ones, to be sure.   But with Bush I and II and Reagan, I knew they were not Evil Incarnate or anything like that.  We’ve also had candidates like McCain, whose brain power has diminished over time, but he was once a guy I kind of liked and respected.  If not for the Palin running mate, I would not have been frightened in any way to have McCain as President.  Mitt Romney was about the same. He, like McCain, was not ‘my’ candidate, but I didn’t find either of them particularly evil.  We just disagreed on some issues.  Maybe even most issues.

And I remember telling my wife and others, in 2012, that we might actually not re-elect Obama.  The pendulum tends to swing back and forth and that’s not even a particularly bad thing.  The ship tends to right itself.   We lived through Shrub and I found it ridiculous that some thought he was going to destroy America.  Others said the same thing about Obama – he was destroying America!   No one, no one man, I would say, could do that.  System of checks and balances and all that.

This time, though, it’s different.  Not that I won’t still be awestruck with the peaceful transfer of power – I will.  But I hereby swear that I will never use the term “president” before the last name of “Trump”.  Nope.  Not gonna happen.  He spent the last year and a half telling us and showing us exactly what he was, and I believe him.   Maybe you’re okay with mocking the disabled.  Or grabbing women by the pussy.  Threatening to imprison your political opponents.  Banishing entire religions from coming here (I think religious freedom had something to do with our history, but maybe I’m just being all romantic and shit).  Killing the families of suspected terrorists.  Torturing prisoners of war.  All the things he said along the way – maybe you’re okay with those things.  I’m not.  I am ashamed and angry that we – well, some 18% of us, anyway – elected this fool.  

And after 8 years of hearing the white racists mumble, “He ain’t MY president” when Obama’s main crime was being President While Black, do NOT fucking even TRY to tell me that tRump is ‘my’ president and I need to get behind him.   Nope, don’t run that up my flagpole because I ain’t saluting.

As I said earlier today to a good friend of mine, “He showed us who he was, and then we showed him who WE were.”  Yes, America, I am ashamed of us.  I fear we will all regret this soon enough, but I regret it right the fuck NOW.