We’ve had many presidents…some good, some not so much. But most, when they take the oath of office, at least make a valiant effort to make the country better when they leave than when they walked in the door…or at a minimum to do no harm.  Most walk into the office looking one way, and leave looking noticeably more gray, more serious, more learned…even Nixon seemed more learned about our precious democracy and how much the American people treasured it.  In our government, presidents come and go.  And in that process, some are pleased, and others not so much.  Even with Presidents who were beloved by many…there were always those who were happy to see them depart.  One could say, it is the nature of our democracy.  We are not an autocracy; four to eight years is what you get, and when the people say your time is up…it’s up!

But something changed with Trump.

I cannot put my finger on the moment when I realized our country was in serious trouble.  It wasn’t the lies about President Obama’s birthplace…although that was really, really disgusting.  And, of course, at the time we never imagined he going to be President.  It wasn’t the comment, “you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.” Afterall, he was President and just maybe he was just trying to manage the crowd…and, who would know better than Trump what very fine people looked like. There is so much eyebrow-raising mess that it all kind of runs together.  We all remember the Access Hollywood video, the insults hurled at the wives of his opponents, and the John McCain insult, especially coming from an avid golfer who had suffered debilitating heel spurs when so many young men were going to war.  Let’s not forget a U.S. President taking the side of Russia over our intelligence community in front of the world.  And, there was so much more.  We all remember them…even his supporters remember the signs along the way. 

All of that before was January 6^th where the President of the United States sat in an office and did not intervene for hours.  I suppose it is possible there were moments when he stood in the safety of his office…maybe to stretch while we people elected to office were being terrorized and the people who were hired to protect them were being attacked…and their staff, and the people who cleaned the offices—regular people just doing their jobs.  This was not new behavior…remember when COVID-19 was quietly ravaging communities and who watched…didn’t warn us that a killer virus was among us and getting worse with each passing day.

And that’s still not it!  I don’t know that it gets worse, but the drip of corruption just would not stop…sucking in people who did not have millions of dollars to pay legal fees.  And now indictments over things we know he has not denied…only justified or tried to explain or minimize.  With video and audio recordings!  Well, except for E. Jean Carroll who he continues to assault over and over again like a gang rapist who is the lone gang member.  People keep saying innocent until found guilty as if what we saw in the January 6^th Committee report was just a regular protest or the conversation with Brad Raffensperger was something less than a shake down…I still cannot get out of my head who we didn’t see or hear from for hours on January 6th—the President of the United States! 

If I appear to be rambling, it is because I am rambling…there’s just so very much to ramble about.  I wonder what happens when one starts trusting a man, they have never met up close and personal more than their family and friends, more than their religious leader, more than their eyes and ears.  I keep hoping it’s all a big joke, and soon all these people say, “We’re just yanking your chain Donald J. Trump.   We are voting for America and that means we cannot vote for you.”

The truth is they are not yanking his chain…they believe.   So, I’ll keep praying for our leaders to gain courage, our justice system to do its job (oh, I didn’t even mention what he did to the Supreme Court), and for the rest of us to keep the faith, peacefully protest, register, and vote!  I’ll also keep knocking on doors, making phone calls, registering voters, and encouraging them to vote. 

Lives have been destroyed in this man’s mess…children have been separated from their parent because they are in jail or prison for the events of January 6^th, poll workers have been terrorized, law enforcement officers and their families suffer from loss or post-traumatic stress disorder, COVID took thousands or lives and left others disabled, intelligence may have been compromised; our democracy has been harmed. Keeping it simple…he cannot go unscathed, and folks need to stop paying his legal bills.