Really? That's All?

During the first Trump presidency a friend of mine set a countdown clock as the homescreen on her phone. You know the ones you use to see how many days until vacation or some other big event? Well during the American Carnage speech on inauguration day she opened her phone and set a countdown to January 20, 2021.

Every few months or when he did something particularly egregious she'd post a screenshot of the countdown. I generally found it to be depressing. There we so many days left. Until there weren't. Starting in November of 2020 she posted a shot once a week, after January 6th once a day. Then it wasn't so depressing.

I asked her the other day how many days were on the countdown and she told me she didn't set it this time. That last time it was because she knew, deeply and solidly she knew, that he wouldn't be reelected. The people that voted for him might never admit it was a mistake but enough of them would realize it was and not do it again that we would have a new president come January 20, 2021. This time she doesn't know if we will ever have another free and fair election.

We are 100 days in to this administration. It feels like it's been years already. The stress is high. The destruction has been relentless. If your stated goal had been to destroy the United States, if you set out to do it, you couldn't do a much better job than this current administration.

Not just our economic systems, our science research, our social services, our personal freedoms, but the idea of America. As much as other countries like to roll their eyes at us, we used to stand for an idea. Or at least most of us that lived here felt that we did. We might be a little (a lot) crass. We might shout too loud or wave our flag too much, but we tried to help. We sent food, we sent supplies, we sent idealistic youth into the world to set up clean water and vaccination drives and housing help. We have done a lot of things wrong, but we also have done a lot of good in the world as well.

Now you could argue about which outweighs the other, but at least we had both going.

Now? Now we don't. We only have the bad parts. This administration has tarnished our reputation as a force for good. They have completely trashed our standing as a stable world financial center. We don't stand with our military allies anymore and are looking at completely destabilizing the world order by pulling out of NATO and trying to takeover Greenland. We've threatened our neighbors to the North with annexation and insulted our neighbors to the South in innumerable ways. We are no longer the shining city on the hill filled with a thousand points of light and other really lovely things Republicans used to say to distract you from their horrific policies.

We are a failing country. Our finances are in ruins. Our freedoms are hanging on by the barest of threads. Our political leaders aren't. Our business leaders have shown that their only priority is profits. And our optimism is gone.

I mean, I guess we can still do some good. Congratulations, Canada! Those election results have to make you feel so much better. Looking at the graphs on where the conservatives vs. liberals were just a few months ago you can see how Trump swooped in and changed the court of public opinion. So I guess we did that? yay us...

As far as our own elections, I said during the last round that if he won I thought that was it. That I didn't see him or them ever giving up power. I didn't realize how easy it was going to be for him to take it all, but I knew what the plan was. "Republican" rule until there is a revolution. Sure, we'll have elections, autocrats love elections, but they will be decided before a vote is cast and whatever figure head they have up there will win in a landslide.

I wish my friend were optimistic enough to put that countdown on her phone but I can't disagree with her choice not to. We don't know how long this will last. But we do know that it's going to feel much longer than that.

The first 100 days has shown us both.