by 5oclockshadow (note: those of you who followed Raising Kaine/RK will know who this is)
I caught a friend of mine, someone I genuinely respect, wishing for the death of Donald Trump. Do I wish for the death of Donald Trump? NO! You shouldn’t either. No patriotic American should ever wish for the death of another. NEVER!
In politics, wishing for the death of opponents is ALWAYS a losing position. Maybe you can’t help thinking it. Fine. As soon as you put it in writing or communicate it to anyone else, however, you move beyond the pale of the authentic American tradition.
This is much better: I pray that Donald Trump lives a long and healthy life, in jail, bankrupt, and fully discredited along with the pathetic and treasonous MAGA movement that sought to make him God Emperor. I pray that the public fully learns of the graft, corruption, sexual abuse, cowardice, and treason that are his true legacy. I pray that his name outlives him the way that only Benedict Arnold’s name has in American history… but much, much worse. Because Trump’s violations against the great American tradition are much much worse.
I pray that the groundswell of support for Kamala Harris in this election translates to a generation of Democratic rule, with Republicans perpetually out in the cold. With the House and Senate and the White House, Democrats can deliver voting rights, protect democracy, and reform the Supreme Court to ensure that no demagogue or corrupt court will ever threaten American democracy like this again.
In fifty years or so, when Republicans bemoan their decades in the desert, the names of Trump, McConnell, and Alito will ring with limitless shame. They betrayed America and tried to install a theocratic dictator. They destroyed civic peace and freedom, and their brand of fascism will inspire the stench of fish guts and putrescence in the nostrils of every patriotic American for many, many generations to come.
Americans must see Trump, like Tom Waits in The Fisher King; as a “Moral Traffic Light”. “STAY AWAY”. “DO NOT GO THIS WAY”. Americans must remember never to allow anything like this to ever happen again. We are living through a transformational moment in American history, based on lies, propaganda, and extremism, foisted on the American people by a minority party seeking perpetual anti-American power. The bill is coming due. The Republicans should never be allowed to recover political power until they perpetually abandon this mendacious, bigoted, anti-American psychosis called Trumpism. Trump’s name must never be allowed to recover, and I pray he lives long enough to understand how history will write his story.