The more you fact-check his endless lies; the more you claim “optics don’t matter because The Mueller Report says A, B, and C,”; the more you try to play some game of Gotcha! or adamantly defend reasonable political stances in the face of his irrationality: then the more you allow the political discourse to flounder into intellectually-respectable-but-politically-flaccid territory.
I’m sorry, but this isn’t 2015. Political norms have changed. A lot. It’s happened. Trump and his cavalcade of sycophants and enablers have pulled it off. I know how much you like “Normal,” but that horse is out of the barn and over the hills, and it’s gonna take years to drag it back. And in the meantime, there’s an election just around the corner.
So you’ve got a choice. Continue pulling out your hair in frustration while you insist that the rest of the U.S. electorate pay attention to the obvious, irrefutable, rational facts you’re highlighting, or get down in the fuckin’ mud and start slinging.
The center has fallen away. There are no bridges to be built to the other side; for now, the chasm is too wide. I understand this makes you sad and fearful, but it’s our current political reality. So get your head out of the sand and start spitting. Get nasty. Get mean. Get energized. Get out the vote! That’s how you defeat Trump, not by proving him “wrong.” Spend the next year letting out your inner extremist.
Quit acting like things are the way they oughtta be. Cause they’re not. And pretending otherwise only marginalizes you right now. Worse, it plays into Trumpism.
The bully is pouring kool aid over your head while a growing mob of little playground onlookers laughs, points, and cheers.
You have a choice. Just stand there, mildly exasperated, while you lecture the bully and his friends about how inappropriate his misbehavior is and how right you are to be polite; or punch him in the fuckin’ nose.
Do the former and you’ll continue to be bullied, the mob growing every bolder and meaner. Do the latter and you’ll earn respect. And other onlookers will rally to you.
This isn’t a Disney movie. Some charming little kid with a starched handkerchief won’t emerge after the ruckus dies down, clean you off, escort you away, and lead you into a fulfilling new friendship that changes your life and sets you on a path towards an adolescent wonder and discovery.
No. This is about a big ole scrum on the playground. So pick a side and start swinging.
Punch back, or four more years. That’s how this works.
P.S. And hope the Dems nominate a candidate who’ll standup to the bully instead of nattering on endlessly about policy while getting kool aid dumped on their head.