One November night eight years ago my wife was dreaming that she was wandering through a dark castle during an earthquake.

She ran through the castle, the walls collapsing in on her, the ground shaking, the very Earth dancing beneath her feet.

She woke up, and realised that the world was still shaking. She looked over at me, hunched over my phone, literally trembling in fear hard enough to shake the bed as the election results rolled in.

It didn’t feel like that this time. Maybe I’m just jaded now.

I don’t write about politics anymore on this blog. I’d come to the conclusion that everybody spouting off about their political opinions 24/7 is a big reason we’re even in this hyper-polarised nightmare (not the only reason, but a big one).

I wish I could tell you that this isn’t what it appears to be, a catastrophe of terrible magnitude for America, for the West, for Ukraine, for democracy and for the world.

Is there cause for hope? Always.

In 1972 Richard Nixon won re-election with one of the most stunning electoral victories in history. Two years later he was on the ash heap of history. Things can change very, very quickly. A smart politician would not let a victory like this make him reckless. Trump is not smart, and was born reckless. He will fuck up, repeatedly, and badly.

Secondly, there is only one Trump and he is limited to four years. After that, MAGA has run out of road. There has never been anyone able to replicate the weird Svengali-like hold he has on his followers.

Of course now we have to consider the D word. Is he actually going to do it?

Maybe.

But the personal risk might give him pause. If he pulls that lever all bets are off.

Hitler would have been willing to die for a world purged of non-Aryans. Trump cares only about Trump.

But we are off the forest trail, now. There is no map.

Keep your eyes open. Keep your feet on the ground. Watch. Listen. Look after each other. Do not give in to despair.

Evil always contains within itself the seed of its own destruction.

We’ll be praying for you.

Mouse.

28 comments

  1. Yup, because dreams are the exact same thing as reality.

    While I’m not a Trump fan, it amuses me no end that the people that claim that he’s going to outlaw abortion, make all women and minorities slaves, and destroy the world have all forgotten that he had ample opportunity to do all of that the last time he was president and didn’t. Dial down the hysteria, folks. This, too, shall pass.

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  3. I guess any postmortems at this point would be so biased as to be worthless, but I really fear this solidifies the fact we live in an age where social media and memes move votes harder than anything else. The electorate – the part that actually matters, anyway – simply doesn’t have the attention span for anything else.

    That doesn’t mean Democrats will never be able to win the White House again, but I think it does mean any permanent accomplishments will become fewer and further between. Worst-case we could even be looking at voters just knee-jerk flipping incumbents out every cycle regardless of what they’ve accomplished (or not), like the world’s shittiest Duck-Season-Rabbit-Season skit.

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  4. On behalf of my country, I’m sorry. I’m so bitterly disappointed in so many right now.

    We will get through this. He is weak, stupid, cruel, and afraid. We must be tough, smart, kind, and brave.

    And we must not despair because bullies only win when you stop resisting them.

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  7. Thank you for your kind words, Mouse.

    I’m severely disappointed. Not in those who actually voted for Trump, if one thing has been made clear over the years is that his most die-hard followers will cut off their own noses in the vain hope that his victories will translate into their victories.

    What disappoints me are those who chose not to vote. Who for some reason believed the wise thing to was not exercise their civic choice and Constitutional freedom for the smallest, and pettiest of reasons.

    I have the strongest belief that regret will come sooner rather than later.

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  8. If he pulls the lever all bets are off. True enough. But as you said, he is reckless, and he is not smart.

    Last time was much worse than I could have imagined. I presume this will be much the same.

    I don’t care whether his supporters feel any regret or not. Between Gaza and Ukraine and our own immigrants, they have killed God only knows how many people with their choice.

    “When you despair, you surrender to your lowest instincts.” – ATLA

    Your words are appreciated. Thank you.

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  9. As an American, I apologize to the world. There are some of us who tried to stop this from happening. I’m sorry. We tried.

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  10. I love this blog. I’ve read every review you’ve written at least three times, except for the very few that are of films I haven’t seen and don’t want to spoil. You’re funny, insightful, knowledgeable, and a really great writer.

    I’ve never commented before, mainly because I found your blog recently and it felt silly to comment on a years-old post. Who knows if you’d even agree with what you wrote back then?

    I felt compelled to comment now, because I feel what has happened is worse than your post indicates. The problem isn’t really Trump. He’s horrible, no argument there. A real garbage pile of a human being, to an extent that is difficult to believe even as it is repeatedly demonstrated.

    He didn’t just win. He actually won the popular vote, which no Republican presidential candidate has done since 2004. If that country had had a sensible democratic system instead of the electoral college, they wouldn’t have had Bush or Trump before. But this time, a majority of the voting population of the most powerful country in the world looked at Trump, this terrifyingly terrible person, this guy whose speech consists of rambling word salad, whose worldview is a confounding stew of misunderstandings and conspiracy theories, who has openly disparaged the principles of democracy, and they thought “that’s my president”. “That’s the guy I want to lead this country.”

    I can’t see any hope. Nixon isn’t really an analogue. What do you think would happen if Trump had a Watergate? Do you really think he’d have to resign? I think he’d just lie, change the subject, blame immigrants and poor people, and go on as before. With the entire establishment backing him.

    Humanity fucked up. We had everything going for us, and we screwed it up. I wish I could see it otherwise.

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  11. As an American, this is what finally made me give up on this country. If the majority of voters want this country to be a shithole, so be it. My wife and I are already making plans to move elsewhere, and her parents, who are Mexican immigrants, are planning to go back to Mexico in the coming months.

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  12. Thanks, Neil. I’m still perplexed and saddened at the outcome, and I’m worried for people I know/know of. All I can currently do is hope for the best.

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  13. Since this is one of the least funny political developments in my lifetime – we keep living through them, which is something, but we still have to live with them and their consequences – it behooves me to crack wise in a reckless bid to cheer somebody up.

    Just remember, if the Great Republic stops working you can always give the Lady of the Lake a call: she hasn’t had much work since Monty Python and would doubtless appreciate the gig.

    (I mean at this point it’s either keep voting for the nearest progressive or come crawling back to Constitutional Monarchy – heck, if you’re really canny you can play off HM King Charles III against King Phillip of Spain, see who makes the Best offer – and I doubt any good Yankee Doodle wants to give His Late Majesty King George III the satisfaction).

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  14. Good Lord, the pearl clutching on this post.

    I’m not defending Trump, not even slightly, but you all do remember that he was president once before and none of the things that you’re handwringing about actually happened then, yes? They won’t happen now. Man up/tighten your bra (delete as appropriate) and dial down the hysteria.

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  16. It takes a special kind of arrogance to assume that anyone that doesn’t agree with you politically is evil,

    “The Frollos of this world, the bigots, the tyrants, the abusive assholes…they are f*****g miserable. They are pathetic, deluded, twisted, deeply unhappy people“

    I wonder if you remember who said that.

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    1. You should read “A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms” and other ProPublica articles about how women have died due to anti-abortion policies in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

      And the Council on Foreign Relations article “The (Not-So) Peaceful Transition of Power: Trump’s Drone Strikes Outpace Obama”

      And the NPR article “Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies.”

      That’s some pretty evil and Frollo-like stuff to vote for.

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  22. You summed it up well. We at least have the blessing of knowing Trump is less of a danger than previous Presidents because his lack of knowledge of politics means he has far less understanding of how to control the system. (See Oliver Stone’s Nixon for Tricky Dick’s explanation of why he is not “powerless”.) But now he has political experience meaning he understands far more and he likely will have far more support now inside.

    But… he is only one 78-year-old man and in another 4 years he will be gone. But my personal theory is that he will be gone sooner when we have another July 13 instead of a January 6. I have no inside information, obviously, and may well be wrong, and this is not a prediction made in optimism. But I’ve read Hillbilly Elegy and I know what to expect from President Vance.

    The only part that leaves me deeply uneasy – at least I know HE will leave quietly.

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  23. It has been less than a month and Trump has already blown through half the constitution without consequence and started talking about a third term. He will be in office until he dies, at which point he will be replaced by a handpicked crony; anyone who thinks otherwise is naïve.

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