I’m starting to wonder, are “we” being a little to self-assured that the worst will not happen? We like to make fun of the orange skin, the terrible hair, the posing pouts. We make all sorts of snarky comments about his family, his supporters. And yes, they are easy to laugh about, they often are almost caricatures of how we picture those on the right.
But the national polls are tight, as are many swing state polls. We thought he would implode over and over again in the primaries. Nothing seems to make an impression, he acts more outrageously every day, knowing he will not be held accountable.
We laugh at reality shows, and those who appear in them. Yet they keep increasing in their number and ridiculousness. And while the whole Trump campaign seems like a bad reality show, it keeps on steamrolling over everything that rational people seem to think would stop it dead in it’s tracks.
I don’t have to relist the litany of horrors that his election could unleash. It makes me lose sleep some nights. I think of how he treats everyone other than white males and shudder to think how I would feel if I was in one of his targeted groups. And I’m a middle aged white male, so I honestly can’t feel the terror his talk about actions against groups must spur.
So yes, you can shrug all this off as being a “concern troll” and move on. This week of unbridled hate in Cleveland is really making me nervous. I keep thinking of the line in The Two Towers- “What can men do against such reckless hate?” The little of the convention I’ve been able to stomach reminds me more of “Triumph des Willens” than anything I can remember, including the 1996 GOP hatefest.
So putting aside all of the mocking, what are we really going to need to do to avoid such an unmitigated disaster? Talk me off the figurative wall of anxiety that I’m starting to visit so much this week.
