There are lots of people we call idiots. They go out on the media stump. They spew garbage, hate, vile crap and they’ve been doing it for decades. And we call them idiots, but we have to let them speak — it’s their right under the First Amendment.
Yes, that’s the same First Amendment that Trump seems determined to rip apart. Why, because he was just another one of those idiots. A schmuck with a microphone, spewing his hatred and conspiracy theories.
And we all laughed and said, “That’s OK, he won’t win — in fact, maybe we’ll get ourselves a landslide out of it.” And when he won we all hoped that it was just the rhetoric of an idiot, and further hoped that one of the two major political parties in the world’s “shining city on a hill” would step up and reign him in.
And then he began acting on his words.
And that’s when the idiot turned into a monster.
And we began to separate ourselves from the other democracies around the world while cozying up to the planet’s other, smaller monsters.
And we began to systematically remove the constitutional rights we guarantee and the human rights all of us deserve from immigrants because — they are immigrants.
And we started to backslide as a culture and let discriminatory behavior against just about everybody who isn’t a rich, white man slide.
While the scapegoats actually suffer at his hand, and the people he claims to support are hurt by his policies.
And he and his family and his friends all make more money, even while he gets used by everybody he claims to be protecting us from.
And the lies from the podium have turned into planned, propaganda moments built on those lies.
As our very own Monster-in-Chief doubles down.
And sure, these are things that real Americans of all stripes should be vehemently against. And that number has been growing.
And, yes, on the stump he’s still just an idiot who rants and raves, and we all stand there amazed he’s gotten this far, and await the moment that his clearly criminal and treacherous behavior catches up with him and the monster is vanquished. And that time may very well come.
But for Trump is now more than an idiot: He’s an idiot with power — a monster, and a very dangerous sort, indeed.
But the power of democracy is bigger than that. When we all protest, we all lobby, we all vote — we will win.
And this is one moment — for all of our sakes — where we had better do just that.