It's No Secret...
The country is going to hell in a handbasket that is fraying at the seams. We might not even make it to hell; the basket may just come completely apart and dump us all off into the Endless Void.
And I blame Peach Pennywise and his evil Klown Kar Kabinet, as well as assorted politicians, sycophantic media mouthpieces, and wealthy enablers of the Orange Menace.
The economy? Gone to shit because nobody knows (or cares) how economics works. But Orange Chucky still gets his burgers and fries and golf outings at Mar-a-Lago, so we're really doing well. Right? Well, of course right...unless you're a traitorous "Dumocrat."
Our world standing? Gone. Well, imploded, again thanks to a sagging travesty of a man who just can't stop himself from posting insults and threats toward various countries and their leaders. You've heard of "diarrhea of the mouth," right? Well, Orange Chucky has "diarrhea of the fingers" so bad, it looks like he wiped his shitty ass with them.
Our military supremacy? We just got our asses kicked by Iran...and they didn't even have to fire any kind of ICBM-adjacent rocket at our shores. All they had to do was lock down a skinny little body of water that just happens to carry a huge portion of the world's shipping. And now, the hornets have won: Calvin is covered in stings that look like they're swelling to the size of golf balls, he's got to pay through his badly-swollen nose to rebuild Iran, and the only thing we have to show for it is a depleted arsenal and a pile of big bucks gone up in flames (a little over $1,000,000,000 per day - that would have bought a helluva lotta safety-net services for a lotta needy Americans).
So yeah, we suck right now.
But there are rays of hope in the darkness.
A portion of MAGA folk are starting to wake up to the fact that the mess they voted into office is ricocheting back onto them, and they're realizing that writing "Dear Don" letters on X or "Truth" Social is about as effective as stringing Christmas-light messages on the roof to contact aliens. I, for one, want to see some real change in behavior and attitude before I extend a welcome to any ex-MAGA, but...it's a start, at least.
Some supposedly "red" states are starting to take on some "blue" characteristics, mostly because of what's been happening to their people (see above paragraph). Voters are mobilizing on the local levels -mayoral races, school boards, city councils - and electing more liberal people to those positions, and those people are reversing some of the crazier policies of the White "Christian" Nationalist groups. And even though the WCNs still hold a scary amount of power, real believers are starting to get up and call out how a supposedly "Christian" movement is failing to imitate Christ in its behavior.
In "blue" states, they are taking steps, both social and legal, to mitigate the damage Orange Chucky is doing to the environment, the social safety nets, and the rights of vulnerable people (women, minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community).
And of course, all across the country, people are protesting. Hell, they aren't even waiting for No Kings days - I recently saw one guy on a street corner with a sign that said NO WAR on one side and IMPEACH TRUMP on the other! He was there as I walked past that morning, and again as I passed that evening - the only difference was that he was on the opposite side of the street!
So Now What?
We keep at it.
We protest, we vote (and help our neighbors vote), we do whatever tangible things we can to help our fellow-humans in our community and in other communities. We network. We do what is right, even when it's hard.
As John Stuart Mill said, "Bad men need nothing more to compass [accomplish] their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."
Let's not do nothing, friends. We can't all do everything...but we can all do something.
