I was hanging with a friend in Manhattan recently. We’ve never seen eye-to-eye politically and I prefer to simply avoid the subject. This was true more than ever last week because I had no idea where she stood on Donald Trump. And frankly, I thought it best that I not know.
Yet at the end of our outing, with me about to descend subway steps to head home, somehow we were there. I made a passing comment about not sleeping well with Trump in the White House and my friend noted that half the country was sleeping very well and didn’t I get some solace from that?
That’s an unequivocal no.
Solace? What? Solace?
This has been working on me all week.
I am not getting solace from white supremacists sleeping better.
Or gun-toting fools who think the government is out to get them.
I get no solace from well-rested “Christians” who want to control whether or not a woman can decide for herself to have a baby, but not give a crap what happens once that child is here and needs real health care.
Solace is not my go-to when I think of all the self-loathing women who are immune to the actions and comments of a pussy-grabbing predator and felt it was OK to impose him on the rest of us. Glad they’re happily snoozing? No.
Solace? Please.
That Paul Ryan is sleeping better? And Mitch McConnell? Or Mike Pence? (Well, maybe not him. He’s probably tossing and turning a bit from openly selling his soul to be vice president and, well, he’s hired a lawyer for the rest).
I am getting no solace from duped Fox News viewers sleeping well as they place blame on people not like them for all the ills of the country.
Or the people who are “sick and tired” of apologizing for being white because, you know, those lucky gays, blacks, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics get all the preferential treatment and, you know, rights.
Solace because so many dolts who think it’s a victory to repeal Obamacare since they’re covered by the ACA are sleeping better? I don’t think so.
Where am I supposed to find the solace exactly?
The people who voted for Trump claiming it wasn’t about race, but about keeping our police forces safe? Oh, they’re sleeping better in spite of that utter contradiction in reasoning? No solace for me.
Should I be getting solace from the well-rested Trump supporters unfazed by his unhinged Tweets? Or those who are getting their zzzzzz’s in spite of how he’s defiling the presidency?
What could possibly be giving me solace about people sleeping well with this president in office?
I write this on the approach to Fourth of July weekend. It’s a time where we celebrate our country. This year it feels like we need to celebrate and mourn at the same time. What is patriotism anymore? It’s like the Statue of Liberty is swirling around a toilet bowl just waiting to be sucked down.
Not one thing I’ve ever written about Donald Trump has proven to be untrue. He is unfit to lead and is worse at this job than I could have ever imagined.
I get not an ounce of solace from that.
