Am I the only one thinking about potential Civil War in the United States?
Because, honestly, between Donald Trump’s seemingly easy abandonment of the Kurds and other allies and the violent video that was shown at a recent pro-Trump event at his Doral property in Florida, I have zero faith the President would be fazed by American citizens locked in battle.
In case you’re thinking, hey, that video was bad but didn’t the President denounce it? No, he did not. The “White House” did via press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who most of us couldn’t pick out of a lineup because she doesn’t do press briefings.
If Trump had any objections to that video, we would know it. He would have Tweeted it by now and/or he would have mentioned it in one of those low-budget versions of a press conference he holds on the White House lawn. Can you picture him bringing it up at one of those gross rallies? Sure, sure. Right after he lets the name “Maxine Waters” or “CNN” hang in the air so the hungry mob can jeer or right before he purses his lips and affects that weird whisper when he talks about the “perfect” phone call.
Ugh.
No empathy. No respect for rule of law. No sense of how to comport himself.
So this brings me back to the Civil War. How will we know who is on our side on this battlefield? The camps don’t break down by Democrat or Republican because there are many people in Trump’s party who find him contemptible. We can’t divide by geography; this one isn’t the North vs. the South.
No, these divisions will separate extended families. Heck, they will separate people living in the same house. Couples on different sides in a war – pow.
What to do? Wear different colored shirts like we did picking teams in gym class? Will we fight behind banners? Or will those of us on the side of truth and equality be going up against hoods and cloaks? Will we scour social media to see where someone stands? Who will we trust amidst the chaos?
Trump, fueled by Fox News, dared, dared, DARED to call Barack Obama divisive when he was in office. Dared.
Back when Trump was a presidential candidate, I objected to him because I thought he would only govern his base. He’d shown contempt for women and people of color. Even the disabled. But I can’t emphasize this enough – I had no earthly idea what his level of ignorance could do with the power of the presidency behind him.
Once elected, I thought, like George W. Bush, he would surround himself with experts and take some counsel on things he knows nothing about. I assumed they’d be people I disagreed with on much, but people who came in with experience and gravitas. I had no idea the level to which Trump would depend on his own “gut” and cause damage that would ripple across the globe.
I think a lot of us started out objecting to such a flagrantly biased person leading a nation as distinguished as ours. It’s why we marched in record numbers the day after his inauguration.
But let’s look at what’s happened to our discourse since 2016. Friends and families and co-workers and neighbors have had to agree to stay off the topic of Trump. Not, in my mind, the topic of politics since this has gone way beyond the political. This is deeply about world view and how one sees humanity and the planet and whether one considers a woman being pulled from a car and raped and stoned to death on the other side of the world something to be sad about or to shrug off.
For those of us who have made pacts to stay off the Trump topic with others, we’re now in a place where we know even less about what people close to us think, whether they have a nuanced view or unwavering devotion. Do I even want to know what they think about the Sharpie weather map? Rogue Giuliani? That conversation with Erdogan? The video? It’s too risky. Less information is better in this case if we’re going to preserve long-standing relationships.
Now bring the Civil War into the mix. I can tell you that my side of the battle will include almost no one who shares my blood. They’ve mostly gone the way of the guy who brought them what they wanted – someone outside of the usual Washington politics, a guy who says and does whatever he wants and gets away with it. Haha, he’s so damn funny and slick. The Dems just want to bring him down. Look at all he sacrificed to be President. He’s so rich and cool.
Meanwhile, as bodies pile up in Syria and a MAGA loon crafts a video of the armed President mowing down American citizens who have been cast as his enemies, we wait.
And we wait.
There is more carnage coming.
