Imagine where we would now be if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had not won the 2020 election.
One of the major criticisms of the mainstream media during the odious period leading up to the 2016 presidential election was the amount of attention that it allotted Donald Trump during his rancid run for the White House.
For close to a year, the airways and newspapers were saturated with the boorish blather the Russia-sanctioned, reality-TV star spit from his dirty mouth in a seemingly endless stream.
He was a must-see carnival act.
“See the painted, orange man shatter all known campaign protocols as he spins yet-to-be-heard vulgarities at anything that wanders into his toxic mind! Nobody is safe! Women, children, the disabled, and veterans are all fair game for this Pontificating Putrid Purveyor of Hate!”
“What will he say next?! Who will be his next victim?!”
“Tune in! Read all about it!!”
I’ll admit it, early on I was one of those who wanted more. I wanted him to expose himself for every rotten thing he had always been. I wanted EVERYBODY to see it.
Only then would he finally get what he so richly deserved: public humiliation and condemnation for being one of America’s singular lowlifes. The racist, the slumlord, the tax cheat, the pussy-grabber, the unhinged narcissist. The psychopath.
I figured once everybody saw just how vile this morbid slob was, he’d finally get what he deserved for coming after Barack Obama with the disgusting, racist birther charges.
Man, I really, really hated him for that.
So yeah, I watched and I waited for the condemnation …
Sure enough, it came. One Republican after another lined up to take their swing at the 275-pound sack of hate. (The very same Republications, by the way, who now pledge allegiance to the hag.)
Nothing connected.
Despite their overflowing accounts of moral bankruptcy, these Dick Cheney Republicans couldn’t hold a candle to Trump’s singular talent for always, always, always going lower.
He’d invite these willing suckers (candidates) into his hole and they’d crawl out beaten to a pulp and defeated.
Trump apologized for none of his behavior. He’d grab pussies if he damn well wanted to.
He started doubling down on all of it. That, too, became part of his gruesome act. “He’ll say anything. He’ll do anything! He’ll never apologize for any of it!! Amazing!!!”
It’s around this time, I started figuring I had it all wrong because his disgusting behavior was starting to be seen as a virtue by millions of white Americans across our country, who were tired of this misguided notion that they should apologize for anything.
Slavery? Hey, we had nothing to do with that! Don’t you dare mention it, or we’ll start electing candidates who will ban books that talk about it … Don’t you dare try us.
They became known as MAGA Republicans, variants of Rush Limbaugh’s tribe of loudmouths, who were just dying to let us all have it.
They began to overrun their party, and then America, like so many ants at a picnic.
Turns out, they were fucking everywhere. Turns out, that in too many cases, they were our friends and family. Turns out … they voted in force.
There was another candidate left in the 2016 race, of course, who made the grave error of calling the people who gravitated toward this disgusting man and his disgusting behavior “deplorable.”
That’s when I saw that the mainstream media had collectively lost its damn mind, and on top of it, would not be having a woman as the leader of our country.
She would be judged differently. She was to stay on script. If they went low, she was to go high.
It was still a man’s world, dammit. Don’t make us prove that to you, or someday we will throw out Roe …
There were two lenses through which the media viewed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. One was a close-up shot of Clinton, just daring her to get out of her lane.
The other was trained on the orange madman who furiously raged that he was king of the road and would run over whatever he damn well wanted to. Just make sure to cover that.
I’ll never forget the live cut-ins of his slobbery speaking appearances on the campaign trail that featured nothing but an empty podium and a mic, while the networks waited in full-blown drool for the monster to finally climb atop the stage.
He always kept them waiting, because suspense was part of his disgusting shit show.
He invited Russia in, and Clinton dutifully warned us about that. His vulgar attacks on women continued, and Clinton tried to take the discourse higher. He lied and lied and lied, and Clinton tried to correct it for the record …
We know how it all turned out.
Six years later, the carnival act is still bombing through all the likely stops and has somehow gotten even darker and far more dangerous.
Through the impeachments and the attacks on our country, the thousands of lies, the shakedowns, and the theft of our top-secret documents, the monster is still punishing his podium and all that is decent in America.
What our Justice Department is really doing at this point is beyond me, but it’s not close to being enough.
Trump is telling us elections don’t matter, and Republican candidates are dutifully parroting him, refusing to say they will accept election results if they don’t win in November.
Democracy doesn’t matter to them.
MAGA Republicans, who prefer not to read history, are nonetheless doing an eerie, accurate rendition of 1930s Germany with both their words and actions.
Tiny, pathetic men like Ron DeSantis are trying to get the jump on their party’s biggest draw by engaging in the crime of human trafficking.
The revolting, orange carnival act says it was his idea first …
It’s a race to the bottom and as far away from Democracy as possible.
Fascism is here, and there’s no way we are taking it seriously enough.
Check out the rest of the articles in our Biden-Harris series:
The Awesome Accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration
Gen Z and Gun Violence: Your Vote Can Save Lives
Biden Continues the Job Growth Trends of Past Democratic Presidents
Big, Bold Climate Action in the Inflation Reduction Act
The Lifesaving Healthcare Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act
The American Rescue Plan Is Even Better Than You Think
The PACT Act Proves Democrats Care About Our Veterans
The CHIPS and Science Act: A Boon for US Manufacturing and Technology
Eighteen Months in … and I’m Still Ridin’ With Biden
