On the Precipice of Worse

Donald J. Trump vs. the United States of America

ZERO indictments, ZERO counts

“The email lady,” as Jeff Tiedrich refers to Hillary Clinton, was right about everything. And here we are: Donald Trump has been indicted again, for the second time in less than two months. This time the charges (seven counts—at least for now—will be read in Federal Court in Miami next Tuesday) are more serious, relating as they do to the fact that Donald stole classified and highly sensitive documents that belong to the United States government—that is, to the people.

I didn’t use the word “allegedly” before “stole” because we know he took the documents from the White House after he no longer had legitimate access to them; we know that he refused to return them even thought the National Archive asked him repeatedly and deferentially; we know that he lied about having returned everything; and we know that if anybody else in this country had done something similar—or even significantly less egregious—that person would have been arrested, handcuffed, and imprisoned a very long time ago. And that person would very likely be spending the rest of their life in prison.

We know so much.

It is gratifying (I’m not sure if that’s the right word) that there is finally some movement towards treating his casual disregard for our national security—and for us—with the level of seriousness required.

There are many reasons I don’t like to talk or write about Donald. Of course, I have to—not because he’s my uncle but because in 2016 he was tragically elevated to a position of power he had no right to inhabit and in four short years he came very close to breaking this country irreparably. And we still can’t ignore him because the party that failed to stop him in 2016 continues to support, enable, and cover for him with the result that, barring unforeseen circumstances, he will be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. It is gobsmacking, it is breath-taking, and it is all of a piece with what I have witnessed of Donald and his bizarre trajectory throughout the course of my life.

As somebody who cares about the future of this country and the people living in it, I cannot ignore the fact that Donald Trump is a significant and malign force in American politics. And I hate it. I hate it in the ways that anybody who cares about democracy or equality or the well-being of their fellow citizens hate it. But I hate it, too, because he is my uncle. He is a man I have known my whole life. I watched him rise to ridiculous levels of wealth and fame, propelled in part by his father, despite his obvious lack of skills or intelligence. I watched as he, along with my grandfather, destroyed my dad.

And then, because America is so broken, so mired in its history of racism and misogyny and hatred of the Other; because America is so incapable of looking at itself in the mirror, I had to watch him, in his position as leader of the free world (what a fucking travesty), as he tried to destroy the Western alliance in order to appease brutal dictators simply because they knew how to flatter his pathetic ego. I had to watch as implemented the Muslim ban, threw trans service members out of the military in which he never bothered to serve, and kidnapped children only to put them in concentration camps.

I had to watch as he implemented policies—or failed to implement policies—that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans knowing all along that he did it willfully and maliciously for his own political gain. I had to watch as he destroyed the economy and brought American democracy to the brink with his Big Lie and incitement of an insurrection against his own country.

There is nothing he won’t do to get away with his crimes. He will turn his followers against the rest of us, he will threaten to destroy the Republican Party if it doesn’t do his bidding (and it will do his bidding). If none of that works, he will burn it all down.

It will get worse before it gets better. It will be frightening, it will be frustrating, and it will be dangerous. But it will get better eventually. If we stick together and refuse to give up hope, it will get better.