The World Watches in Horror

For all of my adult life I have had no political representation--no say in how I am governed--because I disagree with the direction my country has taken. We should be leading the world on environmental issues and energy conservation. 

We should have guaranteed health care and a decent standard of living and secure retirement, fewer guns, smaller prisons and an advanced infrastructure. It's one thing not to get your way but another to be disenfranchised and marginalized. 

That's un-American. But what is American anymore? If Donald Trump is American then I am not. What do you say after "screw you"? That sentiment has won the day with Trump. For decades decent, tolerant citizens have had to suck it up. 

Their backward fellow citizens, now empowering Trump and empowered by him, have had to be humored in order for life to go on at all. And what do we get? The return on our investment in tolerance and civility is a catastrophe of incivility. 

The Age of Trump has come. The triumphalism and gloating will be a thing to remember. Nothing can redeem us now. We are lost.