To The Hereafter

Deep down I knew this was possible. We were often told that this election was a coin toss and that we could easily be staring once again at an incoming Trump presidency by the end of this election. But I didn’t want to believe it. Like so many, I wanted to believe that after knowing what we know about this man, there’s no way we would send him back, right? That surely the many convictions, the blatant corruption he and his family have engaged in over the years, the violent insurrection at the Capitol in 2020, the horrible racism and sexism that has swirled in this man’s orbit, and frankly almost every other data point that resides in the totality of this man’s professional and political career, that when faced with as stark and clear a choice as that, we wouldn’t choose chaos and cruelty again.

I realize now how naive I was and as I now mull over the results of this election, I am left wondering what happens now. What will a second Trump presidency mean for the United States? There are many potential answers to that question, and it’s impossible to know for sure at this moment. My true hope is that his less “diehard” supporters are right and that while Trump and those around him like to talk a big game, their worst impulses will be tempered by decency or unpopularity or something else entirely, that not every single piece of heinous shit he or the people around him have advocated for will come to pass.

Reading that back, it seems silly to imagine this vengeful vindictive posse that we’ve now elected into power won’t send this country back in a dozen different ways, but we have seen Trump’s laziness get the better of him before. The problem now is that he will be surrounded by sycophants instead of the institutionalist adults who tried to moderate him during his first turn. He will also be enabled by a court system stocked to the brim with conservative cultists and idealogues who are more than willing to ignore facts in service of gross partisanship. The truth is that most people in his orbit will be there for the sole purpose of enabling Trump instead of keeping him on a leash, so if we’re being realistic, this time around it will likely be much worse.