Another Late Night Of Fear And Loathing

Here I am, another night when everyone in the house (including the dog) is asleep, and I'm alone with my thoughts. As a harried dad I usually cherish this alone time, but over the past couple of years I've spent these late nights full of worry and anxiety.  

Hunter S Thompson coined the phrase "fear and loathing" to describe his own emotions about the state of the nation during the political backlash of the Nixon years. I find it awfully applicable today. There has never been a week since his death that I have more wished that Hunter S Thompson were alive to be writing about current events. I feel like he is maybe the only person who could have made any sense of this insanity.

Last night I couldn't sleep because I have a loved one in Portland who is the kind of person who would stand up to a bigot. I hadn't heard back from him and feared the worst. I then told myself to stop being so self-centered about it, then broke down thinking of the stabbing victims and their families. 

After hearing their names and seeing their faces, I am thinking about them tonight, but also about the utter hopelessness I feel. Yes, it's fun to fantasize about Jared Kushner wearing hipster-cut prison uniforms, but the news of the massive implosion in the White House arouses more dread than gloating in me. 

The most powerful position in the world belongs to a man who is a craven, bigoted, narcissistic, sociopathic, demented ignoramus. He stays in power because he is protected by Paul Ryan and his minions, right wing Bolsheviks who will stop at nothing to make their inhumane, extremist ideology a reality. Despite their awful behavior, they will remain in power due to a combination of voter suppression, dark money, gerrymandering, and the complete incompetence of their opponents.

I hate to tell you this folks, but things are not about to get better, they are about to get worse. I get the feeling that a man as horrible and irresponsible as Trump will do some pretty terrible things once he gets backed into a corner, which is likely soon to happen. I am honestly not sure if our democracy is going to survive the next three years, it barely exists anymore anyway.