Personally Insulted

The name of this column – A Civic Duty – came about when Don Day and I first decided to establish an anti-Trump blog called “HOCUS POTUS, Travels With Trump.” We recruited Steve Dock, an incredible stroke of fortune, to act as Blogmaster, and he has been so much  more, a fully  contributing partner.

At the beginning, Don said it was our civic duty to take on our phony president, thus the name for this column, which is usually accompanied by brilliant spot art from Don, as well as great cartoon strips from his super-talented hand.

All this background is leading up to the fact that after 42 Civic Duty columns, it has finally fully dawned on me why I have bestirred myself 42 times prior to this (other than the fact that I get a perverse joy in ragging on this asshole). I am personally insulted that this total moron is President  of the United States of America.

This realization came to me while reading “The Polish Officer” by the incomparable Alan Furst and one of the characters says he is personally insulted by the German occupation of Paris during World War Two.

That is how I feel about Donald Trump’s so-called presidency: personally insulted. It is a bit selfish and/or egotistic, but there it is. I am personally insulted that a country like America could stoop so low as to allow this political travesty. This maniac stands for everything America has stood against during my 79 years – up to now.

I am personally insulted that after serving in the military, paying my taxes, voting, and trying to be a good citizen -- albeit a liberal and sometimes  radical citizen – that this dark clown could churn up enough of the meanest  part of our national soul to become fucking president.

There are tandem, associated insults, as well. I am insulted that Trump has surrounded himself with a pack of bog-dwelling accomplices who care not a whit for the America I grew up with, but consider our country as no more than a laboratory in which to perfect their evil concoction of Terror Capitalism. They are merrily and sincerely issuing death sentences to the citizenry they are sworn to serve and protect, all in the name of the warped and distorted game of thrones that our political sphere has become. They are totally fucking repulsive.

I am insulted, too, that the level of civil discourse in America has sunk to the semi-literate level that holds reality television above patriotism. I can understand some of it – the anger, the disappointment in the system – but I’m nonetheless insulted that my fellow citizens are so easily conned by a mountebank grifter. I thought more of America than that. I still do, although it is at times a difficult struggle.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was our president the first eight years of my life. I thought he was God. Of course, he wasn’t; he was, among other things, a calculating and pragmatic realist. He played the hard game of politics with a seemingly soft and personal touch.

But , above all, his deep and abiding love for this country  and its people was evident every day of his political and personal life.

Donald Trump’s deepest and most abiding love is only for himself. A deep and abiding pox on him and all he stands for. He has deeply insulted me and America.