I was having lunch with a friend of mine recently and the talk came around to one of Trump’s most notorious actions (Don’t remember which one specifically, so just take your pick) and he, having voted for Trump, said, “I don’t support all of his policies. Just some of them.” Oh no, no, no. NO. No chance. That’s not the way this thing works. You don’t get to pick and choose just to make your conscience a little lighter. You bought the entire pig this time. You had a choice and you selected the man who, from a podium in front of a cheering crowd, made fun of a man with cerebral palsy. You chose a man who claimed without any substantiating facts or reasonable plan, that he would solve the Israel-Gaza war in one day. You listened to a fool who called the people of Mexico “murderers and rapists”. Even more alarmingly, you elected a man who just 4 years earlier had attempted to overthrow the government of the United States. You witnessed all of that and so much more and exclaimed – That’s My Guy.

So let’s take a look at what you have wrought, Trump Voter. For the first time in this country’s history, military forces are being used in major cities to control fabricated crime outbreaks. But not all cities, just cities with Democratic mayors in states with Democratic governors. Science and reason are being ignored or shunted aside in areas involving public health and environmental risks in favor of politics and uninformed babblings from non-experts (extremely dangerous for every one of us). CDC, FDA, NIH, and EPA are being rapidly and completely dismantled. Life saving food and medicines are being withheld from starving populations (including children). USAID is now defunct. Previously purchased food, including enough “high energy biscuits” to feed 27,000 Gaza children for 6 months, were locked in a warehouse and subsequently incinerated rather than being distributed to Gaza families facing famine. (Just think about that for a minute before reading further. Respected international aid organizations offered to distribute the food and the US turned them down flat, then incinerated the food. Food that had already been purchased. This is now your country. Cherish it) The “President” and his family gained approximately $5 billion dollars since he took office on January 20th. His deal with the UAE and their purchase of $2 billion of his cryptocurrency for access to advanced AI chips stinks to high heaven. This makes Teapot Dome look like a bake sale. White House for sale! Masked, armed officers are terrorizing large swaths of this country as they attempt to detain every brown person that they see, citizen or non, with bonuses for how many arrests they can make (bounties?). Cabinet secretaries spend part of their time testifying in front of a toothless Congress by lying outright or refusing to answer basic oversight inquiries and the remainder of their days ignoring judicial rulings. Medicaid is being cut to keep the poor from health care and to pay for a huge tax cut for the upper 1% income bracket. I could go on, but you get the picture. You could say that the principles that this country has followed since its founding are being eroded, but they’re not being eroded. Our founding tenets are being exploded in just a few months. You did this, Trump Voter.

This evil man. This swollen-ankled, narcissistic, ignoramus with nothing but hatred in his veins has set about dismantling everything so many of us hold dear. And for what reason? I think much of it is all about “owning the libs”, as strange as that may sound. To run this country for pure and simple vengeance is a novel governing philosophy, but vengeance is his driving force and he’s driving this country right now. God help us.

Trump Voter, this is your country right now. Your mistake has been foisted on all of us to our detriment. You don’t escape this responsibility. Soon, even the most obtuse of you will be able to see the impacts of your vote. (Imagine meeting the most obtuse MAGA person? Wow. I’ll gladly pass on that conversation.) You can only hold off reality for so long until the ridiculous tariffs impact your spending or you can’t find anyone to replace your roof or cut your lawn. Of course it’s coming. How would it not? The real world continues.

The future? Trump will continue to grift through the next 18 months and his family fortune will grow. The darkness will spread. The Supreme Court will be challenged, both by consistent lower court rulings against these policies and by their own lack of judicial and constitutional justification for their brief, unsubstantiated rulings. Congress will continue to be sheep in sheep’s clothing. The US and world populations will be put at even greater risk by historical administrative cuts and cutbacks of essential agencies and their missions. RFKJR will go too far and even Trump will have to capitulate and remove him (or that’s just my hope?). Finally, the next Congressional election looms larger than any election in history.

Stay healthy. Be active, physically and politically. Make sure you vote.

ps. I have a number of essays on important public health issues that I have carefully researched and need to sit down and send out, but I just wanted to get this one out to cheer up my readers. Re-reading it just now, it is so full of joy it feels like one of those family Christmas letters. Just my gift to all of you.

Typing this while playing in the background is Van Morrison’s latest release, “Remembering Now”. It’s like a throwback to old Van stuff. Very happy with it. Van turned 80 2 days ago and I still don’t forgive him for his statements during Covid, but he’s been there for me for a long time and filled in some gaps for me as I’ve moved along my continuum. Thanks Van.