Although I am posting this Reflection as if it were written on July 13, 2024, that is inaccurate. Let me clear it up. I am actually polishing this off on January 8, 2025, as I sit at the kitchen table in an Airbnb in Beaufort, SC. This is my first Rumination since July 5, 2024, and my last journal entry was on July 10, 2024. Three days before someone tried to kill Donald Trump (7/13/24). Amazing. They did not succeed, thank goodness. From this day forward, through the general election, I lost all perspective; without perspective I cannot reflect. Without reflection, I cannot write. I just keep second guessing myself. Suffice it to say that a lot of water flowed under the bridge since Trump’s would-be assassin missed him, nicking his ear, killing one supporter and wounding two others, instead. Fortunately, the cowardly bastard was killed in the act.
Since that horrible day, there was another failed attempt on his life on September 15, 2024. No shots were fired, and that bastard was apprehended before he could act. Then, the rest is history. Trump went on to win the presidency, keep the House and take the Senate. Frankly, I did not see it coming. All the polls and the pundits predicted a Harris win. How could they be so wrong? How could I miss the mood of the country? I was one of the observers who saw Trump winning in 2016, Biden winning in 2020, but I was pretty sure Trump would lose in 2024. Clearly, I am out of touch with the average voter. Inflation does not affect me, other than to annoy me. Having a black female President was not a concern to me, she was plenty qualified. Besides, I thought the nation would be more afraid of a Trump presidency than a Harris presidency. That is not what happened. The American heartland is hurting financially, and the average white person fears a loss of status and the ascendant position with the browning of America. It is what it is.
Now it’s time to start my journal afresh. I am starting to feel like I am gaining some perspective, once again. I am trying to separate my anxiety about Trump’s election from the actual facts on the ground. Should I fear for my country and the world? Immediately after the election, I was not so sure. He is a lame duck President by definition. He can only serve one more four-year term according to the constitution. How much damage can he inflict? He only has about twelve – eighteen months to get his agenda enacted, then he rapidly becomes politically irrelevant. After that, the Republicans will need to coalesce behind new blood.
However, as I write this, since the election and right up through January 7, 2024, he has made some very scary musings and pronouncements in his live appearances, that he calls press conferences. The events, held in Mar-a-Lago, are actually more like his rallies than what we would expect from a presser. Very few actual questions. Just Trump spewing falsehoods and threats. I have concluded that, yes, we should fear for America and the world’s future. What can I control? Only my reaction to events: not the actual course of events. What can we control? We can take back the House and Senate in 2026.
