58 Comments

Was Horatio sucking on a pacifier and clutching his blankie when he stood at the bridge? I sure as hell don't remember it going down that way and I was there. Vir propius fuit! Remember your Roman ancestors and always be brave. Mos maiorum: the way of our fathers!

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

(Horatio, though young, was staring death in the face; today's Horatios are avoiding doing so by reverting to childhood.)

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Actually, my Irish ancestors were busy fighting your Roman ancestors but I get your sentiment.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

"four relatively powerless women fought back without wondering ooooh maybe this is bad optics."

Ah, yes! Bad optics. According to Chuck Todd, the Mueller proceedings were "bad optics." Having Democrats even bring up impeachment is "bad optics." Talking about universal healthcare? Bad optics. Tweaking the top tax rate? Bad optics.

You know what isn't bad optics? Complete, unstinting 100% support for a screeching racist as president of the United States and leader of your political party. Weird how that works.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Also bad optics: Chuck Todd's facial topiary.

Expand full comment

IOKIYAR means never having to give the impression you're a nice person. When your party ideology celebrates selfishness and intolerance, it's appropriate to be Mitch McConnell.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Christ, can you imagine if the ChuckTodds had been around during Watergate? The "bad optics" of Sam Ervin would have shut down the entire Watergate investigation.

Expand full comment
author

I'd add, so is acting like it doesn't matter that he's a screeching racist and we should wait for some miracle to displace him instead going after him with the means provided by the Constitution.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

"I refer to using the words 'scary' and 'scared' in place of 'frightening' and 'frightened.' (See the tweet at the head of this email.) I notice it a lot these days. (Hmm, maybe 'a lot' and 'lots' in place of 'often' and 'many' is another — oh, let’s stick to the subject.)"

A theorem: the four-year-old with the nuclear codes currently occupying the Oval Office talks like this, and it's so noticeable other people unconsciously copy it because, after all, he is the leader of the free world, and who would dare to impose proper grammar and spelling on the leader of the free world?

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

In my case, it's just the damage decades of constant head pain have done to my vocabulary, which has been substantial enough that even my GP has noticed, and a robust set of inner children of the sort you can't get rid of by "growing up".

Expand full comment
author

I think the trend is older but I take your point. We're all in Chucky Cheese now.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

This is a great post and illuminates one of the most frustrating things about how the Dem establishment regards Trump. They are constantly holding two contradictory thoughts in tension:

1. Trump is an incompetent criminal buffoon whose election was a fluke, so we don’t need to impeach, we’ll just whoop his ass in 2020, and

2. Trump is an unstoppable Teflon force of nature whose supporters are the most important voters, and they will emerge from their farmhouses, raised ranches and trailer parks like zombies in a horror movie to re-elect him unless we’re super careful not to offend them; so of course we can’t rile them up with impeachment hearings.

They are frozen like ‘fraidy-scared deer in the headlights because they can’t summon the gumption to Just. Fucking. Fight. Fight him with Congressional investigations and impeachment hearings, fight him by voting against harmful legislation, fight him by getting your asses constantly on the Sunday shows and cable news screaming about how awful he is. FIGHT. Trump is massively unpopular, there’s nothing to fear but fear itself.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

There is something you also need to remember: All the current Democratic leaders of whatever hue, owe their places to the corporate establishment, not to the voters (or at least that is their belief). The corporate establishment does not want things shaken up in any (real serious of fake serious) way.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I'm somewhat sympathetic to the notion that yes, democrats are the only ones who can fight this, but it's because we all know McConnell isn't going to do jack shit, so we ignore him and reserve our anger for the people who might do something, which has always seemed unfair, rather like blaming a rape victim for not coming forward before the guy raped other people. It seems like there are better targets for our actual anger, even if we can't expect them to solve the problem they're actively creating.

Also, keeping the House is not nothing. It may be the only way to mitigate some of this horrible shit and the effects it has on our most vulnerable. And while I am solidly on the side of "Fuck it, he deserves impeachment so let's do it", I'm also aware it's not going to actually solve anything so much as it will let history, assuming there is any, know that not everybody was cool with this shit. So that's not a trade-off you make without a lot of thought.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

It is impossible to know if impeachment will or will not solve anything. Hearings may bring things out that would never come out otherwise and might actually convince some. Yeah, I know that unicorn will be by any moment also, but a guy can hope.

Expand full comment

I don't think it's a unicorn, but a fine thoroughbred which can, in fact, show up. Impeachment will turbo-charge all subpoenas, get courts' attention immediately, and drag liars and evaders onto the stand and put their ass under oath. Also, let's not forget the dispiriting/enraging consequences among us faithful if they *don't* impeach. Sixteen more months of this with nothing but Pelosi's I've-Got-A-Secret temporizing, and I wouldn't blame any Dem who feels, "You know what? Fuck all y'all." As Elizabeth Spiers says in a good new essay in the New Republic, once nihilism wins, the only defense against it is to become nihilist oneself. Her excoriation of Pelosi is worth reading. I know we go back and forth on impeachment, but these days I'm pro-.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I'm pro impeachment just because it fucking needs to be done, objectively. The man has committed impeachable offenses, and it takes major psychological defenses to believe otherwise. The question is, do we care? And impeachment means, yes, we fucking care, and we're going to say so.

That said, I do understand why if you think it will cost us the only participation we have in this government, while failing to remove the guy who has the power to make sure the government injures people every time it turns around, you would want to weigh the options.

I don't, in fact, think it would cost us the house. I also think it needs to be done anyway, but self-defeating stands on principle are basically why I am a democrat in the first place. Give health care to coal miners who will vote against us for doing it? Sure, why not. Register republicans and democrats alike to vote? Yep. Gun control, despite the fact that people who are most likely to die by guns are the people who own those guns? Yes, that too. Is "performative benevolence" a thing?

Expand full comment

IT IS NOW!

But seriously. One writer made the interesting point that the House election last year showed that, in many cases, red districts were gerrymandered to contain exactly the kind of white, middle-class Republicans who are repelled by Trump, and so fearing you'll alienate them with impeachment may be wrongheaded and unnecessary. But as usual, I can't tell the difference at this point between what I believe and what I want to believe. (That would make me a perfect MAGAt!)

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

This. All of this.

Expand full comment

I don't think it's a unicorn, but a fine thoroughbred which can, in fact, show up. Impeachment will turbo-charge all subpoenas, get courts' attention immediately, and drag liars and evaders onto the stand and put their ass under oath. Also, let's not forget the dispiriting/enraging consequences among us faithful if they *don't* impeach. Sixteen more months of this with nothing but Pelosi's I've-Got-A-Secret temporizing, and I wouldn't blame any Dem who feels, "You know what? Fuck all y'all." As Elizabeth Spiers says in a good new essay in the New Republic, once nihilism wins, the only defense against it is to become nihilist oneself. Her excoriation of Pelosi is worth reading. I know we go back and forth on impeachment, but these days I'm pro-.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I feel like the unicorn has to not only show up, but drive its horn through Mitch McConnell's heart or at least chest.

Hope has never been my constant companion, I'm more into resignation that bad shit is going to happen no matter what I do to avoid it, but that I can survive it long enough to get even.

Mind you, Joe fucking Scarborough was going on the day after Mueller, about how he never goes into an election, a fight, an argument, whatever, "wanting to win" but that he must utterly crush his opponent so badly they will never, ever come back from it, that their life will be destroyed, etc. And I was completely appalled, because while there is a time and a place for revenge, it is not "because I'm mad that guy has the temerity to think he could be a good representative".

"Trump and the GOP are destroying our country, risking the destruction of our biosphere, and people are literally dying from their policies who would not be dead if someone else had become president", that's a good place for sentiments about salting the earth. "He made some lawn signs that say my fiscal policies are crap" is not.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I think the pro-impeachment argument is not that we will get rid of Trump through that route. The GOP Senate will never vote against him even if he started murdering citizens in the street. We know this. The idea is to formally invoke an impeachment inquiry that will result in stronger hearings that can last all the way to November 2020 just to keep him under constant pressure. This is also because I firmly believe and predict that he will refuse to debate any Democratic nominee in 2020 in part because his brain is increasingly becoming pure mush and partly because he knows he would lose even if his opponent was a badger.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

"history, assuming there is any..." That's a phrase I'm hearing a lot these days. Roy talks about not being afraid of Trump (and he's right), but there's a bigger fear underlying all the others--that it's already too late. That the people in charge are going to destroy everything and everyone with their stupid greed and hatred, and there's nothing we can do but hope the cockroaches remember us when they take over. As tempting as it is to give in to despair, I'd like to remind everyone that we can still save the world, and despite the inevitable tough times ahead we just might be able to create a better, fairer society. And if the worst happens anyway, then dammit, at least those cockroaches will know that some of us tried to stop it.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I'll drink to that, but it's still day-drinking.

I'm prone to despair, I admit it. It's why I left the Catholic church, no, it wasn't the one bad priest, or the exorcism, or the fact that I already had a pagan goddess to go to, or any of that. It was being told "God never gives you more than you can handle", and then told that despair is the only sin God never forgives. Because seriously? I'll take the blood-drinking and the Trinity on faith, but "Yeah, he's testing you because he loves you and wants to see if you'll be damned for all eternity", that I'm having a hard time with.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Despair is not a sin. It's a normal, understandable response to being overwhelmed by tragedy and/or injustice. Fascists like Trump try to induce that in their opponents--so many crimes, so many attempts to destroy democracy, so many people getting hurt, all at once. It's a lot to take in, but you haven't let it break you--you've let it motivate you instead, and that's a good thing.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

P.S. A lot of people (including me) have a hard time with the idea of a good, all-loving God allowing human suffering. That's why theodicy exists.

Expand full comment

I can understand (if hate) human suffering when caused by bad humans. It's the suffering of innocents--by disease, earthquake, etc.--that makes me seriously doubt either God's competence or existence.

Expand full comment
author

Not into a mitigation strategy right now. Roma o morte!

Expand full comment

I am.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Republicans hold the same contradictory opinions of liberals and progressives: simultaneously weak effete failures and omnipotent forces of evil. It's politics, Jake.

Expand full comment
Jul 27, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I suspect that for the Democratic establishment, it is less a matter of fearing Trump and more a matter of being extremely comfortable. In order to defeat Trump they would need to alienate their wealthy funders, and so they make excuses.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

The people scared of bogeyman Trump don’t frighten me half as much as the lot of them that don’t seem to care one bit about him or what he’s doing.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Which, sadly, describes about 60% of eligible voters.

Expand full comment
author

Mmmm, I think it will be revealed to be much lower.

Expand full comment

Hoping you're both wrong.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Love the insights in this one. Courage, intelligence, and hard work are likely our only way out of this one. Would that more Dems could demonstrate they have all 3...

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

The TV MSM and a large part of the online media regards it as important to build Trump up inot the this Invincible Giant when the reality is that he is a useless gasbag who has actually accomplished very little or really nothing that he promised in his campaign. Those that voted for him outside of the 27% of the electorate that are hate-filled lunatics knows Trump is garbage and will either sit out or actually vote for the Democrat (especially if it is Biden). This is not an argument for complacency; it is support for your idea of being clear-eyed and determined to be rid of him and his gaggle of human garbage.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Thank you! Trump himself acts like a toddler, we shouldn't react like a toddler! We are adults, he is not.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

(I'm so old I remember when Republicans liked to refer to themselves as "the grownups in the room.")

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

That always made me crazy, because it was never true.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

And now they've proven it beyond the shadow of a doubt... at least to anyone who's not too far gone to see (or care about) the truth. However, there will always be people who make excuses. For example, my Trumper (ex?-)friend who posts stuff on Facebook like, "I wish Trump wasn't so vulgar, but I voted for him because America can't be the world's nursemaid anymore!"

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I want to believe that were there any actual children at that presser, one of them would

have shouted "FUCK YOU , ASSHOLE" .

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I think they would have shouted "Weak sad poop" like the Wonkette slogan. That sounds more like a little kid to me. "Poop" is the world's funniest word to children. (Hyperbole and a Half did a great bit about this.)

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Raise your hand if you think it was not a mistake that someone put that fake Presidential seal behind Trump at TPUSA.

Expand full comment

The guy who created it was surprised (and delighted) to see it there. The person who put it up has been fired. The creator says it has to have been deliberate--you'd have to look for it online to find it. Here:

http://tinyurl.com/yy45y6kk

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Thanks! However scared or frightened or afraid or spooked or fearful or terrified or affrighted or pants-shitting horrified Trump makes us, this kind of trolling is absolutely priceless.

Expand full comment

I had the same reaction to "no wonder everyone is afraid of him." I had to physically restrain myself from tweeting back, "He's a coward. I wish just once a reporter would yell back at him."

Also, re "scary," yes, it's juvenile, although I'll defend to the death Catherine O'Hara's right to cry to Andrea Martin, "Mother Theresa, you're so good IT'S SCARY!" Then again, juvenilization (as opp. to infantilization) is all over the place. "Enjoy it with your favorite cocktail!" "Order it with your favorite toppings." "It pairs well with your favorite fruit." Our outer adult may be insulted and degraded and violated on a routine basis, but our inner child gets pandered to daily.

Expand full comment

I really don't think I'm "scared" of Big Stupid; more anxious and concerned. He and his cronies are pushing policies which will affelct me and people I care about adversely. His mere presence in the White House means we may have another stupid, evil man inflicted on us by the GOP in the future. And the calls to "just move on and put all this behind us" will be all too real once he leaves office. Sad, concerned, and anxious, but not scared.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Amen, brother.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

The first time Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Shumer has a press conference where s/he calls Trump a rapist, a whiny fucking baby man and a crook who has never accomplished a damn thing in his life, or words to that effect, I will donate 10% of my annual income to the Democratic party.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Well, I can't commit to donating income, but it will be a great day when they pull the string Mueller is pointing to with barely controlled exasperation--the Russkies are fucking with our elections and the rethugs and their bad baby boy are ok with it.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

The irony is that Trump himself is the most insecure coward who ever occupied the White House. Check out his "speech" to Trump Youth, USA. (Even on paper you can tell the point in almost every paragraph where he goes off prompter and Stephen Miller's cliched tripe morphs into Trump's lunatic surrealism.) The bitching and whining of the sack of shit is pathetic. This is not someone to fear, but fight. Trump, the Turning Point twerps, and their parents may try to convince themselves otherwise, but they are a minority. Fuck 'em.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usas-teen-student-action-summit-2019/

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I see a great deal of value in keeping the good things about being not-an-adult, or maybe just expanding the definition of adult to include, yes, coloring books and stress toys. It's probably confusing to kids, but since the only ones I have are literally my inner children I don't worry about that. That said, even they know they have an adult body that can't stand right up close to the meerkat habitat if there's other people trying to see. Be an adult where it matters, a kid where it doesn't, if you want to.

I'm also going to push back a little against the "nothing to fear" thing. There are a lot of people out there who may have successfully ditched an ex or left a family abuser, whose PTSD gets twinged every fucking time the jackass opens his mouth. I don't mean triggered in the way that assholes use it, I mean genuinely fucking distressed into flashbacks and potentially into literally infantilized behavior. I'm working on transforming that into rage at the man and resentment that this can still fucking happen to me when I thought I'd gotten rid of these assholes from my life. But I'm not there yet, and too often it's just despair that, basically, half the fucking country would have elected my fucking dad president, apparently, even after listening to his victims. That's gross, and I know that seems juvenile too, as a reaction.

But spare a thought for the people for whom this asshole and his policies are literally traumatizing or retraumatizing, and try not to tell them to get their shit together and stop being afraid of him. I know you wouldn't on purpose, any of you, but those uniquely susceptible people will probably always be part of the people listening. It works better to make a space where those people can feel safe being mad at him instead of frightened. The Women's March was the first place I got that, and stuff like Know Your Rights classes and protests are also great for that.

Why yes, I did just spend my morning with my shrink. I note, though, that she's seen a huge improvement in my coping skills.

Expand full comment
author

Well, that's the important thing.

Expand full comment
Jul 26, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Amen. Fear and trepidation cloud judgement. Need to keep one's eyes on the ball. Also, things fall apart. They will for trump and the GOP, as they did for W and Cheney, who look like Machiavelli compared to this bunch. People make decisions, then have to live with the often unexpected consequences. In this universe, the actions we need to take may be the ones that will look right in say 10 years.

Expand full comment