THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY

It was one year ago, right after it became clear that Donald Trump had won the presidency, that I began writing political posts on an almost daily basis.

On election night, November 8, 2016, I was in a state of shock.  I wrote this: “I’m ashamed to be an American.  I don’t know what else to say. Don’t mourn, organize? Love conquers all? Yes, the sun will still come up tomorrow, but it will shine on a more dangerous world.”

The next day, I wrote: “Last night when I went to bed, the thought that rose to the surface was, “This is like a death in the family.”   This morning, the advice I’m giving to myself is:  don’t let a death IN the family turn into the death OF the family.  Don’t give up.”

Fast forward a year, and this morning I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief, as off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere turned into a collective kick in the ass for Donald Trump and the politicians who tried to surf in his sleazy wake. 

The governor races were the big story, and deservedly so, but a couple of the down-ballot races were delicious.  Bob Marshall was a conservative Republican in the Virginia House of Representatives, and author of a bill that would force transgendered individuals to use the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate.  John Carman was a conservative Republican who held the office of Atlantic County NJ Freeholder.  During January’s Women’s March, he tried to be funny on Facebook, asking whether the marchers would be home in time to cook dinner.  Carman also wore a confederate flag patch on his motorcycle jacket.  Trumpers have been full of themselves all year long. 

But karma’s a bitch (or it can be if you’ve been a bitch yourself.)  Yesterday, a transgendered Virginia woman named Danica Roem beat Bathroom Bob, and an African American New Jersey woman named Ashley Bennett beat Confederate Carmen.  Glory, hallelujah, and amen. 

Not that this is over.  In historical terms, it’s more like the Allied victory in the Second Battle of El-Alamein in November, 1942, the first important win for the good guys in a war that would last another three years.  That victory inspired Winston Churchill’s famous quote, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

My gratitude to everyone who worked on the campaigns that concluded yesterday – whether in getting people registered, getting out the vote, or simply voting for the right people. 

Now we know that Trump and his allies are vulnerable.  Let’s keep working, each in our own way, to take back Congress in 2018, and kick Trump out of the White House in 2020.  Or if Robert Mueller gets rid of Trump first, then we can kick Mike Pence out of the White House in 2020.