I’d been hesitant to post anything since election day. What can anyone say about this situation that hasn’t already been said? In my opinion, all you need to do is look at the decline of reading and critical thinking skills to understand the second rise of the sexual assaulting felon. When an entire electorate stares at screens 80 hours a week, don’t or can’t read anything challenging, and believe all kinds of disinformation and nonsense, guess what happens?

During his last term, I read more American history than is usual for me, hoping to see some similarities to our current times in our past. We have seen much worse days than this, and survived as a nation. In some of our most tumultuous eras, it was never certain that we would make it through, but somehow, we did.

I don’t know what the next few years will bring, exactly, but I will be surprised if the great dictator doesn’t try to suspend elections. He’s already talked about doing that, as well as rounding up millions of immigrants. His proposed cabinet members are a farce and a disgrace, unqualified people who hate the government agencies they’ll be running, just like last time. His voters wanted this, and we’re all about to get it.

One thing I heard a lot of from 2016-2020 are variations of ‘this is not who we are—we’re better than this.” No, we aren’t. This is exactly who America is and what we want. We can take a little solace in the millions who voted against him, but that’s cold comfort. A man as mendacious and vile as this should have been thoroughly repudiated.

My job is to just try and make sure my children are safe and happy. There is little else we can do. Locally, you can try and make your community better. You can volunteer and try and make your corner of the world a little more humane. Make your voice heard to your elected representatives. Beyond that, we can just hope for the best.

My wife and I don’t talk politics around our children, since that would be a crazy thing to do, and we want to let them enjoy their childhoods. We did look at an electoral map together, and they are aware who won. My nine-year-old daughter, who is a brilliant artist and incredibly smart and perceptive in ways that I was not at her age, summed things up perfectly afterward. “Bruh—it was a girl’s turn after all this time. And that guy is so dumb, and such a mean bully. Just look at him.”

Children intuitively understand things, no matter what adults might say. She knows a lying creep when she sees one. I have never seen a picture of this man where he is smiling and it looks natural, because he is a deeply miserable human being who hates himself and continues to take it out on the entire world. As soon as he starts talking, this is self-evident.

The religious people who voted for him could be the topic for an entire book. All I can say about them is that they ought to be deeply ashamed of themselves, but I’m sure they are not. He’s an imperfect vessel on a mission from Jesus, after all.

And that’s enough about elections. I refuse to follow news cycles for years on end. I’m turning it all off. It will be hard to miss the worst of what he’ll do, but there is little point in following it week after week with every new outrage.

In other news, I have a few writing projects I’m working on, and a deadline I have to meet in a few weeks. I’ll have plenty to keep me busy through the end of the year and the start of next.

One day at a time, as the saying goes.