A Gen X Take On The Shutdown, The Women’s March, and One Year of Trump

A government shutdown is just hours away.  The worldwide Women’s March is set for tomorrow.  And President Trump’s one-year inaugural anniversary falls tomorrow. So I think it’s a good time to take stock of where we’re at.  As in, how exactly did we get to this cultural moment?

The answer, I think, is fairly clear.  Two words. Donald Trump. Because over the course of his one year in office, Donald Trump has systematically torn apart the social fabric that held America together. He’s also upended the global order and increased the chances that either global warming, or nuclear war, will kill us all.

I don’t need to go through the litany of evils that The Donald has wreaked on America. So just a few will suffice. Demonization of immigrants in the United States. Support for white supremacists in the United States. Massive tax cuts for the richest Americans. Destruction of human being’s global compact with the earth.  The list goes on.

On the world stage, his bombastic rhetoric has brought us perilously close to nuclear war with North Korea.  As close to nuclear war, in fact, as we’ve been since the Cold War, which ended in 1989. He’s also pulled the US out of the Paris Accord, the global climate agreement that was far from perfect, but was a step in the right direction towards mitigating global warming and protecting the planet from environmental implosion. And he’s insulted world leaders and their peoples from Germany to Haiti to Africa. ‘Nuff said.

So The Donald has done an immense amount of damage to, well, just about everyone on earth during his first year in office.

Which brings me to the opening of this essay. Senate Democrats are holding back their support for a new federal budget until Republicans agree to a deal on DACA that would allow the 800,000 or so Dreamers in the United States to remain here and achieve a path to citizenship.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this one. The progressive, social justice side of me thinks they should be allowed to stay, since they were brought here as children and have now integrated into and become a part of society.

But the rational, cold, calculating part of me wonders whether it’s worth shutting down the government and cutting off services to millions of citizens just to get a deal now on the Dreamers. I mean, can’t Congress keep talking and work on a deal for the future? Is it really necessary to shut down USA, Inc. so that people who came here illegally can be allowed to stay? I don’t know, I just don’t know.

And then there’s the worldwide Women’s March. There’s no doubt that Trump’s twisted rhetoric on women, and his institutionalized objectification of them through the use of the bully pulpit, has horrified our XX chromosome sisters. Most notably, perhaps, are his notorious Access Hollywood “Grab ‘em by the pussy” comments.

I stand with women as they march. At least I think I do. But when we get into the #MeToo movement and “yes means yes” and all of that, it gets a little trickier. I mean, I’m completely and fully in support of women’s right to be protected from sexual assault. That’s an obvious no-brainer.

But then we have episodes like the Aziz Ansari incident, which I wrote about here.  And on this one I came down more on the side of, it was a bad, awkward date, but nowhere near sexual assault.

And I do worry about newly empowered, middle class white women going on witch hunts against any and every man they don’t like. It’s a trope, I’ll admit it, and maybe a nasty image to put forward. But I’m a man, I’ve been around, and I’ve met plenty of women who would falsely impugn a man just to bring him down, or to get her fifteen minutes of fame. So I’m not totally sure about the Women’s March.

Which brings us back, once again, to Trump. Because if this fucker hadn’t steamrolled his way into office and thrown the world into chaos, people would be a lot more chill right now. The issues would still be there, from immigration to global warming to women’s rights and empowerment.

But I don’t think we’d be screaming at each other quite as loudly. But that’s what our leader does, he screams, he mocks, he reviles, and he tears down his opponents. And so goes the leader, so goes his subjects.

Don’t get me wrong, I for one am not Trump’s fucking subject, and neither is anyone else in this nation. But I think we’ve all internalized his temperament, his mode of operation, and his anger.

And now we’re all screaming at each other, just like the President does. And we’re tweeting nasty things at each other, just like The Donald does. And arguing on Facebook. And Reddit. And Instagram. And just about every other social media platform out there.

And it’s toxic, is what it is. It’s just a toxic environment on the ground, and it’s even more toxic in cyberspace.

So as the budget deadline looms, Trump’s anniversary is on the horizon, and the march is set for tomorrow, my wish, my hope, is that we can ratchet down the level of anger and polarization just a little bit. Just a little.  And then let’s see what happens. Maybe we can find more common ground on some of these hot-button issues. Maybe we can’t, and we really are too divided. But why not try, because the alternative is more anger, more vitriol, and more disenchantment.

And in the meantime, while we’re making up with each other, let’s do one more thing.  

Let’s impeach this motherfucker already.

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