Following Joe Biden’s election in 2020, I took this site down. After Trump’s defeat, his attempts to overturn a free and fair election, and subsequent criminal charges and convictions, I hoped the courts would deal with him, and we would be done with him. Silly me!
Prior to the 2016 election, I did my homework on Donald Trump and, like nearly everyone else, was certain Hillary Clinton would win. Her loss was a gut punch, but I was able to make some sense of it. I concluded that it was attributable to voter ignorance, irrational dislike for Clinton, and the loss of votes to third-party candidates.
After eight years, I assumed that most Americans had finally caught on to Trump’s true nature: self-centered, narcissistic, immoral, mentally impaired, incompetent, and criminal. Given his unhinged, racist, and misogynistic campaign, I was hopeful that Biden, regardless of concerns about his age, could beat him.
After Biden’s withdrawal and Kamala Harris’s nomination, I watched the Harris campaign with increasing hope and optimism. She offered competence, courage, and genuine concern for the needs of all Americans. She demonstrated a profound, truly patriotic love for our country and its historic values.
The message from Trump was the extreme opposite: dark, deranged pessimism, hate, vengeance, fear, mendacity, and lunacy. The contrast was beyond stark, and the danger he represented was clear. It was like a lunatic Darth Vader vs. Princess Leia. How could any sane, reasonable person vote for Trump?
Yet, once again, even more so than in 2016, I overestimated the voters: 76,480,829 votes (50.0%) for Trump, 73,839,383 votes (48.3%) for Harris. I wrongly assumed that most voters had seen the same two candidates that I saw. The factor I missed was revealed when I asked my wife, “How could this have happened?” Her answer: “She’s a black woman.” Ignorance and racism: a sad indictment.
So here we are again. Trumpscene is back online to share opinions and questions about whatever we can do to protect our country from the darkness and danger that’s coming and work together toward a country that looks more like the one Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and 48.3% of us, think we are.
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