Trumpression

I’m quite sure I have it…do you? Is it a new condition, or just a new name? 

Last night I awoke at about 3am. Not unusual, but in normal times I’d fall back to sleep. Not last night, or several other similar nights. Instead I began considering the possibility of something happening to Joe Biden, perhaps something with Russian sophistication or White Supremacist crudeness.

Then I thought about a less than resounding defeat of Donald Trump and the aftermath of conflict. I saw Institutions being blown apart in the wake and a psychotically pure narcissistic mad man, with the power to inflict martial law and exercise nuclear codes. No…I didn’t get back to sleep.

Take this new form of Depression, I’ll call Trumpression, mix it with the uncertainties we must all now deal with daily regarding a malevolent disease, and sprinkle in social inequities that have finally (and understandably) reached a boiling point, and November 3^rd starts to feel like a lifetime…no, two lifetimes away.

Perhaps if I was a bit stronger or maybe more clever I could compartmentalize. Like many Americans, or others around the world, most of my Trumpression is derived from watching the idiot in the White House, listening to the pundits who rail against him, and railing at the pundits who worship his idiocy.

(Let me pause briefly: the President IS an idiot, not because he is profoundly stupid but because he is woefully lacking in knowledge. But, more importantly, he has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder and therefore his world view, personal or otherwise, is totally subjective. He does not have, nor can he have any empathy or shame. It is the stuff of nightmares for us, but interestingly for him as well. It is why autocrats are such focused, corruptible, and miserable people.)

My life is not significantly different than it was when Obama was President. The economy was tracking up year after year, the United States was still respected around the world for things other than its military, those that supported science began to hold sway, and the realities of wealth inequality and systemic racism were becoming inescapable. Still, none of that affected my day to day life, really.

However, those pleasing abstract realities, ending with a few thousand people voting or failing to vote in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in 2016, have now been replaced. So now my diet, my sleep patterns, and my level of energy are all enslaved to Trumpression. No matter how much I try to tell myself how well off I am compared to so many others, it is inescapable.

Being over 70 I’m supposed to help the impact of the Pandemic by remaining out of circulation. That, of course, only exacerbates the problem. I know that to thrive through these next 66 days I’m going to have to find some ways to apply my time and money to ending my Trumpression.  Perhaps you do too. Maybe I’ll see you out there. We need a universally identifiable mask.

Stay healthy Joe.