Email Share 1K Shares

President Donald Trump (Photo by palinchak via Bigstock)

Every morning we wake up and the nightmare that is Donald Trump seems to go on. Most nightmares, even recurring ones, eventually come to an end. We must hope this one will eventually end as well.

As a columnist, it’s difficult to keep writing about what seems to be the same thing over and over — Trump being a racist, homophobic, sexist pig. Then he, his family or someone in the administration does something else that boggles the mind. This week, he retweeted a conspiracy theory that the Clintons were responsible for Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Every time you think he can’t sink lower he does.

In my view the only way we can rid ourselves of the nightmare is to vote ‘it’ out of office. I use the word ‘it’ to refer to Trump because there doesn’t appear to be one shred of humanity in his body. But then he himself referred to his wife as ‘it’ when trying to compare her to a former first lady. Who does that?

It ostensibly goes to the site of the latest mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso to give comfort to the wounded and share the grief of the families of those killed. Yet it manages to make it all about itself. It releases a picture of itself and Melania holding a baby who had been orphaned by the white nationalist shooter in El Paso and stands there with a huge grin on its face and gives a thumbs up. What on earth is there to grin about in this tragedy? Any person with a shred of humanity would be crying.

Those who are trying to end the nightmare of Trump really only have one option, which is to vote him out of office in 2020. That opportunity is 15 months away and it will require a total commitment if it is to succeed. Some are calling for boycotts of the businesses of Trump supporters. While that may be satisfying it will not bring out the voters needed to defeat him at the polls. Doing that will require a laser like focus if it is to succeed. I would rather get out the voters and then tax the hell out of all those businessmen and women who are now supporting Trump.

Democrats are in the midst of what could become a brutal primary fight to determine who will be the eventual nominee to take him on. I want each of the candidates to do what Elizabeth Warren did in the last debate when she repeated what she has previously said in Iowa, “This really is our moment and the need for us to get this right couldn’t be more urgent. I’m going to support our Democratic nominee all the way.” We need to demand every candidate running in the primary say that, yes even you Bernie.

I am not as fearful as some others the Democratic candidates will attack each other to the point of no return. It does seem clear to most the goal must be to defeat Trump. The debate is how best to do that and who is the right person to stand up to him in the general election campaign.

While the primary campaign continues, we are drawn back to the Trumpian nightmare each morning as we hear about a new tweet and try to fathom what it will do. It says he and Mitch McConnell have agreed to a plan on gun control and then “a McConnell spokesperson told the Washington Post the leader isn’t backing any specific legislation.” After the Parkland shootings Trump said he would go up against the National Rifle Association and then he didn’t. He has often flip-flopped on doing anything and basically it’s all come to naught. McConnell has refused to call the Senate back into special session and he and we know a month is a long time and the calls for action will subside and that is what he and Republicans are counting on. Can the public keep up the drive for action on guns for a month? That remains an unanswered question.

So as we go to sleep this evening the nightmare of Trump continues and there is no immediate end in sight.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.