The Big Picture
Don't let the the details torment you
We are assaulted by a barrage of outrageous news 24/7. Trying to follow each new abomination of this regime is a full time job and the effort required is enough to emotionally exhaust the most stalwart patriot. Even if you are aware of the futility of such an exercise most of us cannot throttle back the amount of news that we consume. It seeps in when we talk to friends and loved ones, we do a “quick check” of our social media to see if there is something from a friend and then we get lost in headlines, news from a court, or a news outlet and we end up absorbed in the battles that are taking place every day. Everyone has their own method of coping with this. I try to limit how much of the detail I get on a daily basis. I typically do not spend a lot of time scanning news headlines or digging down into stories. I try to keep my mind on the larger picture
The essential truth is that Donald Trump is an incompetent idiot. Our flawed electoral system put him into the office of the President and he is now trying to become a dictator while enriching himself and his friends. Focusing on the daily mayhem, all of the ways that he is destroying our government and ruining peoples lives, will not change anything and will rob you of your serenity. There are many who are resisting the regime as best they can. There are judges trying to force the regime to adhere to the rule of law. There are leaders in Congress doing what they can to impede the regime by oversight and opposition. There are advocacy groups and individuals standing up for democracy and the rule of law across our country and the world. All of this is good. Eventually the incompetence will bring about the utter failure of the regime. Like most of his businesses, Donald Trump will fail and the United States will wake up in bankruptcy court. All of the talk about winning and about how rich tariffs are going to make us will be known by everyone to be a lie. He will stand in the middle of the burning heap of our country and blame Biden, Obama, and Hilary Clinton for all of the devastation that he has caused.
Take comfort in this knowledge. Hitler was able to purge his country of judges, politicians, and press that could oppose him. Mussolini, Putin, and Orban have done much the same. Trump would like to be able to do this, but he lacks the competence. The roots of democracy run much deeper in the United States. Notice that I did not say that it is impossible for this to happen, but only that Trump lacks the competence to pull it off.
When the end comes it will be an enormous mess. It will be chaotic. Perhaps Congress will begin to act, but I doubt it. Perhaps the Supreme Court will make a declaration that is definitive enough to show that the Executive branch is acting in bad faith up to the level of treason, but I doubt it. It will be a combination of pushback by two branches of our government and devastating setbacks for our economy and perhaps our military. At some point, Americans will stand up in large enough numbers to say “Enough!!!” and force the regime out. This is my hope and my faith, but it is not wishful thinking. It is the result of having watched him in action for decades. I have seen him fail over and over again. I have never been deceived by his statements or the PR that always surrounds him. He is a truly horrible person, a crook, and he fails at almost everything that he does. So I will not spend my time and energy on worrying about him succeeding in his attempt to become a dictator. I believe that the United States of America is resilient enough to preserve democracy in the face of this unprecedented attack and that we will restore our damaged institutions in the wake of this disaster. Perhaps this will bring about the cleansing of our system that is so long overdue. That is my hope.