First, let me congratulate President Donald J. Trump (the Madman). He’s about seven months into his second term, and he’s once again (as if you didn’t know this was coming) tumbled the nation into an abyss along with reason, civility, and just empathetic human values. Somehow, he convinced a multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, multi-gender coalition of willing participants in the biggest scam in American presidential electoral history (and that’s saying something) to elect him.

(How’s that going, people?)

As a student of American history, I found the gullibility of the American voter to be unsurprising. If you’ve read any of my recent essays (There’s a Sucker Born is my favorite), you will know that I was not surprised by the 2024 election results. I saw it coming a mile away since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and the January 6th insurrection confirmed it.

Now that the Madman is President, the recriminations and pundit analysis (how does one become a pundit? Is there a test I need to take?) are still ongoing about the whys and hows and what can be done to stop him, while the Orange Man does what was once unthinkable and unimaginable. 

How could this happen? That question keeps looping. Who cares?

We all know the answer. Americans love to hate, fear-monger, and scapegoat others to blame everyone else for their problems—often an immigrant, a person of color, an LGBTQ+ individual, or someone who doesn’t look or sound like them. There’s a long list. Check our history. It comes in waves, but you can see it if you look closely. It’s no secret.

All these months later, some Democrats still blame other Democrats for the defeat. One Bronx politician (I won’t even say his name since he is embarrassing himself [Ritchie Torres]) claims that Donald Trump has no greater friend than the “far” left. I mean, the nerve of those “far left radicals” to alienate “…historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like “Defund the Police” or “From the River to the Sea” or “Latinx.”

Yeah, that last one really sealed the deal. I’m not even going to try to dissect this because if you think that’s the problem, you should seek therapy.

The voters for the Madman didn’t choose any public policies or solutions to address complex social and economic issues from him. Instead, they bought fear, hate, misogyny, racist dog whistles, and sexist attacks against a Black-Indian candidate that reflected every vile aspect of American history’s darkest moments.

Their mass-deportation campaign and the effort to ban any semblance of anti-racism policies from every American institution should make us pause, but hey, why stop now?

Those pundits argue that Trump voters were anxious about the economy, believing the Madman, who had only one term as President and mishandled a hundred-year pandemic, could fix it.

Come on. Really?

I’m not going to list all the character faults the Madman possesses, but anyone who shouts at me that his “wise, selfless, empathetic side” just got to the soul of American voters needs to stop sniffing glue. They bought his bullshit hook, line, and sinker.

They bought the Madman.

Now, they can keep him. They have no choice. He has them: hook, line, and sinker.

The Madman has clearly shown what he and everyone aligned with him plan to do to remake this country in incredible ways. He warned us, and now he’s actually doing it, and you’re still surprised and shocked that he’s following through on what he said.

Come on, grow up. 

Actions with the approval and cooperation of a Republican House and Senate and an ultra-conservative Supreme Court should make us tremble with fear.

Or not. 

Some people love punishment, no matter how many times you beat the hell out of them or take their life savings. They keep coming back for more.

Now what? I know what I will do, and it isn’t climbing into a corner, crying, or panicking. I may be seventy-six going on seventy-seven, but that doesn’t mean my mind is not functioning, my computer is not working, and my voice is now mute.

No way (don’t make the South Bronx come out here with curse words).

I plan to use writing and video to speak to people who are not retreating, but are preparing for a long fight and are not afraid of the Madman, his group of henchmen-women, or voters who believe his lies simply because they taste good.

I know this means a more divided nation, but we’ve long been past that point. Hell, I’m old enough to remember Joseph McCarthy and his Red Scare crusades (BTW, his chief counsel was Roy Marcus Cohn, who would go on to mentor the Madman), the Civil Rights and Vietnam eras, and how they divided the nation. Or the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and their impacts on working-class communities and people of color.

So, we need to build new coalitions, do something about the establishment Democratic Party (I have a few ideas that involve a toilet and a garbage can), find fresh blood to run for office, and teach a whole new generation of young people that all the nonsense being tossed around as the truth of the American Experience is exactly that. 

The future of this country depends not on regressive politicians like the Madman, but on the minds and hearts of progressive-thinking Americans who understand that there’s no turning back the clock. We’ve already passed that point. 

We’ve seen what’s possible since the sixties—poor people and the working class from all over this country can unite against the tyranny of the capitalist class (no, that doesn’t make me a communist, you Neanderthal-thinking maggot) and build a society that truly reflects the values of mutual respect, a meaningful life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Naïve? Yeah, probably. But I have to believe in something positive because it’s a helluva lot better than climbing into a corner and crying, and that isn’t going to happen.