Once Upon A Time In America.....

there were Republicans and Democrats and they took turns running things. They would occasionally cooperate to get things done. They may have disagreed on the best way to do things but they found common ground to do the business of the people. They didn't always like each other but they sure as hell didn't hate each other either. Then came Newt Gingrich to demonize those he disagreed with and his army of like minded cretins. That was followed by the Hastert Rule. You know, the proposition put forth by the child molesting bribe taking Speaker of the House where bills that didn't have the majority support of the majority don't even make it to the floor for a vote. This was followed by a Senate Majority Leader who vowed to make President Obama a one term president and, failing in that mission, dedicated two terms to obstructing everything the President wanted to accomplish. So after three decades of gerrymandering and Clinton hating and birth certificate searching and Citizens United fueled corporate elections we thought we had hit rock bottom.

Along came Donald Trump to remind us that we really didn't know where the bottom was. Maybe it was the inevitable conclusion to the long slide downhill, but we find ourselves looking around saying "what has brought us to this lowly state?". If we thought the election of Trump was our nadir, nine months of Trump in the White House has disabused us of that notion. Every day there is a new reminder that no matter what you thought yesterday, it was not the low point in the history of our country. But, if you elect a certified Grade A ass hole President and let him surround himself with a cast of malignant sociopaths, what do you really expect anyhow?

So taunting foreign leaders and supporting racists and forgetting that a devastated Puerto Rico is part of the United States all seems par for the course. But my point isn't to be pessimistic. I'm going to kick that football one of these days and the little red-headed girl is going to go out on a date with me and we're going to get through this. I saw Jerry Jones of all people kneeling with his players during the National Anthem. I see every day of the Trump Administration as a kind of catharsis that is sorting through the population until eventually only the most rotten and evil elements of our society will be left standing with the failed reality star whose only real talent is to give voice to their squalid and putrid points of view. Mueller's investigation is moving inexorably forward. We may not have found the actual bottom yet, be we very well may have gone as low as we are going to go without having to get there. Out of all the horrible things Trump has done, it may turn out that some stupid remarks about professional athletes is what finally revealed the true nature of his character to enough people to be the turning point-imagine that. If it was, we need to make September 24th a national holiday.