My initial response to Trump 2.0

[edelsont]

This journal entry is not about Thanksgiving Day.

Then what?

This entry will be my [initial] response [first in this journal, anyway] to the fact that Donald Trump will be inaugurated, on 2025-01-20 [and for the second time], as President of the United States.

My first, instinctive response to that fact: “It sucks.”

No second thoughts about that! But I do want to add more nuance: to name several different feelings that this catastrophic event has evoked in me.

• Depression: check.  Predominant during the first couple of weeks.


• Despair: no.


• Anger: surprisingly little.


• Sadness: successor to depression (but not with a sharp transition).


• Grief: (nuanced) successor to sadness.


• Determination: not a successor to grief, an admixture with it.

The determination was triggered as I began to get serious with the question, “What shall I actually do about this [insert impolite word]?”  It tends to counteract what's left of the depression.

I have made real progress toward answering the “What shall I do?”question.  But nothing ready to be posted in this journal, yet.