That’s not politics, that’s a national crisis of the soul.

I couldn’t understand it when tens of millions of our fellow citizens first put a misogynistic, racist, lying, cheating, carnival-barking, pathological narcissist/conman into the White House. On purpose. Thinking it was a good idea. Saying to themselves when he bragged of grabbing women by their privates, when he cruelly mocked a disabled reporter, when he said the war hero John McCain was no war hero, when he said his political opponent should be locked up, when he called the Free Press the ‘enemy of the people,’ when he invited a hostile foreign power to interfere in the election, and said he ‘might not’ accept the results, tens of millions of American voters said,’YES! That’s OUR guy!! That’s exactly who we want as *president of the United States!!’

It seemed impossible to believe that our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, that the nation I grew up in and studied about in history and civics class, the nation my parents and grandparents taught me to be proud of–and that multiple ancestors were maimed or killed defending–had done such a thing. How could it be?

Inconceivably, it got worse.

Trump ‘burnished’ his standing as a sexual predator, (adjudcated rapist) a liar (over 32,000 times during 1st term), child abuser (kids in cages, families separated–some forever, with no way of tracing) twice impeached, 34 times convicted felon, and traitor/insurrectionist. Who truly DID refuse to accept the results of a national election. And with those ‘credentials’, he was elected again. What is most apalling is not the horrific nature of Trump as a human being, but that so very many of our fellow citizens see themselves in him. See validation. Permission. In an unqualified, unprepared, unhinged, mentally unwell, cruel, rage-filled, moral toddler, (which is vastly unfair to toddlers) they see some version of themselves. See some aspect–or two or three or more–of who they feel themselves to be. And decide that, yes, that’s the guy. That’s who we want as a LEADER. When he is manifestly the least qualified human being on the planet to ‘lead’ absolutely anything, or anyone.

The knowledge that this has happened–twice–breaks my mind and tears at my heart. Now, in the second term, we have the unleashing of a violent, unaccountable, private secret police force upon the American people–particularly my people in Minnesota–for no other reason than to extract the ‘leader’s’ vengeance, and to enact his cruelty. We have the building of concentration camps. We have plans being enacted and perfected to actually rig and steal the next election–something the ‘leader’ has been announcing and preparing for years, through his projections.

Some have begun to fall away, we hear. And we hope it is true. Yet we still have over a third of the country cheering, dancing around the fire, reveling in the validation of their own spiritual vacuum, their own bigotry and racism, their own rage, their own hollowness. Elated that they finally–and still–have ‘their own’ *president. Their own avatar. Their own champion. Trump is not the ‘problem.’ Trump is a symptom of a cultural disease. Which we can only hope is not fatal.

So, the rest of us–as I have written before–have only two choices–to give up, or not to give up. To give in–to the most corrupt, cruel, ignorant, malevolent regime in American history, or continue to fight it. So I write, here, on social media. I stand with my fellow Minnesotans. I try and toss messages-in-a-bottle into the tides. Facebook tells me that 23 million people have read my posts in the last month. Remarkable. But I take no great pride in that. I would rather be writing books, or songs, or guiding people into their own experiences in the restorative world of nature. And I do, and I will. But I will also keep posting here. Keep trying to find words to protest and describe the indescribable. Trying to change a mind or two, occasionally. But mostly to give voice to those, like me, who won’t give up, and who hold onto the vision of and belief in an America that once was, before an army of fools decided to make it ‘great’ in their own contemptible likeness. Trying to walk a path toward reawakening, restoration, and redemption.

Thank you for walking it with me.

(This is my latest Substack post. Please consider subscribing to me there at Notes From The Campfire@douglaswoodauthor.) https://substack.com/@douglaswoodauthor