General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsQuite the realization today:
I have been practicing dentistry in Center City Philadelphia for nearly forty years. During that time I have been an outspoken Democrat and activist here and am not afraid to make my opinions and political preference known within an appropriate context. during this time I have engaged literally thousands of people of all political stripes although since I have an insurance-based workingman's practice, my patient load tends to be some version of Democratic/liberal/lefty-pro-environment-intellectual-granniesforpeace base so I am generally reasonably safe in doing so.
For all that my practice has had to endure under Reagan, Two Bushes, Two wars in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, the rise of RW Talk Radio, the Recount in 2000, the response to the terror of 9/11, I have never seen or heard anything like what people say to me routinely about this malignant narcissist who presently inhabits what he calls the Dump. I can't even write what many of them say because it frankly would be considered at the very least bad taste and at the worst, worthy of a visitation by the Secret Service. And it is continuous and unceasing in its vitriol. when they ask me what I think I tell them that including Charlie Manson, he is the sickest individual I've ever seen in the Public Sphere and if he were in my practice encompassing about seventeen thousand individuals, he would be in the bottom five in regards to his mental health. That he is disturbed on so many axes that he stands on his own in terms of severity and ability to destroy those around him and those who are subject to his rule, that is about three hundred million people.
I also say that I do believe that the powers-that-be are not going to allow him to hijack and destroy democracy in a fit of ignorance and illness and I then say that there are two phrases which exit my mouth I never thought I would utter: first, that I'm relying upon the military to control any real physical dangers to the nations of the world, including ours, and second that I would trade him in an instant for Bush/Cheney. I say the latter with some humor of course. My father of blessed memory once told me that the distinction between the United States and almost any other country is that when someone went to sleep they knew for certain that they would awaken in the same country in which they'd fallen asleep. That my dear friends, is no longer true.
I wish us all the luck in the world: we really need it this time.
Eyeball_Kid
(7,429 posts)Edit: mission>million
PCIntern
(25,466 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)Martin Eden
(12,842 posts)The malignant narcissist in chief has not yet done anything as damaging as Bush/Cheney, but he is certainly capable of much worse. For the safety of our country and the world he needs to be constrained or removed from office.
Having said that, I dread Mike Pence becoming president. Trump is unable to get much of anything done because he is an immature sociopath and his own worst enemy, but Pence is a skilled politician in addition to being a charter member of the American Taliban.
I will absolutely vomit when he is heralded as a return to sanity in the wake of Trump as he looks so presidential making headway with the hard right religious fundamentalist agenda.
PCIntern
(25,466 posts)The only good news is that Pence couldn't even get re-elected in Indiana he's so repulsive.
But we can never doubt the strength of the GOP and its willingness to win at any cost.
Stuart G
(38,403 posts)Thank You for sharing your experiences.....You have a very special perspective on life...
May we all make it through., somehow.... ..
pnwmom
(108,952 posts)get used over the shock of him replacing DT.
Martin Eden
(12,842 posts)But with a Rethug congress he could do considerable damage.
MarcA
(2,195 posts)calimary
(81,085 posts)No kidding it's a very very important point!
That's why it's exceptionally important for EVERYONE to get off their duffs and VOTE IN THE MIDTERMS! If we can take one of those two chambers back - the Senate or the House, we can pretty much stop anything a so-called pResident* Pence might try. It is URGENT that we stop him from ANY achievements, and muddy up his name and reputation so he's radioactive by the time he tries to run for a term of his own.
progressoid
(49,929 posts)ban1941
(9 posts)They do not want the separation of church and state. They want to be the state.
calimary
(81,085 posts)I think I fear a creeping theocracy more than just about anything else, besides a hoard of neo-Nazis, that is.
I think we all understand, too, that this is what we WILL start seeing if Mike Pence somehow succeeds Agent Orange.
calimary
(81,085 posts)Now, I, too, would trade this jerk and his albino Christofascist sidekick for bush/cheney ANY day.
Never thought I'd say, or believe such a thing.
Good OP, PCIntern.
Martin Eden
(12,842 posts)What I'd like to say to his face:
I'd tell you to go fuck yourself
But that is much too kind
Because if you could perform that feat
You'd take pleasure in your behind
I'd like to say eat shit and die
But you deserve much more
You should suffer all the grief and pain
Of your misbegotten war
Though I can never make you think
Or feel, or understand
I'll take solace when you hear your name
Cursed throughout the land
From inside a lonely prison cell
Dark and bare and cold
Where every day you pay for your crimes
Until you're sick, heartbroken, and old
Then when you finally leave the earth
You fucked over oh so well
If there is a God and afterlife
You're going straight to hell
NJCher
(35,616 posts)I got a good laugh from it, plus it must have been good therapy for you.
Cher
Martin Eden
(12,842 posts)I dread the poem I may have to write to the malignant narcissist who currently occupies that office.
calimary
(81,085 posts)Last edited Thu Sep 7, 2017, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)
Nevertheless, it's a pretty doggone good poem! Kind of an evergreen at this point. Applies to more so-called "pResidents" than just bush/cheney.
Willie Pep
(841 posts)Trump is vulgar and awful but thankfully he has not been very effective. I honestly worry about Pence becoming president since he and the Congressional GOP would get along very well and the media would likely back off from Pence since he seems reasonable and sane compared to Trump.
I actually think the Trump circus works to our advantage because his vileness is more obvious than say somebody like George W. Bush who supported terrible policies but came off as likeable and personable to many people.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)And now I admire the way you think.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)for sharing your very refreshing experiences in your practice. For OUR mental health, we need more stories like yours as a counter-balance to constant exposure in our public media to this evil, hard right-wing crew.
monmouth4
(9,685 posts)Amaryllis
(9,524 posts)"I then say that there are two phrases which exit my mouth I never thought I would utter: first, that I'm relying upon the military to control any real physical dangers to the nations of the world, including ours..."
I posted a thread a few days ago to the effect that I never, ever thought I might be thinking in terms of the military taking control to be a potentially good thing...but I truly do hope they have taken some measures to prevent him from unleashing nuclear weapons in a fit of ...whatever. I trust Mattis and the joint chiefs vastly more than him. He who shall not be named.
disalitervisum
(470 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)it.
enough
(13,254 posts)It was obvious right from the start what a disaster tRump would be, yet the gop propped him up. They seem to WANT incompetant people in the WH. Any nutjob with (R) after their name is A-O-K with them. So, who will be next Cruz, Issa, Gowdy, Screwy Louie Gohmert??
stopwastingmymoney
(2,041 posts)With the assumption being that they would be able to deliver legislation for him to sign.
I don't see their problem there being much different when Pence holds the pen.
Let's all hope anyway
zentrum
(9,865 posts)Made me feel more hopeful---that there are people who get it, really get it.
PatrickforO
(14,557 posts)an excellent post.
Let's hope Trump pulls down the whole sick radical libertarian Koch-funded bunch - destroys them as a party.
George II
(67,782 posts)Two points - your father's observation has been true for the last 100 years or so, but not so in 1860. That's not a slight to your father, of course.
Second, anecdotally, the father of my best friend of years ago was the only Black dentist in Mobile Alabama back in the 1950s through the 1980s. Considering the political/racial climate during those years, he had no worries about the "political stripe" of his patients!
BigmanPigman
(51,560 posts)hygienist since I was wearing my 45 "lock him up" earrings and she asked about them. I told her about my efforts to protect the ACA and the Resistance activities I was involved with. She said, "Oh, I do not follow that stuff much. I heard something about health insurance though". She also said she "heard something about Russia". It is a good thing I couldn't speak too much because I wanted to tell her that it must be lovely being able to live under a rock and be willfully ignorant.
Freddie
(9,256 posts)Who has sharp tools in your mouth.
My hairdresser is a virulent "pro-lifer" and voted Trump for that reason. We have a truce to not talk politics, especially as she has a scissors and chemicals (color) in my hair.
world wide wally
(21,734 posts)whathehell
(29,026 posts)Mr. Mueller should be completing his investigation soon.
spanone
(135,776 posts)BSdetect
(8,994 posts)The GOp never will.
gademocrat7
(10,643 posts)We really do need all the luck in the world.
CrispyQ
(36,413 posts)we're still fucked. I hope Mueller has bigger plans & goes for the entire upper echelon of the party, or we'll be right back here again, one day. Voting irregularities are not going to get any better in the next 2-4 years. Personally, I don't know if the dems will ever have any influence again in my lifetime. My friends and family who were not politically active before the Con, were active for a short period after his inauguration, but now, they are inactive again. You are right that we're going to need all the luck in the world.
azureblue
(2,144 posts)they take very seriously their pledge to uphold the Constitution. Not the President. Among my military friends back in the Bush days, there was serious gnashing of teeth over going to invade a country that posed no threat to the US, except for owning "our" oil...
jimlup
(7,968 posts)I have been thinking about this seriously myself for the last several months. The more I reflect on it, the more I am convinced that democracy has slipped through our fingers. We are now under some kind of rude and bizarre plutocracy.
We, as human beings seeking real democracy, may eventually prevail. However, from where I sit now, it seems unlikely. I'll turn 60 years in three months, and I have never felt as hopeless as I feel now.
Dan
(3,536 posts)that a military coup is an outside possibility as the GOP controlled Congress continues to fail to do their job.
The military's primary job is to protect the nation and the Constitution - against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Warpy
(111,117 posts)where he's about as popular as the bubonic plague cases that crop up from time to time. I don't hear a lot of complaints when I'm out and about but I do notice a very angry silence wherever a business has a TV tuned to CNN (Pox not being terribly popular around here). You can see it in the faces and the glares at the TV if Dumpster Fire's face comes on.
I do live on the poorer side of town, but it's also the military side of town. It makes no difference if it's a soldier waiting for his car to be serviced or an ordinary civilian. The anger in the air is so thick you could cut it.
You're not seeing anything unusual. I think you have to go to Dixie and parts of the midwest to find any of them.
Remember, even Phoenix was a frost.