Here we are. Almost one year into our collective state of confusion with the one and only Donald J. Trump at the helm of the American government. If nothing else, it has been an interesting year. It has also been a period of considerable disorientation and lack of understanding (or communication) on both ends of the spectrum. For all you never-Trumpers out there who have had some trouble processing these trying times, allow me to dissect our collective emotional state. Here the Kübler-Ross model (better know as the five stages of grief) will come in handy. Let’s begin...
Denial
Here is where our whole debacle begins. Very early. In a state of incredulity. During the entire lead up to the election we swam in a state of denial. Even as the first polls closed, the national consensus (at least in the popular media) seemed to be, “There is just no way this man is going to be elected. No way so much of this country could be swayed in his direction”...surprise! It happened. Now for some good ole fashioned...
Anger
Grab you torches and pitchforks! Time to get out in the street. March. Riot. Scream. Get on the Twitter. Get the word out. What better way to change people’s minds than lobbing insults into the infinite void of the Internet. Better whip out the big guns...racists, misogynists, bigots, white-supremacists, fascists, nationalists, xenophobes...Put simply, “Trump is the next Hitler and ya’ll a bunch of Nazis for putting him in office!!!” It’s time to get your aggression out and find someone to blame. If you aren’t visibly enraged by the sight of a Make America Great Again hat, than you are part of the problem. But there must be something we can do. Some way to make this waking nightmare come to an end...
Bargaining
One word. Impeachment. This is the key! We can make this all stop. We just need to find the smoking gun. Russia must be the missing piece of the puzzle. Back room deals, organized hacking, collusion, we know the evidence is there, we just need to find it. We don’t even care if Russia meddled in our elections if there isn’t a direct tie to Trump. We don’t want the truth, we want justice! Hmmm, this doesn’t seem to be panning out. Surely he can be impeached just for being an asshole. Just for being Trump. That will work right? Won’t it? Just...please...dear God, bring this to an end...
Depression
Now we arrive at the current phase of our predicament. Here we sit. Resigned. Tired. Seemingly left with no more options. What is a good never-Trumper supposed to do in such trying times? It all seems so hopeless. So pointless. Our voices are horse and we are fresh out of idea for correcting course. Guess we should all just give up and recede into our nice, warm, safe bubbles.
Acceptance
We will get there soon enough. It is inevitable. We will all have to wake up to the cold, hard, sober facts and face our fate. Maybe, just maybe, we will all learn a thing or two in the process. Maybe we will see the faults in ourselves and not only those in others. Maybe we will be begin to understand that if we listened a bit more in the first place, opened our minds, and (dare I say it) our hearts...we could have avoided this whole mess in the first place.