There Is No Normal

June 8, 2017

Over the last two-hundred-twelve days, since the election, we have vowed, time and time again, to not allow things Trump inspired to become normal. Blatant nepotism – not normal; conflict of interest – nope; kicking a friend, when down – abnormal; Germany a friend – the norm; Russia – comrade, are you fucking kidding me?

The list of Trump created anomalies grows daily with aberrations as trite as nonsense words to exceptions a grave as gaming childhood cancer research. The sheer volume of unusual has put significant pressure on what we casually call normal. Perhaps, inching it towards the crazy.

So, here we are, bombarded with that crazy from Trump and his gang – jumping from one Trump phenomena to the next, repeating “not normal” like priests reciting “Body of Christ” at Eucharist. Feels kind of silly – too faith based. Plus, deep down, each feels too late.

We may have misjudged the Donald again. What if his intention wasn’t to change what’s normal, to impose a new conservative philosophy based on America (and maybe a little Russia) first? That’s a tough long-term goal – cultural change is slow. What if the goal were much simpler, like just destroy normal?

Yeah, kill it and let the ensuing chaos define whatever comes next – kind of like the Republican Obamacare strategy. Deconstruction (sound familiar?) is cheap and easy to implement if you’re willing to ignore complaints. And as a cited and penalized slumlord, the Donald has a proven track record at doing just that.

It’s gonna be tough to maintain a sane normal under these conditions – with Trump logic bombs blowing up all around. We need tools to slow down the assault – maybe our own Twitter bots, anti-fake news inoculations or, the force willing, the occasional honest politician.

Frankly, we, as the republic, need to get better at disallowing the abnormal or risk losing normal altogether.

In Peace and Justice,
osv

PS-
This morning’s Comey testimony before the Senate just ended. Senator John McCain concluded the morning’s event by using his allotted time to talk about Hillary Clinton, who is not part of the investigation. His off-topic rambling led to nowhere in particular, but sort of suggested a double standard since only Trump was under investigation and not Hillary. Unfair.

Is this kind of whining normal? I don’t recall.