Almost a year ago I fell down the rabbit hole and my world since has gotten “crazier and crazier”.  The GOP, once the bastion of the more conservative decent American, became a hell-hole of blatant lies, gutter-level morality and violent hate.  This Trump-led viral chaos spread rapidly through America and pitted Americans against each other at a time when we should have been standing together against the black hole that is the current White House and its inhabitants.  Driven by hate and fear, Americans have become the very pawns Trump needed to succeed.  Make no mistake, this was his plan, to divide and conquer…and he did.  He preached that bad was good, truth was lies and if he didn’t get his way, he bullied his way with words and deeds and bills designed to hurt this nation and those who fought back.  He attacked women, the environment and immigrants which are the very sustenance of this nation. He attacked Democrats, many of which who, in truth, are more middle-of-the-road politically than “liberals”. He tore at the fabric of what we knew as common decency and scattered it to the winds.  Still, even in the face of all of this, I have to believe that we know the difference, we know when we are being lied to, we know right from wrong and we know that at our very base we love this country. Now, almost a year later, our task is to take back our country and put it into the hands of people who care about each other, who love our freedoms and believe that when the dust settles we are all, in fact, just Americans.

The first step is to realize that our differences are much smaller than what brings us together. The majority of Americans do not want to regress back in time. We want to move forward.  The issues that divide us are not insurmountable, we just have to pay attention and start to care about the nation as a whole. We need to address the frustrations and fears of rural America.  We have to seek to understand other points of view and we need to educate ourselves and learn to not spew hate at each other. I know that last one is hard when people attack truth with outrageous conspiracy theories and venomous hate but we must answer with information, not name-calling. I am as guilty as anyone of attacking back. I was so outraged at fellow Americans, many of whom I felt were decent people, who voted this monster into the White House that I fought back with words and anger. I’m still angry every day when I see the damage he is doing. Now though, I recognize that it’s time to come together and be Americans first. We have to get back to common decency. We have to listen to our hearts, not politics or politicians or the internet. No man is an island.  When I say that Trump and his cabinet are very, very bad people, I say that as an American and as someone who knows right from wrong. Let’s solve this problem together, as Americans, before it’s too late.