trump does not directly affect me much. The anti-science, anti-feminism, anti-empathy sentiment that he depended on for victory and that has frustratingly affected some people to whom I was once close was not created by him. He is an exploiter, not a creator. But in 2016 he still seemed unusual and likely to at least gut some of hypocrisy in government that didn’t directly benefit him, and by 2020 it was clear that in practice he isn’t much different from standard crooked wearers-of-suits. His regressive policies are their regressive policies. He is impervious to shame, publicly bragging about deeds that other politicians would resign to keep from going public, but he also knows that as hard as he wanted to be respected in New York, where he had his biggest, most audacious campaign event, he still didn’t win and still lost business licenses. He knows and dislikes that he is seen as a redneck president.
This friggin guy lives in essentially luxury hotels for his entire life, treats his employees like pets or worse, chums it up with literally the wealthiest person in human history, and is somehow regarded like a champion of the downtrodden, when just about nobody is more symbolically associated with trodding-down. Some people believe, without any evidence, because trump has also trained them to be anti-evidence, that he will reduce food prices. The people inflating the prices for pure profit all donated to his campaign! (probably) During my brief brush with election coverage last night I inadvertently saw some goofus in an enormous plantation house that almost certainly was built and furnished with slavery money, with a bust of Ronald Reagan behind him (similar to the television detester, except bronze) being interviewed, swelling with swill about how Trump takes down “the elites.” The only elites he took down was Rudolph Giuliani! If Hillary Clinton hadn’t run against him in 2016, Donny and Bill would probably be best buddy old pals like they were back in the Epstein days. I am not optimistic but I think there is a pretty good chance big D will slip on a banana peel down the steps of the capital building or detach his arms during a golf swing which might at least be interesting to read about.

A Kamala Harris presidency wasn’t going to improve my life, nor anyone in Gaza’s either (I voted for Jill Stein again, since in Connecticut it doesn’t make a difference), but I could have had marginally more optimism about who might not get hurt by it. I understand why they believe it. Trump says he will hurt people. He never drained “the swamp” and he never got mexico to pay for “the wall,” so he probably will continue not doing what he said he will do, but he hurts people spontaneously in the present. You can’t trust his promises, but you can’t know what he will do instead.