Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that one day his four little children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
We now live in a nation in which the content of one’s character is irrelevant in the selection of the most powerful and prestigious office in the land.
We now live in a nation led by a man who frequently bragged of his many marital infidelities.
We now live in a nation led by an orange-skinned man who, during his first presidential campaign paid a porn star to keep quiet about his adultery with her.
We now live in a nation led by a man who was found liable by a jury of his peers for sexual abuse and defamation.
We now live in a nation led by a man whose name appeared at least seven times on the flight logs of an airplane that flew high-profile, wealthy, older men to a private island where they engaged in sexual encounters with underage girls.
We now live in a nation led by a man who fantasizes about having sex with his daughter.
We now live in a nation led by a man who owned beauty pageants so he could watch young contestants getting dressed.
We now live in a nation led by a man who mocks people with disabilities.
We now live in a nation led by a man who calls neo-Nazis and KKK folks “very fine people.”
We now live in a nation led by a man who openly admires dictators.
We now live in a nation led by a man who says he will send millions of desperate men, women, and children back to the dangerous lands they fled, seeking asylum.
We now live in a land led by a man who wants to whitewash the injustices committed by our ancestors so that the present and future generations will not learn from those past mistakes.
We now live in a nation led by a man who is more interested in punishing his political opponents than in truly governing.
We now live in a nation led by a man who is more interested in making money than in truly governing.
We now live in a nation led by a man who labels as “shithole countries” nations inhabited by dark-skinned people and who welcomes immigrants from nations inhabited primarily by white-skinned people.
We now live in a nation led by a man whose former chief of staff said he exhibits all the traits of a fascist dictator.
We now live in a nation led by a man whose former chief of staff said he called military personnel who died in battle “suckers and losers.”
We now live in a nation led by a man who repeatedly has lied about the results of the 2020 presidential election—which he lost.
We now live in a nation led by a man who incited an insurrection against the nation he claims to love.
We now live in a nation led by a man who is not on speaking terms with his former vice president because he enflamed his followers and then did nothing to stop those followers as they sought to kill that former vice president.
We now live in a nation led by a man who looks to heaven and declares himself “the Chosen One.”
We now live in a nation in which a plurality of voters chose to reject a highly educated, highly qualified, dignified, compassionate, dark-skinned woman in favor of a bumbling, rude, self-centered, callous, orange-tinted white man.
Keep dreaming, Dr. King, because character is irrelevant as the nation’s long nightmare continues for at least four more years.
Spot on, Jerry. 77 million people voted for this. I think it says more about them than it does about Trump. May peace be with the rest of us who knew better.