I voted today. My husband Peter and I filled out our mail-in ballots last night and today after dog walking and breakfast, we headed to Annapolis High School. They have a drop box for collecting ballots there. It’s one of many ballot drop boxes in Anne Arundel County Maryland.
This morning on our walk, I viewed with pleasure all the signs for Biden and Harris. I can’t remember an election where I’ve seen so many signs in residential neighborhoods. Many houses have multiples signs: the aviator sunglasses, ByeDon, the rainbow flag, as well as the traditional Biden/Harris.
I haven’t seen any Trump signs. Then two days ago my husband and I found one hidden behind a thicket. Why bother to put out a sign if you are going to nestle it behind a sticker bush where it can’t be seen? Not that it isn’t an appropriate place. Trump has grown quite sticky with his even more irrational behavior. Can it get crazier? Already I’d been picturing him in a straitjacket being hauled off to a mental institution, even before Nancy Pelosi announced on Friday putting forth a bill in Congress to create a commission to act in the event a President is unable to perform the duties of office. Has he ever been up to the task?
Life is getting very scary here in America. One week after our President announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, he was already announcing plans to attend rallies. I thought you were supposed to be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days? I’ve read that many infected individuals remain positive for multiple weeks and months, depending on the severity of their infection. But our President doesn’t care about following the advice of scientists and doctors.
I worry for the safety of Mr. Trump’s make-up artist and hairdresser? They try in their fashion to make him look good according to what they are told to do. In order to do their job, these poor individuals have to lean in close. Regardless of how well they are being paid, catching the virus has to be inevitable. Or perhaps the President has taken it upon himself to apply his own make-up. Maybe he’s enlisted the help of his wife who also has the virus?
Yesterday hundreds of his supporters stood on the south lawn of the White House to hear Trump deliver a rambling speech from the Truman balcony. The coronavirus is an airborne virus. Already the infection rate in Washington D. C. has gone up as more individuals who work at The White House become sick. Yet the “death rallies” continue.
The latest news on the campaign trail is that the incumbent Republican candidates for Congress, old timers like Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, are all trying to distance themselves in an effort to be re-elected. It’s a little too late for that now. They know he’s been unfit for office for the past three and a half years. But they have remained silent, more interested in passing legislation that will reduce Americans’ access to affordable healthcare, higher education, and a clean and safe environment, while the Republican party holds the majority in the Senate. They’ve justified their cowardice by convincing themselves that the ends justifies the means. They’ve told themselves he doesn’t really mean all the bizarre things he says. Meanwhile a dangerous and incompetent individual sits in the oval office.
I am reminded of the fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. The foolish and vain emperor pays several bags of gold to clever tailors who tell him they are selling him robes of fabulous cloth that only the wise can see. Too embarrassed to admit he cannot see the non-existent fabric, the emperor pretends to see his new finery and parades down the street in his underwear. Everyone is too scared to admit they don’t see anything for fear of being labeled ignorant, everyone except a little boy who cries out, “The Emperor has no clothes!”
The Republicans have no leader. They have been supporting a coward and a bully who has pandered to the selfish and the rich. The plot by a group of fringe extremist to try and kidnap and murder the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, exposes how minimally our democratic principles are being upheld by the current administration. These kind of extremists are the ones encouraged by the words of Mr. Trump. Put on your glasses America and recognize a wannabe dictator when you see one.
It took about fifteen minutes for us to drive from our house to the ballot drop box and now my vote for Joe Biden has been safely deposited inside. And I feel great today, really fine.
Nadja Maril, Writer & Author 