When I got up this morning, I found my dear wife, who never used to get too excited about “politics,” despondent and depressed to the point that I had to console her.
She had been watching the latest shenanigans and Machiavellian going-ons — to put it mildly — in our government and, to be frank, in our beloved country, such as, most recently, in the state of Alabama.
As readers have noted, I have myself been totally disgusted with and outraged by the corruption and immorality unleashed and exemplified by this so-called president, his “chosen ones,” and tolerated, “normalized,” by so many of his devoted followers.
Invariably I am reminded of the words of Dr. Estés in her “closing thoughts” to A Clear and Present Danger, “It is true, one has to have strong cojones and ovaries for what passes for good in our culture today.”
As a man with some cojones, as a writer and active participant in the melee, I have an outlet for my frustrations here and elsewhere, but it pains me to see how this cesspool is affecting an innocent bystander — my wife — and, I am sure, millions of other decent Americans – not just those with “ovaries.”
I am thinking of our young sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, who, during the presidential campaign, were exposed to the most vulgar denigration of women (misogyny is too kind of a word for it), the most base and cruel assaults on minorities, religious groups and even on people with disabilities, war heroes and Gold Star parents.
I am recalling what I wrote here:
“In the days after Donald Trump was elected to be the next U.S. president, many fathers and mothers racked their brains and dug deep into their psyche trying to explain to their sons and daughters ‘How America selected a racist, sexist bully‘ as our next president.”
I am reminded of how Nicolle Wallace, communications chief during George Bush’s presidency and someone who once proudly called herself a Republican, reacted to the now-president’s continued “obsession with women’s blood”:
“As a mother of a son, I ask any woman who is defending these comments how they plan to raise good men, if the most powerful man in the world gets away with this.”
I am concerned about how our young people will internalize this president’s continuing moral equivalence on bigotry, domestic terrorism, anti-Semitism, white supremacy, discrimination and his continuing attacks on our intelligence agencies, justice system and so many other American values, traditions and institutions.
Once again, Dr. Estés captures and expresses what I am trying to say – without what some have called my usual “histrionics”:
“Abject disregard of what the soul finds most precious and irreplaceable and the corruption of principled ideals have become, in some large societal arenas, ‘the new normal,’ the grotesquerie of the weak.”
I was very sad this morning to see my wife so aggrieved by what one man totally void of morals and scruples is doing to our country, our culture our values.
I told my wife something to the effect that “this too shall pass.”
I hope I was convincing.
Perhaps I should have used Dr. Estés’ words: “Do not lose heart, we were made for these times.”
Thank you, Dr. E. and, to our readers, thank you for letting me share these personal thoughts with you.
