America could really use a President right now.

I have this thought more often than I care to consider recently.

It resurfaces whenever there is a national tragedy or global crisis or natural disaster or moment of consequence, whenever compassion, decency, strength, or goodness are required from a president; whenever an adult human leader would be called upon and compelled to actually lead this nation.

In those moments, our petulant, amoral, intellectually-stunted, emotionally-fetal White House squatter sits, unable to express coherent thoughts, unwilling to be decent, incapable of basic human empathy, mortally allergic to nobility.

This is what we get in our times of greatest need, now America: a narcissistic man-child, whose complete lack of competence and preparedness rears its repugnant head in the very moments that require a steady hand, and a clear voice, and a calming presence.

When we require unity, he brings division.When we need reason, he provides conspiracy.When we crave calm, he feeds us chaos.When we seek clarity, he muddies the watersWhen we look for selflessness, he looks for praise.When we need eloquence, he offers verbal diarrhea and spelling errors.When we deserve truthful fine print, he manufactures bold type fake headlines.

And it could have all so-easily been different.

We could have had a human president right now.We could have had someone capable of critical thinking, the ability to understand complex problems, the stable temperament to lead us through challenging waters. We could have had a president who didn’t seek the presidency as a way to avoid prosecution or to pillage our entire nation because they were beholden to a murderous dictator. We could have had affordable healthcare, first-time home buyer credits, and small business assistance—instead of stratospheric grocery prices, massive medication costs, and tax breaks for the wealthiest among us.We could have had a president who declared war on illiteracy and ignorance instead of on the Department of Education.We could have been led by someone who went to battle for the most vulnerable and marginalized among us—and not with them.We could have been helmed by someone who realizes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are our highest collective aspirations—not dire threats, national dangers, or evils to be eradicated.We could have had programs to feed the hungry and support the elderly and undergird those on the margins—instead of seeing these things all wiped out without warning or sense.We could have had a Presidential Cabinet filled with experienced, educated, qualified adults, instead of a ghoulish cadre of the unwell and incapable.We could have had strong global partnerships that make the planet cleaner and safer instead of being alienated from our lifelong allies. We could have had a president who didn’t allow an unelected South African soon-to-be-trillionaire to highjack our government.We could have had Kamala Harris.

And all we needed for this, was to have had a few thousand registered voters who actually gave enough of a sh*t about this nation to show up instead of opting-out,or to have had a few thousand pro-Palsetine voters who weren’t so short-sighted that they cut off their noses to spite their faces, and handed Gaza to a man we told you would eradicate it.or maybe to have had a few thousand supposedly-Christian conservatives who took their faith seriously enough to not vote for a 34-count felon and court-adjudicated rapist.

But since we didn’t get that, we don't have a President right now.We don't have a leader.We don't even have an impotent figurehead.We have an egomaniacal instigator who makes everything more cruel, more volatile, more painful than it could and should be.We have an empty husk of a man, whose very presence in the place in which he finds himself is the greatest and most tragic joke of our lifetime.We have a predatory leader who we will have to go to war with in order to save our Republic from the very fascism our grandparents and great grandparents and half a billion Americans died fighting against.

We could have had a decent, rational human being leading us into a future of possibility where everyone could have a seat at the table but now we don’t.

And I have no idea what you are going to do in response to this information, and on many days, I’m don’t know either.

All I know is, it didn’t have to be this way.

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