It's Worse Than I Thought

I'm not sure I could have been a lot more negative than I was about Donald Trump during last year's election. I called him a white nationalist. I called him a man-child. I called him stupid. I called him a bigot, a racist, a sexist, and a lot of other negative things. The man offends my every sense. I don't consider him an impressive person, let alone Presidential stock. I was disgusted when he won. I'm not sure I could have gone any further without crossing lines I won't cross. Clearly, I didn't go far enough.

Donald Trump is now occupying our White House, and what he's doing with it is not okay. This weekend he embarrassed our nation before the world with his ban on Muslims. To say this is not who our nation has always been is an understatement. I wasn't sure he could find a way to go lower than he already had this week, but he did here. It wasn't enough to sign a ban on family planning funds for people around the world, while surrounded by a bunch of white men. It wasn't enough to ban the USDA and EPA from speaking publicly. It wasn't enough to lie about the size of his inauguration crowd. It wasn't enough to begin the process of killing health insurance for 20 million Americans. It wasn't enough to take down White House pages on Civil Rights and Climate Change. Not for this President. Hell, it wasn't enough to remove the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from full time membership on his National Security Council, while replacing them with his white nationalist chief political strategist. All of that is awful. It's awful, even in light of the fact that this man is violating the Emoluments Clause every moment he's in office. Even with all of that, his "Muslim Ban" is a new low for this country.

I'm particularly sensitive to how terrible this is because I haven't forgot who and where I came from. My great-grandmother Julia Kravchak was one of the final immigrants to come across the ocean from Europe and enter the country at Ellis Island before immigration was halted in 1924. She lived in this country as a non-citizen for 18 years before being naturalized, and raised her family in the new world until her 1992 death. America has a history of being tough on it's immigrants, regardless of race, but it's a history that I would have liked to think was in the past. It's clearly not. Nearly 63 million people voted for this bigot, a man who literally is picking and choosing which nations to ban based on a combination of their religious background and whether or not this clown-President does business in their nation. Customs and Border Patrol Agents were literally detaining people whom we gave "green cards" to, denying entry to people who we had granted asylum, citizenship, and permanent residency to, because of the executive order of a man that most of us did not vote for. This minority-elected President, a man who got less votes than his chief rival, has changed the very fabric of who our society is. All of this in the name of so-called "safety," while not banning citizens from the very nations where the 9/11 hijackers actually came from. It is a charade, an embarrassment, and an insult to our better senses.

I spoke to friends of mine around the world this weekend, friends who were quite disappointed. Whether they were in Iran, Japan, the United Kingdom, or Israel, all expressed shock that this is what America is doing now. I had no response for them. I won't condone the actions of my nation, nor will I explain them. We are run by the worst human being to ever occupy our White House, period.