Whilst cleaning out the DRAFT folder, I tripped across this post I wrote November 6, 2017 while reviewing the first year of the Trump Administration Regime.

tl;dr? 2017. Those were the good old days.

As I polished my poetry drop in commemoration of the election in 2016, I found myself with a list of awakenings that have changed my worldview of the body politic. Gads, this is painful, but in the last year between a rising awareness of embedded systemic racism, awareness that powerful, reactive Old White Guys threatened by change are not defenders of democracy, and an awareness that my expectations of the individual sitting POTUS for acting as the leader of anything have hit bottom, I was hit square between the eyes and in the mirror with the awareness that the misogyny of women – my demographic – voted him in. Even though I look like them, I am not a part of them, a part of that ‘we.’

Chewy. Don’t look too long in the mirror. Spit that s*it out.

Bankruptcy comes in many forms.

November 9, 2016 we woke up to the news that the next President of the US would be an apprentice. I’ll allow an exception on bankruptcy. He is a huge, really big, you won’t believe how big he is, expert on bankruptcy. No apprentice there.

And well, good for us. With the new budget and tax plan, the GOP is pumping the US handcart into financial bankruptcy hell like Wiley Coyote chasing the Roadrunner. Meep meep. Democrats look like the most fiscally responsible conservatives in the room.

In the last year, I have considered the cage match Prescedense Trump is fighting with the office of POTUS and the damage he’s done. Leadership, comportment, consideration, empathy, compassion, but especially leadership. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone and especially gone. He is expert at all forms of bankruptcy.

Well, unless you’re an Old White Guy¹ (OWG) or OWG wannabe¹ or married to an OWG¹ or mother of an OWG¹ or not comfortable with any other than an OWG¹ as POTUS.

The old age and treachery of Old White Guys. And it’s sad that some OWG are not even very chronologically advanced. See also Stephen Miller.

So I have spent the last year wearing an old timey diaper pin. I want to be a safe person in an instant should the situation arise. Some days I dread putting it on. There might be questions. Some days it is my safety blanket. My talisman of protection-not-protection.

And I have spent the last year considering the misogyny of women in my demographic. Sometime I’ll share my theories but they’re still half-baked. (Viva note: The link is to my baked theory published November 30, 2017.)

And as of today, there are still 55 days left in the year.

¹For all the people in my life who think Old White Guy (OWG) may apply to them:

Old White Guy is A STATE OF MIND.

I call it ‘Old White Guy’ as a short-cut to the thousands of words one could use to describe this photo. And make no mistake. Nikki Haley is not an exception.