So it’s been three days since 43 Republican cowards decided to overlook what was overwhelming evidence blaming the former president of the United States for the insurrection staged at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
As the days go by, I find myself more and more putting the former president in the rearview mirror, which is right where he belongs. It’s time to move on from Donald J. Trump.
I’ve noticed something different in recent days, at least as it pertains to my well-being and mental stress level. It turns out that the previous four years were doing a number on my nerves. Many nights – more than I can count – I’d wake up at two or three in the morning with my mind racing in a million different directions. It could have been something he tweeted earlier in the day or even a rambling, incoherent outburst in one of his impromptu “helicopter” press conferences.
Whatever the case, I’d begin to do a sort of mental calisthenics. What the hell is wrong with this man? Why didn’t the media call him out for such a ridiculous comment? I’ve got to write about it; what should I call the post? My mind would lurch into so many different directions it was often tough to remove all of the clutter.
And many times, by the time I’d fallen back to sleep, it was too late. Time to take the dogs out. I’d love to know how many hours of sleep I lost, but I can tell you it was substantial. I’ll never get them back, of course, and I wonder, should I sue him? Sorry, I’m kidding. But you get the point.
Lately, though, my nights have gotten better and better. I’m not waking up as much. On a few occasions, I fell asleep, and the next thing I knew, it was nearly 8 hours later. Now that’s progress, but it makes me wonder how many people in America suffered the same kind of sleep deprivation? My guess is that it was a common occurrence.
To be clear, though, I know he will never be completely off our radar. The damage done to our country will take years to repair. And left in his wake is a group of cult followers who are more than happy to use violence in his name. We’re going to have to deal with those folks. It’s that simple.
So while the decision to not convict the former president angered me more than you can imagine, I’ve started to move on. The jig was up anyway. We all knew there weren’t enough Republicans who would have the courage to put country over party, so it was not a shock in the least. That seven decent and patriotic Senators did, though, is about as well as we could expect.
And I won’t get into each of those Senators’ reasons for doing so or what their political future may have had to do with it. For a change, I’m going to give them props for doing the right thing. It’s such a rare occurrence these days, so we need to sing their praises when it happens.
The quicker our media and the rest of us move on from the worst president in the country’s history, the better off we’ll all be. Twitter certainly has stepped up to the plate, albeit a little late. But they’ve said Trump’s ban from their platform is permanent. Facebook is referring their indefinite ban on Trump to an independent oversight board.
Here’s hoping Facebook keeps the ban permanent. There’s simply no room for an ex-president with violent and white supremacist followers to have an open platform to incite even more discord and resentment—the hell with his First Amendment rights.
The man is a danger to democracy and society. He doesn’t deserve deference, only contempt, and scorn.
Finally, my recent success with better sleep is not entirely attributable to Trump merely being gone from the presidency. Far from it. The man who replaced him has something to do with it as well. Joe Biden is conducting himself with the kind of dignity and decency we all expected. Knowing we have a good guy at the helm undoubtedly is playing a part.
Look, I know there will be challenging days ahead for Biden. But we’ll deal with those things as they come about. In the meantime, let’s begin the long healing process, finally putting his predecessor in the rearview mirror. He’ll never be invisible. But he’s fading – slowly but surely.
Have a good night, everybody. Pleasant dreams.
On The Fence Voters 
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