Remember the brief joy many felt at defeating the evil of Donald Trump back in 2020? Well, we had 2 years without having to deal with him advancing fascism directly, and that’s now gone because Trump has announced that he is running for president once more in 2024. And it’s also probably only a matter of time before Elon Musk lets Trump back on Twitter, even though that’s still up for debate.
Our Julia Glassman watched his speech and covered the news because she’s a braver woman than I am, and I am frankly tired of his voice. But essentially Donald Trump has filed to run for president again. And in theory, they could still prevent it from happening, but we know the cowards of the Republican party will do no such thing because that’d mean actually having a backbone.
The problem is that bitching about it has instantly got me labeled as a “p***y” on Twitter, and I’m sure there will be more people who are angry that I’m upset that Trump had the chance to even run again given what he did to this country, but guess what? It’s bullshit that he is getting this chance!
Trump’s 2024 run was preventable
One thing that kept frightening me about Trump’s presidency as a whole, and even his loss, was the constant threats that he wasn’t going anywhere, even after finishing the terms a president is allowed to have. Trump threatened (whether he was joking or not) to just keep going, and while no one can do anything about that, they could have done something about him running again after he tried to overthrow the election.
He has been in trouble for a long list of things including trying to overturn the 2020 election, and yet he just kept getting a slap on his wrist and getting to carry on with his day. He never got banished from anything, and we are now back in the hellish news cycle of a Trump candidacy.
They say history repeats itself, and it’s true. And this is exactly the historical reference I was hoping wouldn’t be a repeat, and yet it keeps pointing itself in that direction. Will anyone actually stand up for democracy and stop it, or will Republicans, with their recent lack of a “Red Wave” during the midterms, throw themselves fully behind Trump because it might get them the MAGA vote?
Is there any hope?
Honestly? I don’t know. And anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is frankly just trying to make everyone feel better because no one knows. That’s why the 2016 election shocked so many people, because everyone dismissed Trump and acted like he would never stand a chance, and then he won and everything has been extra hellish ever since.
He ruined the U.S. Supreme Court, put the lives of those who may need abortions at risk, and has driven a wedge in this country that no amount of “unity” talk will fix. Giving him this chance because they couldn’t vote to stop him from running again? It’s just going to make it all worse, and this time, I really don’t know if democracy can survive it.
Call me doom and gloom and a negative person, but after the 2015–2020 clusterfuck that was the Trump era, I don’t want to go back to that, but I don’t see how the next two years aren’t going to be a complete shitstorm of bad things. I just … don’t.
(featured image: Michael Zarrilli/Getty Images)
