uniom (2018)

Like nearly everything that comes out of this administration, the misprinted tickets reading “State of the Uniom” felt almost intentional, like a subtle nod to the joke of it all. But then again, no, this admin is not exactly competent enough for subtlety.

Yes, ahem, union. The whole point of this thing, I guess. I remember Trump using the same word in his acceptance speech, what now feels like ages ago. It rang as hollow then as it does now. 

I listened to what I could of the speech on NPR on the way home from work, skipping around to music stations when the applause dragged on too long (a #SOTU tradition that will never die, no matter the president, apparently). My boyfriend had the speech playing when I got home, and I watched the rest live, between making ravioli and cringing in my bones.

There’s something about the texture of the president’s voice that has always made my skin crawl, but the full package—#45 Live in HD, flanked by two of the flakiest and least empathetic lawmakers of our time—that really just drives the knife in. The reality knife, if you were wondering. This knife is the same size and shape as the one that went through us all on the evening of November 8, 2016, but just because the wounds are the same shape, it doesn’t make the fresh stabs hurt any less. 

Two old white men and one P90X jagweed are the three most powerful people in the country at the moment. They have used that platform to systematically undo and/or undermine every scientifically and morally sound action taken by Trump's predecessor. 

Slate's Slow Burn has been a super interesting dive into the Watergate scandal, something I simultaneously can't imagine experiencing and ... feel like I'm also experiencing, just in a more modern world. Let's go through some similarities:

1. President and his cronies are lying. They are liars.

2. It doesn't apparently matter?

3. The President and his cronies are corrupt.

4. No one fucking cares?

5. The President is an insane, paranoid, insecure human. 

6. "I JUST LOVE HOW HE SPEAKS HIS MIND."

7. The President does something that requires basic reading skills

8. The press declare a "new (insert name here)", whip out the "presidential"

Okay, so this list is a little extreme. Clearly, people care (see: results of recent state elections). But there is such a frenzy over reporting on every 280-character word vomit that comes out of the Oval Office, a push from the right towards disinterestedness ("people in Ohio don't care about Russia"), not to mention the fact that people are fucking busy. And also, keeping up is exhausting.

Post-Watergate, it's almost impossible to think that early reporting on the scandal was minimal and met with an underwhelming response. It's a comforting (?) and relatable tale to know that there were certain lawmakers and journalists back then who knew how bad it was, and couldn't BELIEVE the rest of the country didn't really care.

And … not to make this impeachment, but ...

Here's something I learned from the Watergate podcast. (Spoiler alert for the last episode, but also, it happened over 40 years ago). When Congressmen and women were talking impeachment, none of them really had any idea what they were doing--and to be fair, no one had done it in over a century. They all rushed out to buy a recently legal text about impeachment, and had to grapple with the founder's intention behind the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors." How shudderingly relevant.