I’m 30. I’ve spent most of my life on the left as an unusual patriot. Nationalism, even of the civic variety, is not always welcome on the left. Still, I wore my colors proudly - for all of America’s faults, for all of our mistakes, for all of our crimes, we were always also capable of great good.

Since last November, I’ve been putting the burial shroud over Uncle Sam. There’s something more comforting about a funeral. Something that was, and then wasn’t. Nostalgia and loss can poison the truth of the memory, what was bad, sometimes, hell, what was good - but something was there. And what passed is worth mourning. I prefer that to affording this any sliver of legacy of what we were - and make no mistake, what we were was always a very deeply flawed country. This grotesque charade doesn’t even deserve that.

We can’t even refuse open, plainly stated fascism, when the only thing on offer is fascism, and the only punishment we would have recieved for refusing is ‘not getting fascism’. We’ve sold out every ally we have. We’ve sold out most American minorities. And for what? For the worst cause imaginable, to one of the worst human beings (and I use the term lightly) imaginable. We weren’t seduced by some charismatic, quick-thinking ubermensch. Some shitwit went up and shat incoherent racist babble out of his mouth for an hour at a time, and half the fucking country said not only “I want him to lead the nation”, but “He is the greatest leader of my lifetime!”

There was no secret deal. No complex backroom politiking. No elaborate concoction of carefully constructed lies and half-truths laid bare to the public only long after the fact. We were shown, full well, in our faces, undeniably, what was being offered. And we still chose it, or, nearly worse, chose not to care. A supermajority of the country.

This is a sickened people. What remains of the US is only the husk, a grotesque puppet of the shapes and forms we’ve battered together over the years to keep the grand experiment together, with none of the innards which made it worthwhile. Nothing left for guts but a writhing, verminous mass of stupidity and malice, contained by the vague, half-washed out outline of the ink of the Constitution.

Many of the Americans who are going to suffer do not deserve it. Many of the Americans who are going to suffer deserve America, as the dream, the ideal. But all of them - all of us - have been betrayed by consensus of the American people. And any of our international allies would be monumentally stupid to think they’ll retain more loyalty from this homunculus than the nation’s own sons and daughters.

my friend (I am assuming you are also american), we either own this clusterfuck or we continue to spiral.

I dont know if things can be salvaged (I will sure as hell try), but as someone alive in this moment, in this country, I cannot pull away from my own culpability. I own a part of this collective failure. and so do we all.

edit: as an aside, I have now seen two trump stronghold houses (9 years worth of trump flags) in my area with no flags today. not sure when they got taken down, but it must have been pretty recent (within the last 3 days)

edit edit: one of my highschool kids says there has been a marked turn in attitude in his school. the maga kids are actively saying they “hate” trump. just dropped him off at a sports event, but I am going to quizz him on pickup.

update: so my kiddo says the trump supporters in his school now “hate talking about trump”. he is not considered interesting or cool (my words). this started specifically after the oval office trump/musk session. musk is also not a topic of conversation. so perhaps the the bloom is off the rose for these two.