As of this morning, I’m not engaging with social media or any news providers (internet or otherwise) for a full 24 hours, if not longer. As I said yesterday on Facebook, this is a self-care decision. Frankly, while I intellectually understand how it is this country got to its current sociopolitical state, emotionally I’m am utterly horrified and demoralized. I’ve been saying for some time that when you closely look at history, it’s easily apparent that at any given moment 30-35% of every society — no matter its place, time, or construction — would gleefully welcome an authoritarian populist dictator.

The United States is not exceptional in any way in regards to this. Oh, there was a time in the aftermath of World War II where we as a nation could easily create and buy into a fiction that we were somehow different/better, but the only ones who truly believed that were those who were benefitting from a toxically sexist and racist patriarchal structure. I don’t want to spend the time here getting into how that structure was overwhelmingly undermined by the most powerful white men in the country out of sheer greed, but as they did so, they made sure that those on the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder who had been benefitting more than others would absolutely not blame them. Trump and his faux populism is nothing more than one of the logical endpoints of a long-game that right-wing forces have been playing for decades.

No America’s capability for fascism and/or authoritarianism has always been there. It made itself abundantly clear on Feb. 20, 1939 at Madison Square Garden. It made itself abundantly clear as the Jim Crow-era South literally used lethal force during the Civil Rights Era. It made itself abundantly clear during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27.

The difference now is that Trump, unlike any Presidential candidate in my lifetime, keeps making statements about he will use Presidential power to punish his enemies, and those who by traditional American peaceful standards, oppose him. It’s not something I ever witnessed or experienced until the first installment of his Trump for President trilogy back in 2016. The thing that truly rattled me is just how receptive so many of his supporters were to the hateful and violent rhetoric he seemed to relish delivering in campaign speeches. As a meme that went around Facebook recently stated, I found that many of my family, friends, and acquaintances — some of whom I’ve known since childhood — have become people that I wouldn’t tell where Anne Frank was hiding.

As someone who is easily paralyzed by an overload of empathy for the unfortunate and/or downtrodden, this was absolutely horrifying. Just how can these people — at the lowest possible level — find it so easy to disregard/downplay the dehumanizing way Trump and his surrogates talked about such a large percentage of the population? Worse still, what about those who understood and were actively cheering him on? The ones who know his history in regards to fraud and behavior to women? I like to joke about the feelings of nihilism and misanthropy I occasionally experience in response to the world around me, but these people have done nothing but intensify those negative reactions and make them more frequent.

Let me be clear: I absolutely detest feeling that way.

I try my best to understand that most of them have been brainwashed by the decades-long crusade by America’s right-wing to paint liberals as deceitful, traitorous communists who actually hate America and want to destroy it. They’re easy enough to pick out. They’re the ones who go on about how Kamala Harris’s planned socialist policies will destroy America, but they can’t actually name a single classically socialist policy she has advocated. They’re the ones were derogatorily use the label woke, but cannot actually define what it means. But, they are not to be confused with the middle-aged or older white, cis hetero males driving nice cars emblazoned with “Don’t Tread on Me” paraphernalia. To them, I just need to state, “Sweetie, no one is treading on you.”

The worst part is even if the polling is utterly skewed and by the end of tonight it’s obvious that Harris has been elected President, the Trump for President trilogy still isn’t over. Much like the film adaptation of The Return of the King, the final installment of this three-part horror tragedy is going to include numerous codas. Trump and his supporters are going to do everything they can to subvert the results in an effort to put him back in the White House. Furthermore, as made abundantly clear on Jan. 6, 2021, he has plenty of followers who will engage in 2nd Amendment solutions when they don’t like the way an election has ended.

That’s the best case scenario. Don’t get me started on the other ways this Wonka-esque chocolate factory of a boat-ride ends.

With all that, in addition to all the insanity that has been this past election season, it seems Sally and I decided several days ago to skip watching the election returns tonight. The most likely outcome for this evening is the same one that we experienced four years ago: that we won’t know the winner for another few days. I haven’t forgotten the way I sobbed with relief the morning that all the news organizations starting calling the election for Biden. Truth be told, there will almost certainly be tears when the election is called — I’m just hoping that they’re for a good reason. Regardless of when the tears come, there just doesn’t seem to be any point in watching the major news organizations obsess over the returns on a microlevel.

No, far better to instead allow tonight to be anxiety-free and be able, no matter what, to get a good night’s sleep. If the news is bad tomorrow morning, then at least we’ll have had a full day to absorb and deal with the news before going to bed tomorrow night. It’s the kind of news that you can afford to wait to learn. This is much preferable to being utterly demoralized just before trying to get to sleep.

If the news is good, awesome, but even then, we’re still a far way from done with this grotesque political trilogy.