Paul sears

This has been quite a year, I guess it’s been a long four years really, but the end of the trump administration will definitely go down in the history of this country as some of the worst years. From his inception rolling down the escalator calling brown people rapists and murders, and today, trying to stay in power though he lost the election. Whether you care about the image of America on a global scale or not, you can’t say he hasn’t hurt the reputation of this nation. From the view of an insider or an outsider, we are altered. Some even say that our democracy is sliding into fascism, and the way the Republican Party has acted the last four years it’s easy to see why they would think this.

But this isn’t about him, it’s not about the politics that are hurting us as a nation. This is about me, a typical American. I’m not rich. I’m not connected. My family has no power. I live my life like most Americans, I work, I pay bills, I plan vacations, I have weekend brunches, I food shop and buy most of my clothes from J. Crew.

This year has been anything but this normal routine I play out on the daily. It started off normal, as normal as can be under an administration that took the norms of our society and tossed them out the window, In January of this year I bought I new vehicle. My best friend was coming home from a tour in Kuwait, I got a raise, I was coming back to Texas after an extended vacation in my hometown with family and friends. I was making plans for the spring and summer. It was going to be an amazing year, especially because my best friend was going to be back in the states.

I read the world news since I have family outside of the states, and there were articles spreading about an unexplained virus coming out of China. This was in January, they were calling it a global threat. The articles were very few but alarming. I ran out to Walmart and bought up masks and sanitizer. Then the panic started to hit the American media and the administration came out and said it was nothing. It wouldn’t hit our shores. I thought I wasted money on buying masks and wondered if I should start spray painting things to use them up. It’s funny now to think how ignorant I was then. At the same time Italians were falling victim to this virus like nothing outside of an actual war.

That all feels like a lifetime away from where we are now. There are vaccines days away from being approved here. In the UK they have already started giving them. Through this whole global mess, we see what the American government is willing to give to their people. Outside of America, nations with less gop than we have are giving thousands of dollars every month to stay home. To stay safe. Our government doesn’t work for us. Some people got 1200 bucks way back when, way back when this all started. Since then people have lost their jobs, their businesses, their homes, apartments, they can’t feed their children. Mitch McConnell, the senator from Kentucky, has blocked every bill that could have helped. He has done so much to undermine American democracy, and yet, this year Kentucky could have rid him, yet he remains, so much for exceptionalism.

You never hear of democratic countries falling, it’s mostly all about the soviet era, and communism. We are on the decline. We are Rome. We will fall just like them. It will be a slow process, the rest of the world will move along without us and we will crash and burn. It’s already around global warming. We refuse the evidence that it’s real, that it exists, and we will be left behind.

We have a new administration coming in, but it’s a four year gig. The last four years has taught us that you don’t need principle, you just need to pander to the lowest of the low and create a base of haters. I hope this new administration can turn off the visceral in this country but as long as we have networks like foxnews we’re in this for the long run.

The vaccine will change us, it’ll bring us back to some kind of normalcy. We have lost 286 thousand people, our own people because of a government that didn’t give a fuck about you. Those people won’t get the vaccine, they aren’t coming back. The families that have lost their loved ones will never get to go back to normal. The rest of what’s left of this nation will get back to normal, but what about all the forgotten in this last year? Is this something we will move on from or something we’ll use as a case study?

I know I said this would be about me, but when there is this much carnage, how can I? This has been so much bigger than me. This year has shown us as a people that our government doesn’t give a fuck about us. The richest Americans gained more money then 95 percent of us. We need change.