To 2017

In 2016, many of us lost celebrities we held dear. We may have lost family members. Lost money. Lost friends. Lost friendships. Those of us supporting Hillary Clinton also lost a presidential election in one of the most dispiriting ways possible, to one of the most dispiriting opponents possible. This is the loss that has hurt me most keenly; it was more than a loss of an election, but a loss of innocence in a sense.

Even without Trump's election, I've seen enough to know that there are deep and abiding problems with the state of American democracy. There is a whole community that has been festering on the internet willing falsehood into being, bringing about what many are calling the post-truth era. But still, to see that community embrace the most dishonest candidate in modern history and win by attacking his opponent as untrustworthy was something that needed to be seen to be believed.

The shade has been lifted. Lies can be effective in American politics if said loudly and often. A man who brags about committing sexual assault and retweets horrifically false statistics about race and homicide can be elected president.

Eight years of Barack Obama had lulled me into a comfortable political slumber. Eight years where the opposition put forward a war hero and patriot in John McCain and an intelligent, morally exemplary Mitt Romney had even made the worst case scenario look... well, not great, but livable. War hero, patriot, intelligent, and morally exemplary might as well be classified as antonyms for Trump. He lacks class, he lacks grace, and, importantly for us, he lacks an understanding of his enemy.

Donald Trump is wrong because he thinks we don't know what to do.

We know. We will call him out on all of his misdeeds past and present, and we will not let any lie go unchallenged. By the time the sun sets on 2017, I hope Donald Trump has "lost so badly" in his desire to mislead and misdirect that he won't know what to do. I hope that by 2020, the American people have grown so sick of his lies that no candidate ever tries to use the same playbook again.

And I hope most of all that our worst fears are never realized.

I wish you and your family a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

#DonaldTrump #BarackObama #Trump #JohnMcCain #MittRomney