Trumped

It happened. As I sadly predicted last Feburary, Donald Trump won the Republican primaries, went on to win the general election, and is now the President. I didn’t watch the inauguration, but have seen highlights or maybe lowlights during the weekend. The day after the inauguration, there were wonderful, peaceful protests in cities around the world, and I applaud and appreciate these, but also doubt whether they’ll have any real effect.

The Swedish language has a remarkably appropriate word to describe my feeling these days: trumpen. It means glum or bitter. Not necessarily defeated in the way that “trumped” means, but just… down. That’s basically where I’m at. We now have a President who is a clownish cartoon protagonist, someone whose worldview is so small, simplistic, and fearful that it boggles the mind. If you had told me 30, 20, 10, or even 5 years ago that this would be our President, I would have laughed at the idea. I feel like I’m trapped in an absurdist nightmare, or a Twilight Zone episode that won’t seem to end.