The Elephant in the room was you

"I can't believe we are arguing about this," I said to my friend Lucy. I heard Lucy’s words, “Well, he did do some good! "They struck me full force, Bam, as if somebody had thrown a plate full of catsup against a wall; but it wasn’t a plate of catsup and we weren’t in the Whitehouse dining room.

The words splattered against my head and each letter rolled slowly off my burning forehead and onto the beige tile flooring in my living room.

I watched the words break apart, scattering into letters that slithered across the room, oozing the pestilence of ignorance, smelling the rabid decay of the stink of denial. I knew then that Lucy has carried this corpse on her back way to long; it had finally embedded itself into her body.

What happened to the Lucy I knew all my life?

I couldn’t believe she still tried to defend the un- defensible. “Lucy, do you hear yourself”, I said, “That is the equivalent of saying, yeah, Jeffery Dalmar did some bad things but he left me take out in his fridge! "She blankly looked at me and all I heard was the sound of Silence.

We have been trying to repair our friendship ever since the nightmare began on June 16, 2015; When Donald Trump assented down his golden escalator to the gilded lobby of his beloved tower on Fifth Avenue to announce his candidacy for the Republican Party’s nomination for president.

The World tilted off its axis that day. More than half America felt the shift.

Little did we know that that opening scene would be the perfect metaphor for what was to come: A low and ugly campaign that defined deviancy down in presidential politics by playing on fear, lies, racism, xenophobia, misogyny and a disdain for anyone not white, straight, Christian, able-bodied and male.

Americans know now, he didn't bring his best or his finest. He brought waves of lies, corruption, deceit, derogation of our constitution, rules of laws, and weakening our democracy. He has destroyed our standing across the globe, and in doing so has made the world question our greatness.

They say everyone is attracted to each other by a certain scent, a whiff of a strange odor that attracts or repels people to you. That scent was around Donald Trump from the beginning, like a stinking cloud spreading over the American sky, darkening the United States in a webbed veil of disgust or rapture depending how you your brain connected to that sent.

Most of American people sat up like a dog, sniffing the air, not sure of what they were smelling, it was like the sulfur smell of rotten eggs or was it the foul odor of a rotting corpse starting to decompose.

Other Americans were intoxicated and inhaled his strange scent like drug addicts doing endless lines of cocaine, putting them on a rolling celebratory high on a train headed off a cliff. They didn't care; they sat on this train decked out in their MAGA red Party hats and draping themselves in the American flag, all the while taking in the distorted sites like funhouse mirrors with an odd blind denial of truth and facts. Sadly, this had been my friend Lucy.

We had just watched the Jan. 6th hearings. We had agreed to watch them together to try and heal the relationship that had been shattered. I could not believe that was her response. I guess it was really time to acknowledge the elephant in the room. I always thought it was Trump and the Republican Party; if you can even call them Republicans anymore. It was not. It was Lucy.

How could she not see a corrupt party that had lost all morals, decency and the love of our Democracy? Their platform was now hate, conspiracy, greed and power.

They have been surviving by devouring the flesh off the proud honorable men and women who have stood up and tried to tell the Truth about Trump and his administration, (the GOP are still in their feeding frenzy), they are still eating their own.

Lucy could not even acknowledge the countless times throughout Trumps administration where the GOP had the chance to take the righteous and honorable path to heal this nation.

The GOP was silent, cowering behind the “Big Lie”, and letting the Right-wing News organizations exploit it. They knew that night after night Fox, Oan and Newmax were spewing out lies in a constant flow of unrelenting vomit on Our United States; and still they were silent while all the time the conspiracy non-sense, hate and fear mongering was dangerously dividing a wounded, torn and bleeding nation. They did not care. They are still silent. Obviously Lucy doesn't care either.

Now that there is undeniable truths about how insane, dangerous, cruel, corrupt, and just plain bat-shit crazy Trump's presidency was, the GOP’s silence is a deafening roar across our Nation.

The storm could have been over, we never would have had the massive earthquake shattering and tumbling our nation into utter chaos; our democracy could have been strengthened instead of sinking in to a massive grave of quick sand before our eyes. Our family and friends and relationships could have rebuilt. Lucy and I could have healed.

The simple fact is WE, all of US who saw Trump from the beginning as a Con, an evil, self centered man-boy not ready to be in charge of America’s nuclear codes, how could Lucy not see this?

We did our research, we read, we listened we used our God given common sense; the signs were ALWAYS there! We thought it was OUR duty as Americans to warn of what was surely coming. We knew this man was simply not ready to steer the helm of America’s Ship called Democracy; and you scorned and dismissed us as over reacting.

I always thought our arguments were about Trump…Trump was only the catalyst to the brutal truth, it was always about her. 

“Let me remind you Lucy,” We were ALL just collateral damage, the cost of doing business in the “World according to Trump”. I told Lucy to think of all the friends, family and relationships that were utterly destroyed by the people that put their faith and hopes in a man that completely lied, conned, and used them for his personal ATM. I can still hear her say, “He did some good things for America”, “but at what cost my friend”? “At what cost to our freedom, at what cost to our democracy?”

I reminded Lucy of of all the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, and friends who said we were over reacting, “You said this to me, why do you hate him", "He didn't mean that", "I don't know who you are anymore"! "I'm un-friending or blocking you ". “You just have Hate in your heart’! Well, and yet, WOW…Not once have you said, I'm sorry, you were right about everything, and I should have listened to you". "You didn't destroy our Relationship; I did by putting my faith in Trump instead of you!” “I was trying to tell you, what do you think my pleading begging and our constant fights were about? "I know now it was never really about Trump, it was about you, to open your eyes, I wanted our friendship back, I wanted you! "

“I’ve known you all my life, I have loved you like a sister and you choose him over me”, and still she was silent...

I did hear something then, loud and clear, it was the bang of my front door slowly closing on our lifelong friendship.