“OMG. Enough. Said”

JANUARY 20, 2025 – Unlike my spouse, who this morning was in an adjoining room from me, her eyes, ears and mind riveted to the HGTV channel, I was online watching a live stream of the inauguration. When I resurfaced from immersion in two hours of shock and awe, my wife refused to hear a word about it. Soon I learned that most of my leftie FB friends had joined my wife’s camp of extreme, radical, communists who refused to watch or discuss today’s momentous proceedings.

I must admit that the reaction within said camp was unnerving. I began to worry about my own extreme, leftwing, radical, communist bona fides. Having watched quietly the entire proceedings, had I implicitly gone soft on MAGA? Would people trust my conviction that Trump is a person about whom I know of no redeeming quality—not even one most basic to humanity, the ability to tell a joke?

To my extreme leftwing, etc. friends who are now aware that I watched the entire inauguration, please believe me: I watched it out of curiosity and vigilance, not resignation or worse—a lack of conviction. Apart from my blog posts, I rarely post any opinions on FB, since they are consigned algorithmically to my own echo chamber. After today’s event, however, I was compelled to shout out something, so I did: “OMG. Enough. Said.”

To my family, friends and acquaintances who are Trump apologists or enthusiasts, I have more to say—no, a sampler of questions to ask . . .

What part of the president’s inaugural fulmination did you find inspirational?

What about the president’s tired litany of personal grievances appealed to your better nature? To the common good?

What convinced you that Trump has a grasp and respect for facts?

What led you to think he’s a unifier, not a divider?

What gave you confidence that in four years our country will be a better place for non-billionaires than it is today? What was it about the presence of the three wealthiest people in the world among the VIPs attending the inauguration that gives you confidence that Trump this time around has your back?  What do you suppose each of that triumvirate (and their billionaire buddies in the Capitol Rotunda) expects to gain by contributing a million bucks to Trump’s inauguration party?

How do you think Trump’s harangue sounded to the rest of the world, with which our interactions will determine our economic and environmental condition for years to come?

How do you think Trump’s threat to take back the Canal Zone might alter the timing and calculus of PRC President Xi’s designs on Taiwan—the world’s largest producer of microchips? How do you reconcile Trump’s profession of peace and isolationism with his threat to take back the Canal Zone and take over Greenland?

What do you make of the fact that Trump didn’t put his hand on the Bible(s) (there were two, one atop the other) while he recited the oath of office?

What is meant exactly by “Make America Great Again”—prospectively and retrospectively—or isn’t it still, as always, simply an advertising slogan that gets slapped on red caps and popcorn bags at a carnival . . . simply to sell more caps and popcorn?

To qualify for a chance at the Capitol basement raffle (The big prize: frozen porkloaf with a crucifix emblazoned in ketchup across the top—courtesy of the National Pork Producers Council): How do you think the prayers by Reverand Franklin Graham and Archbishop Spellman appealed to the 112 million American citizens (more than one in three) who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, or simply “unaffiliated with any religion”?

To the people I know, love and respect (apart from political judgment) who voted for Trump, voted for a third party candidate, or didn’t vote at all, I say with respectful candor, “Fasten your seatbelts securely. None of us will be exempt from the coming  havoc and damage that you have sanctioned, but by the grace of fate, may we and our nation survive it.”

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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson