National nausea

I have been feeling worse and worse, lately.  I have been seeing more and more people willing to deface their cars and their property, and debase themselves, by identifying with a man who embodies fascism, ignorance, contempt for half of the people on the planet, and hatred for most of the people on the planet.  I know that a lot of these people are, at their core, decent, and probably don't think of themselves as endorsing mocking disabled people, being a deadbeat, and unthinking sexism and cruelty.  A lot of them consider themselves Christian, and who knows, maybe they feel the faintest of qualms about endorsing a guy who seems to make it a goal to violate every tenet of their religion's Savior.  But there they are, endorsing him, and to me, they are saying, "I approve of these actions."  In every election up to now, I've viewed voting for certain candidates as an expression of political sensibility; in this election, I find I'm viewing it as a statement of morals.

There's a feeling that you get right before you throw up.  You've been getting sicker, and sicker, and you surprise and disappoint yourself by getting even sicker.  Your head feels as if it's filled with a balloon of sulfide gas that has squeezed your brains out your ears.  You can't really hear anything but static and a distant screeching of fingernails on chalkboard, and your vision starts to narrow down and pale.  Your mouth is dryer than you can imagine, but you still taste something like dirty metal, and your skin gets clammy and cold.  But then, comes the realization that you will throw up.  Your body is making the decisions now, and it has decided that it has got to purge you of whatever you've ingested that is trying to kill you.  If you have any clarity of mind remaining, you are grateful because this is what needs to be done, and, as you run for the toilet, you realize that you'll probably feel better afterwords.  Not good; but better.

I feel as though that's where we are right now, as a country, a week out from this goddamned election.  It's time to start hurrying our steps towards the voting booth instead of the toilet and rid ourselves of the toxins poisoning our body politic.  The only thing that has me worried is the number of folks who are thinking that they would rather head back to the drinks table and have another hit of the Trump brand Vodka.

I do not look forward to the hangover.