America Punches Herself in the Tits…Again!

Wiping the gluten-free sadness cake from the corners of our frowns, we liberals have finally accepted our fate. We’re retiring our unopened jars of eco-friendly glitter and adding our Harris-Walz signs to the compost piles. 

Most of us have (rightly) wandered around in a kombucha and cannabis haze during these months since November 5. This familiar pain puts weights on our limbs and drapes everything in a funeral shroud. It’s tempting to withdraw and binge-watch Veep for the eighth time while housing three bags of chickpea crisps. 

We can #RESIST and scream “Not my President!” until we sound like RFK Jr. with strep throat, but didn’t we learn that protests are for suckers? The real way to exact American change is with a shit-ton of money, misinformation campaigns, and anti-democratic brute force—not by making cogent arguments or building coalitions! Why have we been walking the High Road when false Christians will claim moral superiority anyway?

I should be furious about the threat of fascism in the United States, but why would I give MAGA’s savage idiots the satisfaction? They thrive when progressives like me despair. “Owning the libs” with cruelty is the point—their raison d’être. 

Instead, I’m going to do what pisses them off the most: live better, healthier, and happier. Life is too short to agonize over larger forces over which I have no control.

 Plus, while Trump is defying norms—that’s kinda his thing—screwing over the poor and vulnerable isn’t strictly a GOP joint. President Nixon once supported a universal basic income while Clinton got “tough on crime” and dismantled welfare. Generally speaking, both democratic and republican administrations work to service the wealthy men and corporations who donated to their campaigns. That’s the way our system works. 

Does it make me a “bad progressive” if I refuse to be upset for the next four years? Maybe, but I don’t give a shit. I haven’t converted a single person into a liberal with my protesting, political donations, or writing. I will continue to do these things, but I will divorce my feelings from the outcome. 

Here’s a thought that has helped me: On some level, I believe that re-electing Captain Bonespurs may have prevented a Second Civil War. There, I said it. Who knows what MAGA would have done if Kamala Harris were elected president? 

Trump—the world’s sorest loser—has continually lied to his followers and manipulated them into believing the 2020 election was stolen. Acting on that lie, thousands of Americans descended on the Capitol in the violent January 6 Insurrection. That pot was boiling over, and it’s possible that having Trump in office for this second term—as disastrous as it’s proving to be—may have saved us from a more violent historical timeline. 

Rosy hypotheticals aside, take joy and pleasure in what you can control. Try:

• Creating change within smaller communities and helping folks who are within reach
• Tuning out from the anxious drip, drip, drip of the daily news
• Making a delicious meal for people you love 
• Chopping some wood 
• Staring at the colors of sea foam in the sun 
• Combing a stream for cool rocks and making a mosaic
• Being proud for standing on the right side of history
• Taking a shit on the White House lawn

Etc., etc…

One question you need to answer for yourself is what is your uncrossable line? What is your point of no return? Is it when the Trump administration deports peaceful student activists such as Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil? When they lock up journalists or political opponents who have been critical of his administration? When they set up concentration camps for two million immigrants? When they tank the economy with tariffs and more tax cuts for the wealthy? When they dismantle the Department of Education and schools in poor areas are forced to close? When they pass a national abortion ban? When our water sources become so contaminated with industrial waste that we can no longer drink from our taps? When a majority of Project 2025’s reactionary proposals have been enacted? When they defy the Supreme Court or try to disband Congress? 

Now that your heart is racing, take a breath…

These are all possible outcomes, but we can’t treat every transgression against progressive values as a catastrophe. We don’t have the energy. This administration is already notorious for what Steve Bannon calls “flooding the zone.” While you’re raging over the mere suggestion of turning Canada into the 51^st state, annexing Greenland, or removing a handful of trans women from school sports, you end up missing Trump’s primary objective: dismantling the government to deregulate business and give the wealthy large tax breaks. You can’t feel the rain when you’re drowning in an ocean of scandal and absurdity.

You can still be a good progressive without tracing every greasy fingerprint that MAGA leaves in its wake. We need to stop listening to what Trump the Showman says and watch what he does. For example, the administration has already completed 100 of the 300 proposals outlined in Project 2025, and there are another 46 in progress as of March 15, 2025.  USAID, the UN Human Rights Council, the WHO, the National Park Service, the EPA, and many other organizations are getting hosed by DOGE and Trump’s executive actions. I suspect the policy-ignorant president is indifferent about these changes but likes the distraction of our outrage—it provides more cover for business deregulation and his tax cuts for the rich.

Remember: Their favorite lube is liberal tears. Don’t give it to ‘em. These guys deserve to jerk off with sandpaper.