Hope On Hold: Navigating the Shameless World of Donald J Trump

By Maureen E. Whittemore

Hope on Hold offers insight into an ordinary American's political perspective and the value of speaking truth to power as she navigates the shameless world of the Trump administration.

Staying silent enables corruption. Raising our collective voice commands change. At this moment in America, hope might be on hold, but it has not yet be

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781641117227

Book preview

1. A Campaign Horror Show

When the debate is lost,

slander becomes the tool of the losers.

—Socrates

Lack of Morality, Lack of Character

I did try and fuck her. She was married…I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look…I’ve gotta use some Tic Tac’s just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything…Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.i

—Donald Trump

All anyone needed to know about a man named Donald Trump, who was running for president of the United States of America, was summed up in that one quote.

Though the slander, the vulgarity, and the lies Trump has been caught spewing go back much further, it was his spread of the Obama birtherism claims that floated to the surface and clung to him like an octopus. Even then, he was able to peel off all those suction cups and make them disappear. We should have learned the lesson right then. We did not.

In November 2015, when Donald Trump mocked a reporter with a disability, the moral majority thought those horrific actions would seal his fate and he would not win the White House. After all, who would ever do that kind of thing…certainly not someone seeking the highest office in our country. How wrong we were.

The passes he received only served to embolden his actions. He never looked back but charged ahead with the knowledge that he could say and do almost anything and get away with it. His now famous line I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose votersii only served to ratchet up his supporters and prove him correct in the assumption that he could say anything and get away with it.

His debate stage performance with Hillary Clinton highlighted what most Americans already knew: this man was a bully and a predator of draconian character.

Trump Campaign Rallies Unleash the Monsters

As the election closed in, Donald Trump’s campaign rallies became increasingly more violent. He urged his supporters to clash with protesters, even offering to pay their legal fees. Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell…I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise,iii Trump said at a February 2016 rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At Trump rallies, chants of lock her up would work the crowds into a crazed frenzy. The decline of morality as Americans understood it had begun.

Trump and his administration continue to degrade the decency and morals that make America who we are, morals that have held us, rightfully so, above all other nations, morals that we pride ourselves in and expect of one another. That moral fabric has come unraveled and is showing signs of tearing beyond repair. I am not certain how much more degradation our country can withstand, but we are going to find out.

One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.

—Michael J. Fox

Patriotism means to stand by the country.

It does not mean to stand by the president.

—Theodore Roosevelt

2. The Election of 2016

Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.

—Denis Waitley

Unwelcome Change

There are times when the world appears a cruel and heartless place

As life moves in a continual motion and normal passes by

The urge to scream for it all to stop lies in the back of our throat

A shattered future stares us in the face

Few seem to care not

That a burden of such great proportion

Has been laid upon our doorstep

The heaviness of what is now and what shall be, refusing to relent

Tearing into every minute of our thoughts

Questioning our tomorrows

Emotions thick with despair and sorrow

Our souls entrusted are now with wound

Reason cannot belie the actions of others

Darkness shall turn to see the day that no longer calls it common

The sharp sting of once familiar, never to be again

Perception is angered that unwelcome change has been forced

A clear path not yet visible

Will come to be

For strength and fortitude will take us through to survival

A beckoning of courage we know exists for this moment of great need

Proof that we will endure has been our signature

A nation of character always

A nation of character still

As we rise to realize that we are more than we ever thought we could be

Carry within you the vision of a future deserved

For always there remains hope, opportunity, love, and support

Family, friends, and those we hold closest to our hearts

Stand with us

Forget not that together we are strong

Remember this day

Unwelcome change

Will be history soon enough

Lest we forget

Election Results Fallout: The Day After

To all the Republicans who voted for Trump:

STOP telling me how to feel:

Be hopeful, not angry

We should all be positive

Trust him (that’s a good one!)…blah blah blah…

STOP telling me what to do:

Don’t unfriend people

Be nice

Time to unite…blah blah blah…

(I’m sorry, I just can’t see my way to liking a person who agrees that hatred, bigotry, disdain for gays, lesbians, people with disabilities, other religions, or others’ races is right when it is so, so wrong!)

STOP telling me to pray. You pray if you so desire. There is no prayer big enough to solve the mess that is Trump, and he’s about to take this country down a very destructive path.

STOP trying to convince me that this is going to be okay. IT IS NOT.

Let me remind you what happened, not so long ago, at the hands of Republicans:

We suffered the worst recession in our history

9/11 happened and we went to war on pure hearsay

Our housing market blew up, the economy tanked,

Lives were destroyed

WE (Democrats) worked long and hard for eight years to pull our country out of that downward slope, which brought so many to their knees.

WE worked long and hard to get our economy back on track, to stabilize the stock market, creating growth and jobs, health care coverage, which so many used for the first time, saying things like, You know, I’ve worried about that issue for years now, and I can finally get it checked out because I have health insurance after so many years of not being able to afford it.

WE worked long and hard so that Republicans could continue to whine and moan about how bad everything was, what a horrific state our country was in—all those illegals taking jobs from those Republicans who would never even consider doing them because they are above that kind of work.

WE worked long and hard to get us to a comfortable point where we weren’t stressed out on a daily basis and we were no longer worried that we would be out on the street without a job, or have no roof over our heads, or food on our plates.

WE worked long and hard fighting the bad name Republicans gave us in the world, long and hard to gain the respect Republicans lost for our country so that the world could see us in a better light, so that the world would see us as a country that is strong yet kind; a country that is respectful of all people, religions, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations; a country that cares what happens to our citizens, our neighbors, our planet; a country that lends a helping hand, not to just our own people but to so many others in need; a country that defends our freedoms and the freedoms of our allies who hold the same democratic beliefs that all men were created equal.

WE worked long and hard.

In the blink of an eye, you tore down all that WE rose up.

In the blink of an eye, you made the collective world hold its breath.

In the blink of an eye, you destroyed all the goodness that WE helped build.

In the blink of an eye, you destroyed our credibility with the world.

In the blink of an eye, you screamed loud and clear that HATRED reigns supreme, that bigotry and selfishness are what Republicans want, that dividing and conquering is your frame of mind, seeking to destroy all goodness, ushering in the worst of evils with a twinkle in your eye.

YOU knew what you were doing.

YOU knew everything he embraced.

YOU knew full well that this person you voted into office stood for bigotry, hatred, divisiveness, demeaning your family members, neighbors, friends; hell, you probably knew he was demeaning you.

YOU knew full well that his hate for so many could bring America to war in the blink of a tweet. Nuke the bastards.

YOU knew full well that he would love to bomb the shit outta them.iv

YOU knew full well that