O P I N I O N

NOT THAT PROFOUND

By Nathan Graziano

Since President-elect Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, many of my friends have been walking through their days like they’re in a funeral procession.

Meanwhile, the GOP and MAGA supporters have formed a Conga line, cheering for each nomination of a new sexual predator for a cabinet position[1].

Personally, I’ve tried to process everything with escapism, using alcohol and marijuana edibles[2] to soothe my malaise.

Like most of my fellow comrades in the funeral procession, my pessimism is quickly morphing into nihilism as I watch FOX News’s broadcasters, WWE directors and other television personalities continue to be poached from the small screen for political positions.

Indeed, the new Trump administration seems to be laser-focused on making liberals uneasy.

At the same time, the mainstream media needs to own some of the responsibility and complicity in all of this, and not just FOX News. Everyone in the media heard exactly what Trump was threatening to do—the bile and the vitriol and the unfettered threats—but no one really called out his hate-speech, or his multitudinous violations against women, or his utter ignorance of The Constitution.

Instead, the media largely gave him a pass because white, heterosexual male billionaires largely get a pass in this country.

Can you imagine the pig-pile reporting that would’ve been done if Kamala Harris had five kids from three different husbands? Don’t tell me she would’ve gotten a pass on that.

So I can either choose to go full-Charles Bukowski and disappear into a bottle for next four years, or I can find another way to cope with the situation in front of me.

In an attempt to preserve my liver and my mental well-being, I’ve decided to take a “time out” from any media reporting on Trump, or the imminent plans to exact Project 2025, or the apparently inevitable demise of democracy.

For starters, I’m not completely buying into the “sky is falling” Chicken Little-narratives coming from the left right now, either.

Will Trump’s return to the White House test the girders that our Founder Fathers put in place to protect us from tyranny? Most certainly.

Will this be the end of voting and elected officials? I don’t know.

All I know is that I can control the valve that releases media into my own little existential hole. All I know is that trying to match hatred and resentment with more hatred and resentment will not make me any happier.

All I know is that kindness and compassion and love are seldom seen in the morass that is the modern media cycle, and I can choose to focus on kindness and compassion and love because without those things, you have Donald Trump.

It is coming upon the holiday season, and maybe we all need a break from the mania. Maybe we can focus on stories about people helping other people, and not rich people making other people feel small.

Or maybe I’m drunk.

[1] Although one of the biggest predators, other than the president-elect himself, just withdrew his nomination a few hours ago.

[2] Please note: I only purchase and consume the edibles in Massachusetts, where it is recreationally legal for adults.

Reach Nathan Graziano at ngrazio5@yahoo.com.