For the first time in a long time I turned on the TV to watch the news last night. My 10 year old daughter was there and as we sat there staring at the mugshot, I tried to explain to her the significance of this moment in time.
I explained to her the radical notion that we, the people, get to decide our future. That we rose up and whooped the biggest baddest army on the planet for the right to decide our fate. That the building block of this great experiment was free and fair elections. The idea that all of us have a voice and that our voices all carry the same weight at the ballot box, and that our elected officials have honored that sacred exercise and handed over the reigns to the next duly elected representatives.
I tried to explain to her what she was witnessing was one of the saddest and most dangerous moments in American history. That a leader came along and attempted to ignore the will of the people and in doing so destroy the fabric of our democracy and in doing so our country itself.
As I was trying to explain all of this to her, I became filled with anger. And then as I was trying to describe the weight of all of it, and I looked at that mugshot and saw a truly evil, sickening human being staring menacingly back at us, the realization that I was looking at the GOP's next choice for President of the United States hit me. Then I got really, really sad.