The “Skinny” repeal has been defeated and it’s one of the few times since the election, I’ve had cause to relax a little.  Living with trump as president is like living with a full blown addict.  You never know what they’re going to say or do next, nor what will set them off and every moment is a knifes-edge of worried waiting.

Pre-trump life had enough shit to dodge, but the current environment is like one big mine field.  I’ve been a solid mass of anxiety since the election – alternatively going from denial to depression and back to denial … rather like the stages of grief but for the fact I can’t imagine entering the stage of “acceptance”.

One of the proudest times of my life was participating in the Women’s march on Washington, the day after the inauguration.  It was an amazing experience.  There was little, if any, of the kind of conflict that would draw the attention of police – at least I didn’t see nor hear of any.  There were plenty of police all right, but all the officers I saw – while observant and no-nonsense – were likewise relaxed and non-threatening.  They didn’t engage the crowd nor did the crowd taunt or tease.  There was a palpable feeling of co-existing.  Of live and let live.  Of respect for the right to protest as well as the right to keep the peace.  There were no arrests.  No scuffles.  Nothing set on fire.  People bore up under crushing crowds in the streets with amazing tolerance and civility.

Now it feels like I’m mourning the death of tolerance and civility.  My neighbor had an anti-trump bumper sticker on his car which earned him several near road-rage encounters and more than a few “birds”.  He finally removed the sticker out of fear should his wife, driving alone sometime, become some zealot’s victim.  Now, there are people who despised President Obama – but I don’t recall hearing of any Obama supporter flipping off or driving to intimidate anyone with an anti-Obama bumper sticker.  It seems that to be anti-Trump, at least publicly, it to risk being attacked.  Since when was it permissible to disagree so physically and abusively?  When did bullying become the new normal?

It’s bad enough there’s a narcissistic, self-absorbed, megalomaniac child with the attention span of a housefly as the leader of our country … and it’s bad enough he can’t seem to control himself, but that doesn’t mean we have to act the same way.

Surely we’re better than that.  He may not be able to act presidential, but we can act like adults.