Today I woke up to a plane crash that Donald Trump quickly politicized by suggesting that DEI hires had some part to play in the catastrophe, but I'm just trying to hold it together. I am so tired of DJT, and all of his hateful rhetoric, his lies, and his school yard swagger. I don't care who knows it; I am a proud "never Trumper." My students are holding the lines too by trying to appear unafraid, like their lives won't be changed forever by fascism, this disease that slowly crept up on us, this disease that used the Republican party as a vessel, much like any other virus or bacteria will invade a cell.

Today I woke up to a smile on my dog's face and the warmth of his tail that he wags like a stick everywhere he goes. Sometimes I wish I could be a dog too, just playing around and sniffing the earth, looking for tasty treats and receiving affection. But I'm part of the problem; I'm one of those species that invade the earth and spoil its waters, hoard resources, and create bags and bags of trash that will never mold away. I drive an hour to work each way with other people like me that should work from home, or closer to home. Of course, DJT with all his hateful ideology believes that work from home is "woke" and that no one should do it, but he works from one of his many homes every day.

My son is dark and exotic looking with long, straight black hair. He plays the guitar professionally and works during the day as a carpenter. He is beautiful and kind. I am worried he will be casually harassed by ICE because of DJT and his hateful ethnic cleansing of our working class people. I worry that my son will be questioned about his identity and heritage and that he will fail the test and be confiscated and stored like some subhuman until we can present his birth certificate and his social security card; how else can my son prove he is an American? Must all dark complected people carry all of their paperwork now, whether they are American citizens or not?

I am afraid for all of us, even the stupid people that voted Trump. I am afraid for our children and our vulnerable adults, and I am afraid for our visitors, the people that come here for a better life. I don't care how they arrived, legally or not. All I care is that they appreciate their stay and obey the laws of decency and fair play--most of them do.

I want my old society back, the one before the Tea Party, before Trump, before Project 2025, before abortion bans and book bans and people bans and Muslim bans. I want my beautiful pluralistic society where I could go out and meet people from around the world and learn from them, and they learn from me. I want to return to a time when teaching was a safe job, before school shootings and random violence. I want to return to a time when road rage was incredibly rare, like never. I want a ban on automatic rifles because no one that I know needs one.

I want peace and safety, not turmoil and chaos, not DJT. Fascism always ends the same ugly way, with massive amounts of dead people.

The Rhetoric of Violence

��� In his Lecture XXXIV, Hugh Blair begins by teaching listeners to sharpen their eloquent speaking style to amuse and entertain the audience. Trump manages eloquence to only one degree: candor. He endeavored to persuade his audience to attack the Capital by using the slogan created by Steve Bannon: Stop the Steal. This slogan served as an imperative, and in its delivery to the audience, in the context of Trump's location and his baseless argument that the election "was rigged," provided the MAGA mob with permission to raid our nation's Capital and commit violence against its occupants. This perverted rhetoric continues to threaten our democracy, a symbol of American freedom. Democracy is abstract, while citizens that debate our country's laws and values are concrete. The threat of injury and death still exists both in an abstract manner against the civility of our country, but also in the concrete form. This is why citizens not in agreement with Trump and his handlers live with a lingering sense of dread.

The Rhetoric of Violence

    In his Lecture XXXIV, Hugh Blair begins by teaching listeners to sharpen their eloquent speaking style to amuse and entertain the audience. Trump manages eloquence to only one degree: candor. He endeavored to persuade his audience to attack the Capital by using the slogan created by Steve Bannon: Stop the Steal. This slogan served as an imperative, and in its delivery to the audience, in the context of Trump's location and his baseless argument that the election "was rigged," provided the MAGA mob with permission to raid our nation's Capital and commit violence against its occupants. This perverted rhetoric continues to threaten our democracy, a symbol of American freedom. Democracy is abstract, while citizens that debate our country's laws and values are concrete. The threat of injury and death still exists both in an abstract manner against the civility of our country, but also in the concrete form. This is why citizens not in agreement with Trump and his handlers live with a lingering sense of dread.

The Rhetoric of Practicality

    Clinging to this fabricated election denier nonsense seems ridiculous on the surface, especially to the people that actually do the work to organize and execute our democratic voting system. Many of these hardworking people now live in fear. But this is Trump and his handlers breaking down the barricades to control the larger and more practical motive: more calls to violence. It may seem practical on the surface if you do no analysis. Let's round up all of the illegal immigrants, the undocumented folks, and let's kick them out. Let's make sure they never come back. This can be made to sound more practical by appearing to focus on the violent offenders, at least initially. I predict they really will make an effort to deport people that really need to go. I am sure the public will be made privy to the methods of law enforcement as they routinely expel these violent and lawless immigrants. This juicy information will serve to prepare regular, hard-working citizens for the next step: a violent and chaotic removal of people en masse. The MAGA crowd will really go for this, at least in the beginning. Trump and his handlers will point to practical reasons of why this must be done. These reasons will become a matter of opinion, further dividing our country. Only if we become severely divided can we be defeated and oppressed, and ultimately turned into widgets and go-getters that serve the autocracy.

The Rhetoric of Celebration

    Finally, Trump and his handlers will indulge in a form of rhetoric known as epideictic. In this case it will serve as a form of "celebration." This roll out of celebratory rhetoric will detail the cruelties committed against immigrants to prepare Americans for the next step, to desensitize all of us to our new controlled reality. Most of us already know the threat is more than a simple abstraction, and as we watch the violence and chaos play out against our friends and neighbors, as we listen to the victory speeches and propaganda in the meanest of terms, our country, this beacon of light and hope, will slide off the rails into a tunnel of long darkness and violent chaos. Trump will roll out his speeches and propaganda in the meanest of terms; with candor he will justify this ugly, racist foundation our country labors to diminish.

    I am truly concerned about this near future. I am a white woman with a blush of native blood. If people of color support this administration, then why? How can anyone be so deceived? Trump's proclivity towards candor exists in only his brief, honest moments. The rest of the time, he is busy lying to the public--about everything. He told us with great candor about what he would do. He told his followers to "stop the steal," and they attempted to take away our democratic choice. Soon we will have a White House with more unelected power, more unelected power than ever. This isn't just about a few billionaires, but also the fact that Trump is compromised. I will leave it to you to fill in the blanks. But you know of whom I speak. It is even possible that Trump is compromised by more than one state actor. He told us what he would do. Now, please, listen to how he will describe his victory. Do not turn away from Trump. If you turn away from Trump, you turn away from what is controlling him. Think about that.