How I got my wish

Back when I was 20-21, I was going through the typical "But I don't know what I want to do in my life!" angst. I talked for a while to a wonderful therapist in Sacramento named Steve Cotta--who, I am sad to say, died just a few years ago--and he put me through a lot of exercises to help me discover what I wanted to be. I did all kinds of tests and homework and came up with some goals.

I thought I'd lost all the paperwork when I got divorced, but I just found some of it. I remember that there was a complex questionnaire that Steve sent off and had evaluated for various classic jobs. I'm pretty sure the paperwork for that one's gone, but I remember that it said my desire to be a life insurance salesman was a -4.

But the one thing that stuck with me most was an exercise on a dittoed sheet (most of these were dittos) entitled "The Ideal Job." This one just turned up again. The instructions were simple: "Write 10 criteria for your ideal job. What components you would like that job to have. (money, benefits, etc.)" There were ten numbered blank lines. I filled it out then. There were no "right" answers; this was just marking what I wanted.

I remember finding this in 1986, 10 years after I'd done it, and thinking how wonderful it was that I'd called my shots. I was making a lot of money as a freelance technical writer and pretty much everything on that list had come true. Looking at it again, it's still pretty much true.

Here are the ten things I wrote:

1. Work that can be done at home
2. Flexibility of schedule
3. Well Paid
4. Career options
5. Advancement possibilities
6. Intelligence counts
7. Situation where one can socialize and work at same time
8. Work that I like
9. Moderate work load
10. Occasional peak loads

(I do note, with some chagrin, how childlike my handwriting was then and, truth be told, it's really no better now. Oh, well....) 

How I got my wish

"But if we get rid of Trump, we're stuck with Pence!"

For over a year now, people have been saying "But if we get rid of Trump, we'll have Pence. And he's worse." I have a few thoughts on that that have only recently gelled I'd like to share with you.

First of all, Trump is a buffoon, a man with no soul, no brain, a grotesque toadlike fart with no morals whose only allegiances are to his belly, his dick, and his wallet. There is nothing about him that can be effectively said to describe his character and his life for which the addition of profanity cannot but make more vivid. (His adult crotchfruit are really no better, being equally horrible people who remind one of family members in the classic Twilight Zone episode, "The Masks.")

Trump's ignorance, bigotry, misogyny, and racism are as profound as anyone has probably ever met in this country. He is a walking turd who disgraces this country every second he's in office. When he dies, probably of a massive stroke, he will be mocked and derided for being the colossal failure that he was and the world will be a better place on average for his passing.

And despite all this, Pence is worse.

Pence is actually smart. He has a fair understanding of the political system (Trump takes cluelessness to a real level on this one) and he did get to be Governor of the state of Indiana more-or-less on his own.

But Pence is completely evil. He's vastly homophobic. He believes in conversion therapy for gays. He doesn't care about women's rights, women's health, or women. He thinks his brand of Christianity is the One Right True and Only religion for all and he will inflict that on us. He doesn't care about the planet, other animals, the Great Melting Pot of America, or anything but the warped, small, twisted view of the world that he has. Pence reminds me of a sneaky little shit who never really grew up but always resented that nobody liked him (with really good reason). But now he's going to make us all pay!

That's really what I've realized and why there may be less of a problem than we think. Yes, Trump is a flatulent jackass who doesn't know how things are done. Raising the stresses on him from Mueller and everyone else will do truly wonderful things for the blood pressure of a 71yo man who believes exercise is bad and who eats fast food regularly. He could keel over at any moment. And then we'd have Pence, who is smart and probably believes all that weird fundie bullshit he's passing off as "Christianity."

But there's an odd difference: people seem to like what Trump stands for. Oh, yeah, his followers are willing to double down on pretty much any bullshit he says, but Trump has the charisma of a narcissist and it takes self-confidence and having been through the mill with a narcissist at least once before to really inoculate yourself against the blandishments of other narcissists. People still like him (mostly those who haven't met him in person).

Pence is not likeable. I don't think he makes deals well because people automatically don't trust him. He's still got "sneaky little shit" stamped all over him. As a result, when Trump's gone, I don't think Pence is going to be a lot more effective. He'll still be evil, sure, but I think he's not going to get even the support Trump does in Congress. And that would all be a lovely thought.

"But if we get rid of Trump, we're stuck with Pence!"