The Last Four Years: One Woman’s Perspective
by Kim McCusker, Warrenton, VA
I’m no political strategist, foreign policy expert, constitutional scholar, or grand historian, but I went to college, I read the paper every morning, I’ve raised three children, run two businesses, and I just have to ask… seriously, how is this guy our President?!
During his campaign...
He mocked a disabled reporter.
He went after a war hero and a gold star family.
He didn’t use dog whistles, he pulled out the bull horn.
He fed division and hate, told his rally-goers to beat up protestors, and alienated much of the country on a daily basis.
Dozens of women accused him of sexual assault, and then he was caught on tape admitting ...that he sexually assaults women.
He asked Russia for Hillary's emails, they hacked the DNC and he got his crowds to chant “lock her up” and ‘build the wall.’
And then it got worse.
He won.
The world turned upside down for many of us on election night, November of 2016. We all shared a collective cry of horror and disbelief, and a resounding sinking feeling of ...‘holy crap, WTF just happened?!’
This suburban, working mom of three couldn’t pull herself together for weeks. I missed deadlines, couldn’t focus, made mistakes, forgot practices and game days, and dinner was drive-through on more nights than I’m willing to admit.
But, then hope arrived.
She wore a pink hat, sang badass songs, danced in the street, beat drums, made art, and she marched. I marched with her. Hope was millions of women, men, children, young people and old; gathered together in our nation’s capital, cities across this country and around the world, all standing up for what we knew this country to be ...not perfect, but always striving for better, united in our commitment to a dream, the one that is only possible in America.
We were not protesting the election, well not most of us. While some methods and tactics used by the Trump campaign have since come into question, at the time most of us understood that this man was our President.
Sure, we had agonized over it for weeks; some of us had stayed in bed for days. But we knew he was the new President. That is WHY we marched. We needed to make sure that he understood that he wasn’t just the President of those that had voted for him, he would need to be our president, too. For us, our one pink hat in that sea of pink hats was an attempt to be counted, to be seen, to be heard.
That day we proved to him, and to ourselves that we would not go quietly into the night. There was too much at stake and too much being threatened. He needed to change the course. He was now our nation’s head of state and he needed to act like it. His job was to unify this country, not sow hate and division. He needed to be our President, too.
But, he wasn’t.
Within days…
He implemented an unconstitutional travel ban.
He told the nation that good people were on both sides when one side was carrying swastika and torches.
He gave Putin a pass and attacked public servants.
He separated children from parents as a form of punishment with no plan on how to reunite them.
He walked away from the climate accord, from the Iran Nuclear Deal, with no plan to address the issues for which they were signed.
He bullied allies and coddled enemies.
He went after our healthcare, with no plan on how to help the millions that would have been affected should the law that granted it be repealed.
He cut taxes for the wealthiest among us, started a trade war, made cuts to entitlement programs and our social safety net.
He watched our children; tired of being hunted in their classrooms, organize a march against gun violence. He took a call with the NRA and did nothing.
Then he used the power of the presidency to try to manufacture dirt on a political opponent.
He was impeached for it. But, the Senate gave him a pass; and then things really got bad.
He was told a deadly virus was on its way. He knew it would ravage our nation, and still, he chose to divide. Then the fate of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, among many, many others shook a nation, and in our pain, we came together to march for equal justice and racial equality; and yet even then, he chose to divide.
Now he has the virus. Two-hundred thousand people have lost their lives, millions have lost their livelihoods, children can’t return to school safely, and all of us, every single one of us is struggling. And still, he divides.
That is what I’ve seen. That is what I know. It is not partisan. It is not a question of policy or ideology, it is a question of conscience, competence, and decency. This election isn’t about party loyalty, it is about who we are and what we want to be. Do we want to be the hopelessly divided country that we are now, lost in dysfunction and chaos? Or, do we want to once again be that hopeful, united nation striving for better, for all of us.
That’s how I have seen these last four years. And, here’s what else I know. Me and all those badass, pink-beanie-wearing, women from suburbia and beyond that stood up to a President one day in January four years ago; we’re still here.
We are running for office, volunteering, phone banking, postcard writing, and registering everyone we know to vote. We are pushing through every uncomfortable conversation and trying to speak the truth and change minds. We are protecting our rights and everyone else's, we are fighting for our children’s future and for yours, and we will not stop. We say Black Lives Matter, Love is Love, Enough and Me Too; and we are going to VOTE this Nov. 3rd.
Mr. President, can you hear us now?