Read On: On fear and the future

I’m not going to apologize for what you’re about to read — certainly not in advance. I know that I’ve been a bit obsessive in my post-election focus of late, and to my mind, there’s a very sound reason for this.

I have never been so scared in all my life.

Not even after 9/11.

Not ever.

Put away your labels about me being a member of the liberal elite. Stow your accusations about Hillary Clinton being a menace to society. She lost. It’s time to move on and leave her alone. She’s earned that.

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I’m scared today because in eight days, a man who utterly lacks humanity and decency will be taking over the controls as president of the United States. Not even those who so vehemently support Donald John Trump really deny this. They point instead to his cocksure confidence and bravado, his charisma, his contentious nature. Never his compassion.

After watching on Wednesday the president-elect’s first press conference in six months, I was reminded that this is a person who cares only about himself and feeding his insatiable ego. He has little to no concern for policy, or governance, or service, or anything that doesn’t surround self-aggrandizement and personal financial enrichment.

Mind you, I well understand that I’m now officially spitting into the wind. Howling at the moon. Preaching to the choir. I’m not trying here to change anyone’s mind. I realize it’s too late for that — at least for the foreseeable future.

This is why I’m restricting my rant to how frightened I am.

I’m having a difficult time even describing the feeling that’s proving so impossible to shake. It’s like grief mixed with dread, blended with alarm. It’s the understanding that my worst and most unimaginable fears — and those of everyone to whom I am close — are being realized pretty much immediately.

Every day brings fresh evidence of our country’s hostile takeover in real time.

The first act of the newly emboldened Republican Party a few weeks back was to try to gut the office charged with ethics oversight. What does this tell us? Then Wednesday night, the GOP-controlled Senate stayed past midnight to repeal the Affordable Care Act with nary a replacement in sight.

Now let’s say you agree with the Republican ideology that the ACA is way too expensive and wildly inefficient. What is the benefit to America in voting to so cavalierly toss it out and instantly endanger the insurance coverage of nearly 30 million citizens? What is the advantage in voting to undo the preexisting condition waiver that prevents insurers from discriminating based on one’s past or current state of health?

Please explain to me how this can be seen as a victory for the United States by any measure. In what way does this benefit anybody, much less the nation as a whole?

This is instead about one political party’s fixation on wiping out all memory of the man who presently sits in the Oval Office. They have felt somehow humiliated by Barack Obama’s class, erudition, intellect and virtue. His goodness leaves them infuriated.

It has also consistently driven these people crazy that they haven’t managed to pin a single personal shortcoming on the president. The best they can do, therefore, is to erase his successes. And so they are.

How does it feel to know we’re living in a country where political payback and retribution matter more than the medical needs of its people? We already know that Trump is driven by vengeance, by the need to even up scores and smite his enemies. In this area, he walks in lockstep with his party.

What we saw in this week’s press conference was someone speaking of themselves in the third person who communicates with crystal clarity his plan to make America a far less welcoming, habitable and civilized place.

Trump has already done his best to delegitimize our free press as well as the intelligence community. Once that pair of essential institutions loses their credibility, what follows is tyranny.

I fully expect that those like myself who speak out against the forthcoming regime will be outed as dissenters worthy of prosecution. And no, this isn’t heavy-handed overstatement. It’s about to become the new reality.

This is why I’m petrified right now. I don’t recognize the country we’re fast becoming. Consequently, I intend to face down and resist the gathering typhoon with every ounce of strength I can muster.

I hope you’ll join me.

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RAY RICHMOND has covered Hollywood and the entertainment business since 1984. He can be reached via email at ray@rayrichco.com and Twitter at @MeGoodWriter.