Looking back at 2017 is exhausting, and disappointing.
Our democracy has been under assault from a crazed autocrat that slithered into the White House in January.
Trump's war on democracy has effectively destroyed the "New Deal" that president Franklin Delano Roosevelt rolled out after radical Republicans brought the country to it's knees and caused the stock market to collapse.
The New Deal responded to the Great Crash and the ensuing Depression by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net and promoting infrastructure in order to maintain a level playing field for all Americans.
By any measure, the New Deal was wildly popular, so conservatives sold their reactionary economic vision by enlisting white racism.
As the federal government promoted civil rights, they warned that an active government redistributed the wealth of hard-working, white taxpayers to African Americans, a “special interest” that wanted better treatment than everyone else.
From the moment our first illegal president stepped into office he followed an authoritarian playbook. He began by rejecting objective reality.
Then he turned over the government to his billionaire buddies. Despite Trump's campaign promises, he kicked the middle class under the bus.
Trump's individualist vision of destroying all the good done by the New Deal has unfolded so fast, people are still gasping in surprise.
His takeover still isn't complete. He's busy trying to undermine the FBI and American intelligence agencies.
He's also working hard to undermine the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller, whose job it is to determine what Trump's role was with Russia during the 2016 election.
Even though the New Deal's good work has been overturned by the wealthy it's important to understand that the damage doesn't have to be permanent.
Roosevelt purged our corrupt government in the 1930's after it was held in a stranglehold by the wealthy.
There's no reason to believe that a new president in 2020 can't reverse the damage he's done.
Time for me to walk on down the road...
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