politics on the road

I wrote a post on Herding Cats about the trauma I am experiencing from a distance, but I only touched loosely on the political scene.  I don't know if that is a Nomad post or a Therapy post.  Maybe it's a little of both.  Being on the road, I find myself talking about American politics with a lot of people, and I usually revert to their own politics. That would be a Nomad post.  Libraries are shutting down in England and Ireland, Brexit is a mess from both sides, Spain has put Catalonia in a military lockdown, etc.

But American politics...gawd it's awful.  I receive daily emails from the Democratic party and from environmental groups.  They talk about elections, about the gutting of the EPA, about the other daily and hourly attacks on all I hold dear.  Sometimes I go through and remove myself from the mailing lists, but I am sending monthly contributions, so it's a temporary fix.  Despite the contributions, I still get messages:  WE NEED YOUR HELP, WHERE ARE YOU?!  I push the trashcan icon without reading, but meanwhile it's another assault.  Trump and his minions are at war with me, and I'm doing nothing to fight back.

This traumatic situation is not a function of being on the road: since I moved to NM,  I've been doing most of my activism from long distance, so this is just a continuation.. In fact being on the road is little different from being in Taos.  My social and personal life has mainly been online, where I share bits and pieces of my mostly-solitary daily routine.  I also got get my news online, and that's where the trauma comes in, and the need for a Therapy post.

But, as I said in my other blog, what can I do, how can I respond?  Only through words, it seems.  So, words were my response when Puerto Rico and Santa Rosa were both devastated by natural disasters, and Trump not only did nothing, he displayed his total unfitness.  He ignored the fires, and didn't know that Puerto Rico was an U.S. territory, filled with U.S. citizens deserving of aid.  And, he cared more about the personal criticism than the huge amount of suffering.  Don't even get me started on the climate change issue.

In tragedy's wake,
Why expect empathy from
A sociopath?