There was a meme that was making the rounds of progressive websites that speaks for a lot of us in explaining why we are so opposed to the Obergropenführer[1] as President. It originally made the rounds as “author unknown,” but was later attributed to a guy named Jeremy Mitchell (or alternatively a Jeremy Zabel).

N’importe quoi.[2]

The point is that it expresses very beautifully why a lot of us will not support or “legitimize” Trump in any way.

I listened as they called my President a Muslim.
I listened as they called him and his family a pack of monkeys.
I listened as they said he wasn’t born here.
I watched as they blocked every single path to progress that they could.
I saw the pictures of him as Hitler.
I watched them shut down the government and hurt the entire nation twice.
I watched them turn their backs on every opportunity to open worthwhile dialog.
I watched them say that they would not even listen to any choice for Supreme Court no matter who the nominee was.
I listened as they openly said that they will oppose him at every turn.
I watched as they did just that.
I listened.
I watched.
I paid attention.

Now, I’m being called on to be tolerant.
To move forward.
To denounce protesters.
To “Get over it.”
To accept this…
I will not.
I will do my part to make sure this great American mistake becomes the embarrassing footnote of our history that it deserves to be.
I will do this as quickly as possible every chance I get.
I will do my part to limit the damage that this man can do to my country.
I will watch his every move and point out every single mistake and misdeed in a loud and proud voice.
I will let you know in a loud voice every time this man backs away from a promise he made to them.
Them. The people who voted for him.
The ones who sold their souls and prayed for him to win.
I will do this so that they never forget.
And they will hear me.
They will see it in my eyes when I look at them.
They will hear it in my voice when I talk to them.
They will know that I know who they are.
They will know that I know what they are.
Do not call for my tolerance. I’ve tolerated all I can.
Now it’s their turn to tolerate ridicule.
Be aware, make no mistake about it, every single thing that goes wrong in our country from this day
forward is now Trump’s fault just as much as they thought it was Obama’s.
I find it unreasonable for them to expect from me what they were entirely unwilling to give.

Honestly, I liked the first half of this meme better than the second half, which seems a bit petulant. But also necessary.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s mouthpiece for much of the election, has been out there complaining that we on the left have been trying to “delegitimize” the Trump Presidency.

Oh no, Kellyanne, we didn’t do that. Trump did that completely to himself.

Beginning with the announcement of his campaign and his freewheeling extemporizing, which led to the discovery that almost all Mexican men who immigrate to the United States are rapists. And it was all downhill from there.

Now Kellyanne wants us to “look at what’s in his heart” instead of listening to what’s coming out of  the Donald’s mouth. This, with respect to defending the Donald’s mocking of disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski. As far as I can tell, what is in the Donald’s heart is an ugly morass of childish needs and oversized wants. Real empathy or sympathy? I don’t detect that anywhere.

There is also a gigantic difference between us on the left not tolerating Trump’s Presidency, and the right’s not tolerating Obama’s. The difference is that Obama’s only sin was to be black[3] whereas Trump’s sin is that he is a despicable man, a demonstrably nasty bully, provocateur and general asshat. Whereas Obama was the personification of class, the Donald – despite his obvious and overbearing wealth – is the personification of classlessness.

The Donald IS the ugly American.

A character we’d hoped we had left behind back in the 1970s, when Americans first began traveling en masse.

The right is going to become increasingly uncomfortable, and predictably (if this is even possible) more shrill. They will fulminate at the mouth about how unfairly we’re attacking their Golden Boy, the poor lad who is sacrificing his billions[4] and only wants to make America great again.

But this is their high-water mark right now. This is the high-water mark for Republicanism. Today. Right now. They love throwing spit balls from the cheap seats, but now they actually have to govern. And while they will continue to have their apologists who will find reasons to blame the left for what is about to go wrong in this country[5], there are still a lot of people in the middle – the so-called swing voters – who are not going to like what is about to happen in our country. And the Republicans could end up cannibalizing themselves as the Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell factions of the party go to war with each other.

High water mark.

Today.

Right now.

You heard it here first.

[1] I have to give credit for “Gropenführer” to Steve Lopez, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, who coined the term in reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, my friends Ian and Jessica added the “Ober,” which makes it even better.

[2] Both guys are white guys who appear to be in their early 30s, or thereabouts.

[3] Technically, Obama is mixed-race and only half black, of course. But that’s too fine a point for all the racist yahoos out there.

[4] More like millions, since the Donald is demonstrably not a billionaire, even without the public having seen his tax returns.

[5] And what is about to go wrong includes the premature dismantling of Obamacare, which will leave millions without health insurance, and expose once and for all the big lie that the Republicans have any idea for how to replace Obamacare, the central idea of which (the “individual mandate”), as I’ve repeatedly pointed out, was their fucking idea.