I, like most people these days, get flooded with emails of all kinds, some invited and some not. It is true that I am partially responsible for this daily barrage. For example, I subscribe to a site, Word Guru, which sends out a ‘Word of the Day’ every day. It appeals to the nerd in me, and I find it interesting to learn unfamiliar words. Yesterday, the word of the day was, ‘stygian.’ For those of you who are interested, ‘stygian’ means: “extremely dark, gloomy and forbidding: hellish.” The term comes from the mythological goddess, Styx, and by the river of the same name which, according to some accounts, separates the land of the living from Hades, the land of the dead.
The word seems particularly relevant these days because whenever Trump (and now Vance) speak they paint a stygian picture of America. If you did not live on this planet and were listening to a radio broadcast from a far distant world of Trump speaking at one of his rallies, you would likely conclude America was some kind of hellscape. It would seem almost unlivable. It would seem like the kind of place where Mad Max would feel right at home.
But America is not a hellscape and the continued dystopian rhetoric used by Trump and his MAGA acolytes do a great disservice to the millions of Americans who go to work every day, raise their families, volunteer in their communities, help their neighbors and try to live their lives with hopes, dreams and aspirations. Did he help these people when he was in office the last time? His tax cuts primarily benefited the wealthy. His trade wars and tariffs cost the American consumer $80 billion. He completely botched the COVID pandemic response resulting in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. And there was that little thing about an attempted coup at the end of his term. That was a pretty dark and gloomy time.
To listen to Trump and his toadies now, you would think everything during his administration was sunshine and lollipops when nothing could be further from the truth. History is replete with examples of authoritarian leaders and dictators using this same tactic to persuade people their lives are dark and gloomy and that only under their strong leadership will they see the light of day. History is also full of examples where this never works for ordinary citizens. The only people who benefit under such a leader are those who are willing to ‘bend the knee.’ (You’ll understand if you’re a Game of Thrones fan!)
The fact is, Americans deserve better. We deserve a leader who has a vision. Someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and actually solve real problems. Someone who talks about the good things in this country while recognizing there are serious problems that need to be addressed and is willing to collaborate with disparate stakeholders to solve those problems. Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t solve problems, he creates problems. He has done this his whole life. Bankruptcies. Stiffing contractors. Failed businesses. Criminal convictions. The list of problems Trump has created is far longer than the list of problems he has ever solved.
We certainly don’t need a president who does nothing but shit talk this country and whose greatest skill seems to be the ability to come up with childish names for those he doesn’t like. Trump has obviously never grown up to reach maturity. He is still the name calling, bully on the playground.
Today’s word of the day is ‘fusty’ – “Someone or something described as fusty is rigidly old-fashioned”. If there were ever two words to best describe Trump, it is these – ‘fusty’ and ‘stygian’.
If Trump is elected, his fusty ideas will likely turn America into a stygian, authoritarian country which will be the complete antithesis of the vision put forth by the Founding Fathers and a huge blow to democracy around the world. We will all come to know the meaning of the word ‘stygian’ all to well.
