Well, 2017 is over and I’m not sorry to see it go. For me, personally, the year had its ups and downs. It included new carpet, work successes, a three week bout with debilitating digestive issues (food poisoning or some nasty bug).
As a country, I feel that 2017 was an awful year. In that regard, it lived down to my expectations. In January, a person who is uniquely unqualified, assumed the office of President of the United States. His performance is as awful as I had feared. The only surprising thing, to me, is that we are not yet in a nuclear war as I feared we would be by this time. We have another 3 years for him to realize that fear, however, so I’m not comforted.
The damage that he has been able to do has been substantial. Many aspects of the social safety net have been eroded and some abolished. The protection of our environment has been greatly scaled back. Our standing of the world has been greatly diminished. This has all been achieved in less than a year. Even if he is somehow removed from office earlier than his term ends, the damage has been done. The people who might possibly replace him are just as bad in some regards. Our only hope is that a possibility exists that one or more of the houses of Congress may come back into Democratic hands. This would, at least, be a small check on his power.
I’m not very hopeful that this will happen, but the small possibility of it is all we have for now. If there is a God, now would be a good time for him/her to intervene.