The President’s latest offensive comments are no surprise. However, we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere and this seems a moment of clarity.
I gave him a chance. He failed even basic tests of presidential competency and decency. Repeatedly.
So, from now on, I shall consider myself a conscientious objector to the Presidency of the current President.
I at first thought it was denial to say #notmypresident. After the election, whether I liked it or not, he was my president.
But the reality is apparent at this point: he may be “the president,” but he is not my president, and I will not pretend any longer that he is. He probably never will be. Herod and Pontius Pilate may have had legal authority in first-century Palestine, but I know of at least one small junta of nomadic activists who did not recognize their authority as the rightful rulers of the people (and who clearly delineated the limits of Caiphas’s authority).
#Resist. Peacefully, firmly, within our democratic processes: resist.
Our children, grandchildren, future generations, and the rest of the world are watching. If you’re wondering what it looked like when “good people” stood by in the face of past atrocities and seemingly intolerable national outrages in various other countries, this is it. Stand and be counted as one who said, unequivocally, “No.”