Maybe it's the fever, the fact that I have been awake since 3:00 a.m., or my natural grumpiness. But I think America faces a daunting threat to our national progress and I do not care who knows how I feel.
Hear me now: I totally get that I'm a virtual failure as a woman. I can honestly say without any hesitation that I've never engendered unqualified fidelity in a romantic partner; that I don't own high heels; that I do not know how to use make-up; and that the only reason I ever get my hair "done" is that my secretary schedules appointments for me and praises me for keeping up with my roots. She points out that people respond better to me when I look presentable. She's right, sad to say; and I either have to go totally grey like my brave friend Penny Thieme, or keep getting those $60 root jobs.
But under no condition do I want to live in a nation where the phrase "dress like a woman" has a place in our presidential administration.
I still have not figured out how those who vote for #45 figure they have not been conned. He's filling the swamp with a more dastardly breed of lizard, spending a huge amount of tax dollars on protecting his wife who apparently cannot stand the thought of moving to the White House, and, surprise surprise, Mexico is NOT paying for the wall -- we are, with increased purchase prices for Mexican goods subject to the tariff that Trump apparently intends to impose to "pay for the wall". Or maybe we'll just pay with tax dollars and send Mexico the bill, I don't know.
Not to mention the absurdity of the wall altogether, as Internet pundits have demonstrated with meme after meme. My favorite shows a series of arrows from the Mexican shores to American shores -- in California and the Gulf Coast states such as Louisiana. Uh, right -- wall? On the Mexican border with the U.S.? Mebbe not such a good plan.
I can almost understand how Trump voters could ignore his proclamation that his status entitled him to "grab women by the pussy". If I squint, I can nearly buy the argument that when he made fun of a disabled reporter, he had just lost it on the campaign trail for a second or three. Of course, I have to ignore the explanation that he wasn't making fun of the reporter, just of "a regular retard", as one of his staff members or spokespersons bizarrely assured us. But hey, everybody has off moments, right?
Now, you may say that expecting women in his administration to #DressLikeAWoman pales in comparison with his executive order banning even those who have been granted Visas or have green cards from entering the United States. I completely agree that the immediate impact of such a blatant constitutional violation merits the swift and serious attention it got, and I certainly am proud of being a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But listen: This #DressLikeAWoman edict, as expressed in notes from interviews by the Axois team, sneaks into the rhetoric of the Trump administration and nearly gets past us because of the profound distraction of the twenty-executive-orders-in-ten-days whirlwind.
The plain and simple truth which runs through Trump's entire agenda is this: He deeply believes in certain principles which are antithetical to the American way of life, including that all persons are created equal and that a woman has the right to choose what she does with her body including how she clothes it. We are not equal in his eyes. In fact, nobody is equal to Trump and his family -- in his eyes. They are better, more valuable, richer, more privileged. They can do and say as they please, because their worth surpasses that of everyone else.
If he were not president, that attitude would be laughable but not frightening. Since he occupies the Oval Office, we must be very wary of how his sense of entitlement colors the way that he governs, and of how his treatment of women as beings to be freely manhandled while being suitably costumed will infect the decisions made and policies implemented during his tenure.
Remember the chant of his campaign towards his opponent: Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up.
The president is not judge and jury; he is not Congress. But a man who thinks that he can do as he pleases and that those around him must fall into step regardless of the lawfulness of his actions will act like judge, jury, and legislator. This terrifies me.
When I first started practicing law, judges still occupied the bench who believed that women should not wear pants. One judge in particular kept skirts in his courtroom and would not attend to the cases of anyone represented by a female lawyer in pants. In short, he required woman lawyers to #DressLikeAWoman.
This took place 33 years ago. I thought we had gone beyond such requirements here in America. Apparently not in the eyes of #45.
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