Our Bad Break-up with Trump
We have been lied to.
Bullied.
Betrayed.
Attacked on the streets of our cities.
We fear we put our lives at risk just leaving the house.
I’m starting to think all the usual ways of analyzing the horror-show administration of Donald Trump — fascination with authoritarianism, corruption, a narcissistic personality disorder — don’t quite nail it.
What’s really going on here is we’re in an abusive relationship with The President of the United States.
Just saying the words sounds so crazy I thought there might be a chance to write something with a little humor here. I asked a psychologist friend about it. He said it’s not satire.
He gave me a long answer about the pathology of abusive relationships. A lot of it sounded like what’s been going on in these months leading up to the 2020 election. He also told me he and his colleagues have been seeing a reactivation of post-traumatic stress symptoms in patients who were raised in abusive households or once lived with abusive partners.
So, yikes.
And then there’s this. An abusive relationship tends to be at its most dangerous when the abuser realizes you’ve decided to end it.
