The Aftermath of the Election: Living Through the Trump Era

The election has come and gone, and Donald Trump is now the President of the United States. I didn’t vote for him—his rhetoric, his lack of decorum, and his policies do not align with my values. But the reality is, here we are. And as I process what this means for me and for the country, I find myself caught between fear and exhaustion.

What scares me most isn’t just Trump himself—it’s the larger forces that his rise represents. We’re living in an era where we’ve handed power to an oligarchy of our own making. The richest and most influential people in this country didn’t stumble into power; they were built by us—by our insatiable need for attention and validation on social media, by our addiction to the latest tech toys, and by our worship of wealth and privilege. We’ve allowed a small group of elites to reshape America, and Trump, for better or worse, is their figurehead.

Then there are the people Trump is appointing to lead critical government departments. Time and again, these individuals seem woefully unqualified. I can’t help but wonder if their appointments are deliberate acts of sabotage. Are they there to destroy the very institutions they’re supposed to protect through sheer incompetence, or is this about reshaping these agencies into something unrecognizable—something that mirrors Trump’s MAGA vision? Either way, it’s unsettling.

Yet despite my fears, I feel an overwhelming urge to disengage. Maybe it’s fatigue from caring too much or the despair of seeing no real change despite years of effort. I find myself longing to retreat—to live like the so-called “common man” who doesn’t pay much attention to politics or the news, who focuses on the immediate and the personal, and who tunes out the chaos in Washington.

I know this sounds like giving up. I know it’s not the answer. But it’s hard not to feel powerless when so much of what I care about—the things I despise, the values I want to protect—feels irrelevant to the people in charge. My voice seems to matter only at the ballot box, and even then, it’s drowned out by a system I barely trust anymore.

So, what’s the path forward? I don’t know. Right now, I’m grappling with whether it’s even worth fighting. Do I stay informed and engaged, knowing that my influence is so limited? Or do I focus inward, on the things I can control—my family, my artistic ambitions, the small joys of everyday life?

For now, maybe it’s enough to sit with these questions. Maybe the first step is admitting how conflicted I feel, how tired I am of trying to be heard in a world that seems intent on ignoring people like me. If nothing else, writing this is my way of refusing to go completely silent.

And maybe, in time, that will be enough to figure out where I go from here.- Dave Carey

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