The longest lap in the fight against Donald Trump
Back in the day when I ran the mile in competition on the track (or its metric equivalent) I had a psychological trick for dealing with fatigue. For me, as far as difficulty was concerned, the mile was a race of a single lap. The first lap is easy. You’re fresh and fatigue hasn’t set in. The third lap you have the bell to look forward to and the fourth lap you have the final crossing of the main finish to look forward to.
Only in the second lap do things feel bleak. You’re already beginning to tire, you have a long way yet to run and there is nothing to look forward to when you cross the main finish. Except for one thing, of course. Finishing the second lap. That is how I reduced a four lap race to a one lap race — psychologically speaking.
That’s how I look at the times we are in. Not in terms of years but in terms of psychological boundaries. These days feel like the start of the second lap. We are worn down by the psychological trauma of this criminal Trump “administration” and no finish line in sight, and nothing to cheer us when we do finally get to the end of it but the dreary prospect of a third lap.
But there is a lap three and a lap four, and the race could end with a win for us. The main finish lines we have to look forward to are the 2026 midterms at the end of lap three. With any luck the end of the fourth lap will come as a result of the outcome of those midterms in or around March of 2027.
I believe Trump is killing his own presidency. He has become toxically unpopular with many of his former supporters. In sixty days he has taught them to hate him. Imagine what he can do in 18 more months. By the time the midterms roll around, you could be hard pressed to find anyone who loves Trump. And because he’s stupid and incapable of learning that his path is wrong (think tariffs), he will not be able to turn the giant lumbering barge that is his ego around in time for the midterms.
I think we are going to win this race. I think we are going to win it in 2027. I think we will have enough votes in the Senate by then to kick Trump and Vance the hell out of office. By then even the squeamish and fearful Republicans will see others speaking out against their former toad-god and gain the necessary vicarious courage to join us.
We toed the starting line as the underdogs. I believe we will finish this race with a gold medal. If we remember not to think of the race all of a piece, we can get through this dreadful and difficult second lap with the big prize to look forward to: the impeachment and conviction of the nastiest traitor to ever contaminate our sacred home.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.