Compared to future, 2016 not so bad

While an apparent tsunami of high profile deaths this year — Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, Abe Vigoda, David Bowie, Prince, Fidel Castro, Gene Wilder, George Michael, Antonin Scalia, John Glenn, Florence Henderson, Juan Gabriel, Ron Glass, Arnold Palmer, Janet Reno, “Vanity,” Glenn Frey, Morley Safer, Patty Duke and Muhammad Ali to name a few — has many among us clamoring for the 2016 exit, I am not eager to walk out the door and into 2017.

Somewhere during childhood we realize death is part of the cycle of life, though maybe it is not until our 30s that we contemplate mortality. Eventually we begrudgingly accept that we all die. That is a certainty.

But what is not certain is what the coming year(s) has in store for the nation. And the world.

In less than one month Donald Trump will be sworn in to the office of president of the United States.

The man who is best known for having a horrible comb-over, a gargantuan ego and a real estate empire built on bankruptcy,  broken deals and foreign debt, as well as making the most of the catchphrase “You’re fired!” uttered on his reality television show will lead this country, representing the American people not just for the time he is in office but throughout history.

Trump is an ugly man. The assessment refers more to who he has revealed himself to be as a person rather than his appearance. And while his family and close friends might characterize him as lovely and caring, the millions of others who saw him during the presidential campaign saw something different.

We saw an openly, almost gleefully, hostile man appeal to and exploit the worst in us. He preyed on anxious voters the way leeches prey on unsuspecting children tromping in a pond.

When he campaigned on the idea of registering and tracking Muslims in America, we saw him demonstrate hostility toward a religious population.

When he mocked former opponent Carly Fiorina because of her looks, we saw his hostility toward women who do not fit his definition of beauty.

And when he campaigned on the promise that he would build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and round up millions of undocumented people living here and ship them out of the country, he demonstrated his hostility to immigrants and the fundamental concept of due process.

Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency has attracted those who share his values or see an opportunity to bring to the forefront their own destructive beliefs. He has emboldened bigots and racists, those who would dismantle Medicare or Social Security, and those who want to take away the small gains women have made via Planned Parenthood and Roe v Wade. Trump and his gang will give more power and influence to those who already have them and take away from those who have so little. Given how foreboding 2017 is, 2016 does not scare me one bit and I wish it would stick around. Or better yet, that we could have a do-over.