“Senora, would you like me to be your Trump dog?”

“Trump’s dog? You too, Henry?”

“Nunca, Senora. The Aussie is Trump’s dog, but not me. Senora, humans are saying that just as they needed dogs during the pandemic to relax their anxieties, now they need a dog to relax that anxiety about Trump. I can be that dog for you.”

“That’s kind of you, Henry, but I don’t need a Trump dog. Speaking of anxiety, how long do you plan to sit on my lap? It’s a little hard to blog this way, one hand petting you and the other typing away.”

“Maybe I need a Trump human, Senora.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m worried. I’m scared. What will happen to me, Senora? The Aussie says I’ll go back to Mexico, but I never came from Mexico.”

“Speaking of whom, where is Aussie anyway?”

“The Aussie started walking to Washington DC today. Said that if she starts now, she’ll get there by Inauguration Day, and this time she isn’t coming back. Says it’s too blue here.”

“How does she know? She’s color blind. Anyway, she’ll be back for dinner, Henry.”

“She packed a turkey sandwich.”

“Henry, you don’t need a Trump human.”

“But do you know what he’s saying, Senora? Do you know what he’s threatening to do?”

“Henry, ever since 2016 Donald Trump has been talking, grimacing, sneering, mocking, and promising hell and brimstone. A few of those things translated into policy, but not others. I’m not saying he won’t do things we won’t like, I’m not saying there aren’t people in his government who will push policies we must resist, but Trump’s big goal is always to grab your attention. He clowns, threatens, and bullies because he wants you to get upset, haven’t you figured that out yet? The Democrats tried to match his hysteria with our own, screaming and warning and invoking doomsday, and that didn’t work out too well, did it? Hysteria is his game, not ours.”

“But we have to take him seriously, Senora.”

“Up to a point. I pay attention to actions rather than words, Henry, and I’m more curious about what’s behind the Trump phenomenon. What have we been missing these last ten years? We’re living in the most prosperous times of human evolution, even with covid, and still, in country after country we see shifts towards fierce nationalism, self-protection, closedmindedness, and even aggression.”

“Not everyone is prosperous, Senora.”

“I’m already thinking about the local immigrant families here, Henry. Winter is coming when there’s no work in the farms, and that’s bad enough, but they have to also wonder about what Trump could do to them. I want to continue supporting them, the Stone Soup Café, etc. I’m afraid their needs will multiply real soon.”

“What will happen to our democracy, Senora?”

“Our democracy is dominated by money, Henry. The rich have all the freedom they want to get richer, while the poor are free to get poorer. Home prices are crazy, college fees even crazier.”

“But why do they hate immigrants so much?”

“Controlling borders gives folks a sense of safety, Henry, but will that really answer the very real unease they’re feeling? Where does it all come from? Many Europeans feel that, too, even though they have better safety nets and welfare programs than we do.”

“What about the hatred against women? What about racism and fear of immigrants?”

“Those are the usual boxes that people check off, but I’m trying to see the invisible box. Is it our relationship with our own home, our own planet that we’re busy destroying? Henry, we haven’t seen rain here in over a month. Day after day we get alerts about the danger of fires. That changes us, Henry. We know deep inside that something is off.”

“This is too much for me, Senora. I’m still grieving”.

“Do your grieving, Henry, but not for too long. Donald Trump appeared almost a decade ago and we didn’t listen, treated him as an anomaly and his followers as a joke. We have to make up for lost time. And don’t waste precious hours commiserating with like-minded friends. What’s the real conversation here, Henry? Once we understand that, we may know what to do.”

“We lost, Senora.”

“Not for long, but only if we let go of our usual concepts and labels and start bearing witness. I’m sure of very little, Henry, but I believe that we are living through a moment in history, and I find that exciting. As for us Democrats, we lost because we didn’t offer a new vision. Kamala is a good person, but she’s not that strong and is no visionary. She was counting too much on Trump hurting himself, which was the same mistake made in 2016. We might have had an excuse in 2016; we have none now.”

“Hee hee hee! You lost!”

“Welcome home, Aussie. Where have you been?”

“Celebrating with the Proud Pooches. No danger of prison time for me anymore, in fact I think I’ll get a Medal of Honor. You should have seen us, we rolled around on the dry leaves and high-fived with our paws, we wiggled and waggled and had a great time.”

“So why are you back?”

“Because I’m hungry. What’s for dinner?”