It Should Have Been Enough

It should have been enough when he questioned, when he challenged, whether Barack HUSSEIN Obama was an American citizen.

It should have been enough when he hurled invectives at Mexicans on the day he announced his candidacy.

It should have been enough when he maligned John McCain, branding him a loser for being a prisoner of war.

It should have been enough when he denigrated Hillary Clinton and led the chants of "Lock her up".

It should have been enough when we watched the Access Hollywood tapes.

It should have been enough when he began his presidency by shutting our borders to Muslims seeking shelter from the storm.

It should have been enough when he openly embraced autocrats and dictators.

It should have been enough when he insulted the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department and the judicial branch. 

It should have been enough when he acted with utter disdain for the environment, when he considered science as science fiction and fiction as if it were immutable fact.

It should have been enough when he broke our country's promises to others, and treated our commitments to NATO allies as if they were but useless illusion.

It should have been enough when he found reason to praise as good people white nationalists whose mission was to reign terror upon and bring death to those they believed to be inferior.

It should have been enough when he paid off women to remain silent about his sexual improprieties, when he took money for his own purposes from his "charitable foundation", when his scam university was shut down.

It should have been enough when he obstructed the Mueller investigation.

It should have been enough when the Mueller report chronicled his serial wrongs.

It should have been enough when he attempted to use the power of this nation's purse to bully President Zelensky into acting as his agent to destroy the candidacy of Joe Biden.

It should have been enough when we listened to the damning testimony of those who served only to preserve and protect this nation's standing and integrity.

It should have been enough when he dictated that those under his command not cooperate, not testify, not produce documentation to Congress in its investigation of his transgressions.

It should have been enough when he was impeached.

It should have been enough when we added up the thousands upon thousands of lies, when we watched him destroy the integrity of his office by a thousand incendiary tweets, when we saw day after day his narcissism, his petulance, his lack of preparation, his immorality, his inciting of hatreds, his total incompetence, his tearing to shreds this nation's standing and good name.

It should have been enough when he reneged on our long fought for nuclear treaty with Iran and thereby stoked the fires of their animus towards us.

But it was not enough. And now he has brought us to the brink of war with a gross miscalculation. He has once more turned this far away region of the world into a tinderbox, his bruised ego now the catalyst for the distinct possibility of almost unimaginable destruction and turmoil.

It should have long, long ago been enough. But it is never enough with Donald J. Trump.

And for our terrible mistake, the price we pay is that catastrophe hides forever in the shadows, lingering always but a moment away from revealing itself as a full, unfettered, untrammeled disaster.

It would have been enough if he had merely left us alone.