It's Not Just Me

I spoke yesterday with one of my long-time friends (and former Centrist Dude blog subject) for the first time since the election.  On some level, I had been avoiding the conversation because it was likely to devolve into a comiseration.  But I couldn't, or at least shouldn't, avoid it forever so I picked up the phone, which went something like this:

"Randall!  How the hell are you?"
"Well, I'm...uh...nervous laughter...I don't know how to answer that.  I feel like I'm watching a hurricane 5 days out, all the models have us in the cone, and everyone around me seems to be going about business as usual."
"I wish I didn't know what you were talking about, but unfortunately I do."

Note: not a single mention of politics or Donald Trump.  We had most recently been discussing the Cubs.  We talk business.  Yes we talk politics, but we are not in lockstep politically.

We're both making contingency plans to off-shore and not telling those around us about it.  We both see the same signs of fascism and willing participants in the government who can encourage and foment its implementation.  It was cathartic to hear someone else echo almost precisely what I've been thinking and feeling.  And to logically lay out why I'm neither crazy nor alarmist.  There is always the possibility that we both are those things, of course.  But I'm beginning to think it's crazier for me to keep that line of thinking open.  It's certainly less productive as it gives me an excuse to slow preparations.

The line he uttered that I shall use as the model for the next year: "The smart Jews got out early."