I haven’t hugged my 84 year old mother since February.

When my MIL had COVID, we couldn’t go take care of her. Couldn’t be with her when she wound up in the hospital.

My stepchildren couldn’t be at their grandfather’s burial in July (maximum of 10 people, outside, masked, graveside, brief service) because of possible exposure.

We postponed my mother’s move to a retirement community because we felt it was too risky, and chose to keep her in a home that we know is not safe for her to navigate anymore.

My siblings and friends are trying to work from home while navigating online school for their children, whose routines, social / emotional development and sense of the world as a relatively predictable place have been turned completely on their heads.

Each time I return from a work trip, I self-isolate in my basement for several days, get tested and sleep in the basement for a couple more days until my test results come back.

My business partners and I spent weeks (and $$$) trying to figure out how we could do what we needed to do in an election year while exposing the people who work with and for us to as little risk as possible.

And all the while, these people have refused to admit how bad things were, undermined the experts, continued trying to strip healthcare away from millions of Americans and continued living their lives while the rest of us upended ours.

I am experiencing a level of blood-boiling, blinding rage that I didn’t think I had in me. They made their choices. 206,000 Americans don’t get to make any more choices. 7 million now have a preexisting condition.

Fuck them. Fuck their cavalier attitudes and their lack of care and concern for the people they’re supposed to represent. Fuck their faux religiosity and their hollow convictions.

Oh and I’d like to talk with all the people who’ve been telling us about Amy Coney Barrett’s deep reverence for life. Because I have some fucking questions about that.

The absolute minimum these people deserve is to never hold office again. All of them. Vote them all out. The ones who aren’t up this year? Don’t forget what they’ve done in 2 or 4 years. Make them a minority party for a generation. Make them pay.