From the Corner of the Oval

by Beck Dorey-Stein

ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012, POTUS wins reelection because he’s the baddest motherfucker in the game.

When first graders are shot to death, when families are blasted apart by a bomb, prayer alone will not prevent the next tragedy—but what will?

It’s human to fall in love with the wrong guy. It’s normal to see what everyone else is watching. The trick is to learn from your past and to go toward the good in your future.

It’s November 2015. Fuck Trump—this time next year, he will have lost the election and ridden back up his stupid gold escalator, gripping the sides with his tiny white-knuckled hands because he’s terrified of stairs. He will never be heard from again except when he tweets about Kristen Stewart’s love life. He will disappear, and the world will be better for it.

Just like San Bernardino, Killeen, Fort Hood, Binghamton, the Washington Navy Yard, Newtown, Samson, Aurora, Roseburg, Charleston, Seal Beach, Manchester, Appomattox, Carthage, and Lafayette, the Pulse nightclub shooting happens on Obama’s watch. As he has done in the aftermath of every mass shooting, the president argues for gun reform. And as they have done in the aftermath of every mass shooting, Congress sits on their hands.

I recall what FLOTUS said at the convention last summer: “Being president doesn’t change who you are—it reveals who you are.”

“Do you like them?” I ask her. “Do they seem fun to you? Do you think they’d make good friends?” She shakes her head violently and wipes away her tears. “Then they don’t matter,” I tell her.

The future is female because there’s a storm of kick-ass women on the rise who will remember to reach back with both hands to help others climb up with them.