it's not him it's us.

Well, maybe he unleashed it, but that does not mean that the problem is not us.

Much has been made recently of various incidents, which ultimately have spewed the usual back and forth nonsense on the talking head stations and social media about whether or not he is to blame for various incidents that have occurred since the election by signalling to the clueless that it is okay to be an ass.  Indeed, it is not only okay to be an ass, it is preferable.  After all, you are your own man!  Nobody can tell you what to do!  We need a fresh start!

By this logic, it is also okay to step in a pile of dog crap on the sidewalk and walk straight into the Guggenheim to clean off your shoes on the floor.  After all, if you smear it the right way, it could be art.

Look at it this way --

He acted like a boor throughout the campaign.  He was crude.  He was clueless.  And we elected him anyway.  He did not elect himself, even if it turns out the Russians helped him.

We then elected a guy with a history of anger problems who body slammed a reporter the day before the election for having the gall to ask him a question about the c.b.o. scoring of the insurance company and rich guy bailout passed in the house of representatives being pawned off as health care.  Yes, the major newspapers in the state were all horrified and they all rescinded their endorsements, but then again, they endorsed him in the first place in a state where the majority of the electorate vote early, and once they do, are not allowed to rescind their vote, which is the only vote that counts, not the editorials.  A little bit of investigative journalism would have uncovered this guy's problem with his temperament before the endorsements.

And once again, it was not the guy in the white house who elected him.  It was not the newspapers or even the Russians.

It was us.

So, we get a guy who gets on a plane wearing a MAGA hat, who thinks it's okay to sit in an upgraded seat he did not purchase after he had been told upgrades were not available, and then stays there for seven hours holding up the plane and everybody else by refusing to take the seat in the back he had purchased and that he was supposed to occupy.

We get another guy on another plane, and presumably another MAGA hat, who thinks it's okay to stand in the aisle screaming that he and his pals are now going to get all of you illegals out of HIS country.  First off, how did he know that everybody else on the plane was an illegal alien.? How did they all manage to get on the same flight?  Did the Russians buy up all the seats on this flight?  Secondly, when was the referendum I must have missed that turned ownership of this country over to this guy?

The idiot in the white house did not send these guys onto these planes.  They purchased their seats themselves and  boarded all on their own, with our permission.  Judging from social media, some folks apparently seemed to think what they did was okay as well.

And then there was this.

Many of you know that I am a trial attorney.  Just after November 8, I was assigned by a client to represent a (legal) immigrant from El Salvador, who was suing a Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn for running him over on the street, clearly in an accident, and causing some moderately serious injuries.  For two days, defense counsel and I tried to seat a jury, but were unable to, primarily due to the fact that the jury pool ended up consisting of people who either were unwilling to believe a Jew or were unwilling to give the benefit of the doubt to a Hispanic from El Salvador, who obviously was here illegally in spite of what I had said about him being here legally and in spite of the fact that they knew nothing about him other than what they were told by not only me, but defense counsel as well.  Even the clerks running the jury selection were stunned.  We all agreed that the election had changed things.

But I do not think so.

The idiot in the white house did not send the jury pool to Brooklyn.  The idiot in the white house did not turn those jurors into bigots.

Maybe to some morons his behavior signaled that it is okay to act like this in public, but when push comes to shove, all of these examples of our fabulous citizenry acted on their own.  What was demonstrated for all of us by the MAGA plane guys and for me by my jurors is that all of this has been lurking all along just below the surface, and came out this past year in all its glory.  Maybe he unlocked the door and flung it wide open, but...

We can blame anyone we want for our own behavior or for accepting disgusting behavior from others, but when it comes down to it, when it comes to behavior, unless you have a serious mental or emotional disability, we are all responsible for our own behavior, for our own acceptance of behaviors and ultimately for what we have allowed ourselves to become.

So while we talk about impeachment, resistance and revolution, it is well past time for something else.

Hand out the mirrors, boys.

It's time for all of us to take a good long look.