When The Plundering Is Done

“When The Plundering Is Done” is a curated conglomeration of my prose and poetic op-eds, essays, and poems about the people, piety, politics, and policies of the Trump era.

I couldn’t let it all evaporate into the digital ether, so I consolidated everything I’ve published during the Trump years into a chronological, historical reference. Each chapter represents a moment of angst, anger, clarity, joy, or whatever it is that inspires someone to grab a computer and start banging the keys like they are in a heated battle with a deadly adversary who will just not die.

I have long aspired to be an independent thinker and an enlightened soul. I believe this is best achieved by engaging and exploring alternative points of view, forming opinions and convictions empirically, and tendering my perspective without reservation or apology. They are merely what I believed to be true at a given point in time, subject to change as I evolve, and certainly nothing for anyone to get their panties in a knot over. That’s simply how it works if we continue to grow.

In 2016, as all the Trump-era shenanigans were unfolding, long-dormant emotions and sensibilities awakened in me. Having never before felt such intense disgust and political apprehension, I was compelled to engage. But I lacked confidence to express myself. I needed to figure out exactly where my give-a-shit factor was on a lot of things. So I began by writing about the stuff that was pokin’ at me. The writing forced me to scrutinize my "stuff”, and I learned a lot about my "self".

I don’t pigeon-hole myself politically. Were it up to me, there wouldn’t be any political parties. I’m merely a 60s-era freethinker who realizes that life and the pursuit of happiness hinge on affordable healthcare for all, that liberty is only a thing if it is color-blind, and that big business can’t be trusted to put anything or anyone above its bottom line.

Ridge Magee