EDITORIAL – Feeling Blue Monday? Cheer up, things could be worse, right?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

FEELING DEPRESSED today? Well, it’s Blue Monday and that’s the way we’re supposed to feel. The third Friday in January theoretically is the day we feel weighed down by the debt we wracked up at Christmas, having to go back to work, and all the crappy stuff that’s going on in the world.

Not to mention, by now we’ve failed at our New Year’s resolutions.

Then, of course, there’s the Trump factor. Who wouldn’t be depressed at all the BS he’s been pulling, including Greenland, his ICE shenanigans, his silliness over the Nobel Peace Prize he didn’t get, and now his so-called Peace Board on which the likes of Putin are invited to join as long as they bring a billion dollars with them.

On the weekend, coincidentally, a panel of six experts gathered by The Conversation forum published a list of strategies used by notorious autocrats to gain power and dismantle democracy. Among the alumnae are Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Victor Orban.

The first step is to hijack a legitimate political party. Then you surround yourself with unelected loyalist masterminds to guide you but also do your every bidding.

Third, you manufacture a crisis, or crises to mobilize your base and depict yourself as the saviour. Fourth, get control of the courts and the bureaucracy.

Then, you threaten or punish anybody who gets in your way. And finally, you turn the military into a political vehicle that whatever you want it to do, legal or not.

And, guess what? The panel noted that Donald Trump has done, or is in the process of carrying out, all six of those things. No wonder we’re depressed.

But cheer up. Experts also insist Blue Monday is a myth. We just need to exercise, get a better night’s sleep and eat better. And, after all, this has been one of the best Januarys ever, weather wise.

So, happy Monday. Things will only get better. Won’t they?

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.