I quit. Specifically, I quit reading the newspaper. Cold turkey. Blackout on the daily read and wrangle. Guess what, my blood pressure dropped back into normal range too. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe eating right and going to the gym helped. I mean, it did before I stopped reading the paper. Anyway, it was the constant gyre and gimble in the wabe that got to me. The POTUS is this the POTUS is that sort of stuff. The POTUS is. And that's all there is till next time.
Even so, I am still perplexed. In the history of the realm, our greatest presidents moved the country with their words in a positive direction together. Think Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, Reagan and even Obama. Theirs was a voice of reason and of binding together. That cannot be said of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. A man who placates neo-Nazis and white supremacists while blaming the left for calling him out and being the left.
Knowing that Trump will go down as an aberration and not a harbinger gives me comfort. He has served as I predicted and has not deviated from the course I believed he would chart during his tenure. That of blowing up MY party [Republican] and dividing the nation through segregation, exclusion and demonization. As long as the economy holds, the country is his oyster. And he came to shuck. This has always been his way. The zebra cannot change its stripes.
His too is the way of all populist despots. Pump up your base by feeding their fear and prejudice with nostalgia. Promise them Nirvana and pillory the naysayers. Call them sore losers. Losers! His is ever thus a world of bluster over substance. Of prenuptial and nondisclosure agreements and a plurality of barristers. Of patting himself on the back because well no one else can do it as well as he can.
His presidency will be remembered as one of deepened deficit spending leading to even deeper national indebtedness and environmental degradation while reassuring us that it's going to be so good, tremendous and beautiful that we'll become sick of it. That last part he got right. Even now some of his minions have begun to question their decision in following such a man. To that I say, about damn time and pass the barf bags.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Friday, April 5, 2019
The world's worst hangover...
The morning after is coming.
Half of our countrymen [and women] have partaken in a bit too much of the T-rum-punch. I'm talking about that elixir of deliverance they believed would reorder nature and send us all in the way-back machine to a version of America more pure, more moral and definitely more white. The core of his supporters are the angry disenfranchised post-industrial fodder of our hollowed-out heartland. And Evangelicals. They've had honey poured in their ears and are just a little too happy to feed their babies to the beast.
Recently, I heard a reporter traveling through that same heartland asking Trump supporters what they think about the job the POTUS is doing. With few exceptions they intoned that he was doing what he promised and putting money in their pockets because "he alone" could do these things. They are punch drunk. Not the sappy I really love you man type of drunk but more the blood-eyed-frothing-at-the-mouth-crazy-enough-to-kill-you-if-you're-not-onboard-the-Trump-train-to-Hell kind of drunk. Who says evangelicals don't drink?
The hangover will be intense and there will be little relief save for clarity and aspirin. Some will reach for hair of the dog while others will swear off voting altogether. I'm hoping Phizer will come up with a version of Antabuse for stupidity. They should setup carts in front of polling stations and dispense it free of charge. Side effects may include but are in no way limited to improved hygiene, better posture, moving into the right lane when someone flashes their lights at you in rear-view mirror, clarity about your fiancee', finances and less carbs.
Even without such a panacea some will see themselves for the first time, own up to their mistake and be better for it. My fear is that too many will curse the light and double down. For them there will be no tonic nor elixir save for more disgust and disillusionment.
Mores the pity because they're good people who've simply bought into a lie from a professional liar because they need so desperately to believe in their convictions. And therein lies the essence of the problem, that of emotion over thoughtfulness. Beliefs over facts. It's what Hitler used to rally his nation. We know how that turned out.
Despots have always had that working in their favor--the ability to move their base in the direction of and sometimes beyond the firey gates. No one is safe. Just ask a Jew. Or a native American. Or a Bosnian. Or an Armenian. Or a Uyghur. I could keep going but... belief is more powerful than facts.
Half of our countrymen [and women] have partaken in a bit too much of the T-rum-punch. I'm talking about that elixir of deliverance they believed would reorder nature and send us all in the way-back machine to a version of America more pure, more moral and definitely more white. The core of his supporters are the angry disenfranchised post-industrial fodder of our hollowed-out heartland. And Evangelicals. They've had honey poured in their ears and are just a little too happy to feed their babies to the beast.
Recently, I heard a reporter traveling through that same heartland asking Trump supporters what they think about the job the POTUS is doing. With few exceptions they intoned that he was doing what he promised and putting money in their pockets because "he alone" could do these things. They are punch drunk. Not the sappy I really love you man type of drunk but more the blood-eyed-frothing-at-the-mouth-crazy-enough-to-kill-you-if-you're-not-onboard-the-Trump-train-to-Hell kind of drunk. Who says evangelicals don't drink?
The hangover will be intense and there will be little relief save for clarity and aspirin. Some will reach for hair of the dog while others will swear off voting altogether. I'm hoping Phizer will come up with a version of Antabuse for stupidity. They should setup carts in front of polling stations and dispense it free of charge. Side effects may include but are in no way limited to improved hygiene, better posture, moving into the right lane when someone flashes their lights at you in rear-view mirror, clarity about your fiancee', finances and less carbs.
Even without such a panacea some will see themselves for the first time, own up to their mistake and be better for it. My fear is that too many will curse the light and double down. For them there will be no tonic nor elixir save for more disgust and disillusionment.
Mores the pity because they're good people who've simply bought into a lie from a professional liar because they need so desperately to believe in their convictions. And therein lies the essence of the problem, that of emotion over thoughtfulness. Beliefs over facts. It's what Hitler used to rally his nation. We know how that turned out.
Despots have always had that working in their favor--the ability to move their base in the direction of and sometimes beyond the firey gates. No one is safe. Just ask a Jew. Or a native American. Or a Bosnian. Or an Armenian. Or a Uyghur. I could keep going but... belief is more powerful than facts.
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