There is no joy. Only
relief. With a diminished majority in the House and an undetermined
alignment in the Senate, there is little worry Democrats will make
any significant inroads into our legislative logjam over the next two
years.
Joe Biden is mostly a
paperweight. While the papers on the desk won't be scattered about the room by Trump-style bluster, they won't be put in order, either.
In other words, while we won't be moving forward, the descent into
chaos has been halted.
More concerning is the
widespread support enjoyed by the most toxic, destructive and
ignorant president the nation has ever endured. I heard time and time
again “He kept his promises” as justification for casting a
ballot for Mr. T.
Really? You mean the Rust
Belt is awash with good-paying manufacturing jobs? 'Cause I
missed that. He increased our consumption of coal, thereby restoring the
economies of West Virginia and Wyoming? 'Cause I missed that, too.
(Residents of those states
continued to act as battered wives, awarding the most-decisive
pro-Trump percentages in the nation to Sir Lies-A-Lot despite the
fact he did nothing whatsoever for their economies.)
Illegal immigration has
been brought to a virtual standstill thanks to his stupendous
wall—financed by Mexico—along our southern border? It has
slowed, but that's because of the pandemic that isn't really a
pandemic.
The brilliant health care
package he's been promising for nearly four years is ready
for implementation? His 'America first' policy has rejuvenated the
country and we again enjoy a quality of life unparalleled anywhere in
the world?
'Cause I missed those,
too.
I mean, Trump did stuff,
yeah.
He awarded Walmart and Amazon and Exxon massive tax cuts. He
awarded our raft of billionaires and millionaires with massive tax
cuts as well. He packed our courts with right-wing conservatives.
Lied, cheated and stole. Undermined our faith in the U.S. mail and in
our elections.
Created more division and
unrest in this country than any mob of radicalized socialists could
ever hope to.
Trump entrenched racism
and sexism and our political divide.
But his greatest hit was
his manipulation of COVID-19 for political gain.
Caught with his pants
down, Trump made lemons from lemonade in the most-grotesque sense of
the word as he allowed COVID-19 to sweep throughout the United States
practically unabated.
And when he wasn't
allowing it, he was provoking it.
His politicization of face
masks ensured the virus's spread as rabid conservatives, following
their president's lead, repurposed them as symbols of liberal
tyranny.
While I admit it's
tempting to encourage conservative's denial and anti-mask phobia,
it's clear that the Corona virus will infect any
and all demographics. Translated, this means none of us are safe.
Or, um, immune.
(Well, except that one guy.
But you know he's passenger number-one on the crazy train, right?)
Now that the angry and the
hateful have had their anti-government, anti-PC tantrum it will be
interesting to see where we go from here. I tend to think it will
be along the lines of the sequence depicted in It's a Wonderful
Life where George Bailey sees his hometown as if he had never
existed.
It will be coarse,
confrontational and crude. Largely bereft of things like civility and
kindness. This path is somehow more "real" and more "genuine" to
addled Republican males for whom Lord of the Flies is a
societal ideal.
Fearful of a world where
white men no longer wield absolute power, they cling ever more
desperately to ever more desperate models of power and control.
I've never been able to
puzzle-out exactly what voting Republican did for working-class conservatives, except perhaps to validate their ethnic, religious,
sexual and gender biases. Even at the cost of their own well-being.
But what the hell do I
know?
All in all, I feel
fortunate to be the age I am. I see a world emerging that is rife
with hatred, distrust and manipulated endlessly by social media. Our out-sized egos have grown equally destructive, to the point where any leader who doesn't “look like us” is illegitimate.
This is at the forefront
of our descent into tribalism.
Even aided by the
necessary technology, I see a world unable to unite in the
commonality necessary to stem global warming.
While we have temporarily
beat back the Trump-styled darkness, it will retreat, reconfigure and
reemerge until it has the necessary components to succeed.
Knowledge is both a burden
and a responsibility. We know what we have to do to resist it.
The question is, will we?
