At first glance, the status quo is simply incomprehensible. The depraved, moronic, racist, man-child, career-criminal, sexual predator, pathological liar and avowed wannabe dictator Donald Trump — now on trial for 34 of the 88 felonies for which he is charged in four jurisdictions — is leading in the latest polling on November’s presidential election.
In America. Land of the free, home of the brave, the exceptional country, the shining city on the hill. Not to be believed.
Until second glance, when you are forced to reckon with the fundamental fact that the United States, like every other country on earth, is populated by human beings (Scooby Doo and Donald Trump Jr. excluded). And no matter what flag waves overhead, more or less by definition, 50% of them are dumber than average, 50% are more hateful than average, 50% are more superstitious than average, 50% are more aggrieved and spiteful than average, 50% are more gullible than average, 50% are more frustrated than average, 50% are more fearful than average, 50% are more paranoid than average and, in short, 50% are more deplorable than average.
Yeah, I know the actual metric is median, but in sample sizes of 340 million, the numbers tend to overlap, okay? The point is, the story we all grew up with, about America being somehow different and universally embracing shared bedrock values, is and has always been an illusion.
With the convergence of the rightwing mediasphere, the “democratization” of online speech, the relentless 50+ year propaganda campaign of the political right, the equally long-festering resentment of liberal democracy by the champions of so-called “traditional values” and the general fear that white, Christian America is losing its hegemony (it isn’t, by the way), the always-lurking true America has revealed itself. Like humans throughout history and throughout the world, the body politic has, en masse, embraced the demagogue they deserve.
Trump is a loathsome, cartoonish ignoramus, but in equal parts he has found his constituency and they have found him. And neither he nor the MAGA cult responds in any way whatsoever to truth or reason or even the criminality displayed day in and day out in courts of law. No fact for them is immune to denial, often based on what they call conspiracy “theories,” but which are in fact mere Rube Goldberg contraptions of delusion and intentional distortion.
These are not trivial or especially ephemeral developments. Around all this bigotry and toxic mentality, a vast political-economic-media complex has developed that’s taken the entire Republican Party hostage. And, like many a hostage, the party faithful have been Stockholm Syndromed into being the most ardent proponents of the lies Big and small.
So, incomprehensible? No. No at all. But with an outcome predictable? No, not that either. Because the only thing we can be certain of is that we cannot be certain of what happens before November. A Trump conviction? Maybe. A hung jury thanks to one or two would-be nullifying jurors? Maybe. An acquittal or mistrial? Sure, why not?
A Supreme Court decision ruling Trump is immune? It could happen. Remember Citizens United and Hobby Lobby? Neither logic nor precedent nor core Constitutional values reign supreme at the Roberts Court. Or a ruling of no blanket immunity? That might happen, too, which could possibly (albeit, not likely) mean more trials before Election Day.
But why focus on jurisprudence? Russia could break Ukraine’s resistance and all but guarantee victory … or the opposite. WWIII could loom in conflict between NATO and Russia. Or China and Taiwan (and Japan, the Philippines and Australia). Or Israel and Iran. Serbia could again invade Kosovo. Or North Korea could fire a nuke at the West.
Or Al Qaeda, ISIS or another terrorist army could unleash attacks in American shopping malls.
Or something altogether unforseen could disrupt the new world order, such as the Flemish and the Walloons coming to violence in a war of merciless cannibalism. Who knows?
The only certain catastrophe is that climate change will continue getting worse, yielding suicidal complacency the world over. Other than that, tomorrow or the next day can, and will, deliver news that renders the latest polls, or the previous ones favoring Biden’s chances, entirely irrelevant. Did I mention that either Trump or Biden could die at any moment of old age, political violence or a tumble from a set of airplane stairs?
All of which means it is pointless for the media to obsess over the latest assault on sanity and truth, or the latest voter poll or any of the reflexive attention to Trump’s manufactured outrages. That’s what they did in 2016, transforming a nutty loudmouth into a historic phenomenon and hero of the bottom 50%. It’s as if the American people were Israelites, and the press was doing wall-to-wall coverage of the Golden Calf.
Alas, there is another certainty in all of this after all: that the press will heap slavish attention on second-by-second developments that are by definition transitory and don’t even necessarily reflect trajectory, much less outcome. It is a reflex and obsession, and at this point a fetish that has aided and abetted the erosion of the very democratic process journalists were entrusted by the 1st Amendment to protect. It was malpractice 100 years ago. It was malpractice eight years ago. And it is malpractice today. The journo elite gathered just last week for the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, wining and dining with the very politicos they’re supposed to be watchdogging. Meanwhile, democracy is being looted in front of their eyes. CNN fiddles while Rome burns.
In the past six weeks, there have been a few stories outlining Republican plans for — and progress in — destroying the American Way. None of this is secret. They have openly vowed to curb civil liberties, gut the civil service and deny voting rights, reproductive rights and human rights. They promise assaults on the 1st Amendment, safeguards against martial law and the use of police power to exact political vengeance. Except for the 2nd Amendment, the GOP is incrementally dismantling the entire Bill of Rights.
Who the fuck cares about the last New York Times/Siena College poll?
Of course, the unreconstructed and unapologetic assault on democracy has been documented, but over the same period there has been far more to say about Melania’s prenup, Taylor Swift’s every breath and Marjorie Taylor Green’s every spasm.
Which is not only repulsive, but ironic. Because if the subject is the myth of American exceptionalism and the regression to the human mean, the free press is/was the one institution conceived by the founders to stymie human nature. Yes, within the myth of exceptionalism was lodged that one sacred exception: the freedom to speak truth to power. Designed as the ultimate bulwark against tyranny, it was the principle that Made America Great Before.
But ain’t nobody got time for that. There are dramas to be covered, fire engines to be chased, daily outrages to be platformed, polls to be digested and clicks to be counted.
We, the press, know why all of the horror surrounds us. We know what powers it. We are uniquely conferred with the right and responsibility to inform the public, relentlessly, of the ongoing catastrophe. But there sooo much going on. The death of the planet and the gestation of American totalitarianism are perhaps important, but we’ve got other things to do: Donald Trump just farted.
Spot-on, as usual. To tart-up the aging cliché of "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," people at home and abroad are busily bashing each other over the head with those chairs as the ship steams, full speed ahead, towards the iceberg of global warming.
The future just ain't what it used to be.
Thank goodness for anti-anxiety meds and decent therapy, otherwise I’d be finding a tall building to hurl myself off of. I’m not joking. All of this is seriously affecting my mental health. Meanwhile, others around me are blithely sharing cute kitten pics and vegan enchilada recipes. I feel like I’m in a burning building, but when I tell people this and that they should get out I’m just told to sit down and shut up or don’’t be so freaking negative, look at the pretty colors of the flames! All I can do is hold on tight and hope we all come out on the other side, somehow, some way.