Wednesday, November 04, 2020

The Better Nature of Our Angels

We'll just start there, because when I went to bed last night Biden's victory looked sure, but wasn't certain. I'll take the comfort I can get at this point; not because I'm a yellow-dog Democract (I am), but because 4 more years of Trump is a disaster unthinkable. As I say, I went to bed last night, which means I missed Trump's ranter. I'm not surprised by it, and I don't put it down to narcissism or any other arm-chair psychological terms. I'll take Maggie Haberman as my guiding star for this one: So, A) Trump has no idea how this works. Never has, never will.

B) Trump is scared shitless. Deutsche Bank, by some reports, wants to drop him like a hot potato come January 20; he probably thinks he'll be arrested the minute Biden walks off the inauguration platform; all the talk of Trump fleeing the country is BS. Anybody remember how he bleated about wanting to sleep in his own home like a toddler, and how he wasn't sure he could move into the White House if he won? And he's gonna decamp for parts unknown in perpetuity? Color me dubious. But I think he's shitting bricks, both about being a "loser," and about facing the music. These predictions, of course, are as valid as the predictions of a "Blue Wave." But about that latter subject: Besides, you know the point in the movie where the lying villain is revealed and the characters finally catch up with the audience (it's called "dramatic irony")? Sorry to tell you, but if you were expecting that in real life, you're not going to get it. Yeah, the ugly Id of America has been revealed: again. We like to pretend it isn't there: that we all agree slavery was bad (white supremacists and racists all respond "But was it? Really?") All our institutions which bend toward voter suppression and violence against non-whites (and often poor whites, too; another invisible category in America) belie the claim we are "post-racist," or for that matter, "woke." As do the voters: Yeah, I thought the marches against George Floyd's death meant something. I was wrong.  And it looks like we are on-track to have a small "d" democratic party, and an anti-democratic party: Even a Biden victory/Trump defeat will not make that situation any better.  Still: That's not erasing racism; but it's not affirming it, either. And still: There's always history, too: Oregon was founded specifically to be an enclave for white supremacists.  So things do change.  Hope is still the thing with feathers. And I'm not quite featherless. Not yet.
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5 comments:

  1. The Thought Criminal9:02 AM

    As always, I'll take the darkest view until I'm forced to believe it's only dark. I don't know if I can take another election like this one.

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  2. Rmj9:13 AM

    This election has brought out my inner childhood Calvinist. "People are no damned good."

    The spectacle of this election has all but destroyed any notion of "American exceptionalism" based on the "good will" of "the people." It's perfectly clear from this that the only interest most people have in government is the power of government, and power is meaningless unless it is wielded against somebody else. In that sense politics is a spectator sport, so long as the audience gets to watch somebody else getting beaten up.

    I think of the gladiator games in Rome, the republic our government was largely based on. Panem et circenses, indeed.

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  3. rick allen9:45 AM

    Yes, a big night for the doctrine of original sin.

    But I'm daring to hope, now at least, that Trump made his deal with Mephistopheles in 1994, not 2000. Perhaps Deutsche Bank will play the role of "adders and serpents."

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  4. The Thought Criminal11:14 AM

    This is 100% "reality" TV based. It is the degeneration of the American soul through entertainment, the circuses part of the plan. I can't see any way for it to get better until we face that foundational flaw in the theory of the American Constitution that you can have a decent life without egalitarian democracy and you can't have egalitarian democracy when people are seduced by the media to be selfish, uncaring, and ignorant. It's impossible to make a democracy on what the majority of Americans are raised on, now. The choice is between total freedom for the media to say whatever they choose to and the possibility of a free people to choose their government for the common good. That's one of my original thought crimes, why I took the name. Not big on "original sin" I'm not too big on Augustine but I can understand where the idea might have started.

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  5. Rmj11:58 AM

    I thoroughly reject the concept of "original sin," except in moments where it's convenient. One can't really get rid of what one was raised on; not entirely.

    And I do hope Trump is heading for a reckoning, even though I understand the concept of redemption and that "punishment" means I am above judgment, and I'm not. Still, couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. I want to love my enemy; but dammit, it's hard.

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