Samain Thanksgiving Moon
Late night phone calls this time of year, every four years, are most likely poll takers. Got one last night. I take the time to answer them because I want my voice to matter statistically, perhaps have a slight reinforcing effect in the larger mess.
If the Donald wins, I’m not leaving for Canada. That would just leave the country to him and his kind. Not acceptable. But I will build a transparent dome around our house. The dome will have a semi-permeable membrane for its skin. Only healthy, clean, non-stupid ideas will be able to come onto our property whether delivered by newspaper, internet, or television. I haven’t figured out what to do when we leave our dome home, a work in progress.
In addition to being the most irritating, unenlightening, miserable f***ing presidential campaign of my entire life (probably of our entire history as a country), this election season has been notably short of ideas. No dearth of feelings, but few ideas. What major policy position, of either candidate, can you name other than Trump’s wall? I thought so.
I despair for our democracy, not just in light of this last year, but since 9/11. The Forever War has eroded and corrupted our Federal budget, our ethical sensibilities and killed thousands. To what end? I know the stock answer, to keep the terrorists at bay, away from the homeland. But is military force the only way to accomplish that goal?
Since 9/11 our politics have become polarized, mean, unbending. The Donald has only ridden that cresting wave; he did not create it. Like any demagogue he has an instinctive feel for the anguish of ordinary citizens and an ability to say things that seem to give it voice. As a representative democracy, we rely on politicians for taking the pulse of their constituents. Yes, that’s true.
But, we used to be able to rely on politicians to dull the uglier proclivities lying underneath. We have, of course, always had a George Wallace, a Pat Buchanan, a Father Coughlin, even our Andrew Johnson’s who instead of dulling the lesser demons of our nature, stoked them. They have, however, been marginal, except for that period in the 1920’s when the KKK rose to political prominence in many states.
Now Trump and his incoherent, id-based politics has given roots and wings to those who would push others down, rather than lift them up. He wants to pull up the drawbridges spanning the Atlantic and the Pacific, leaving us here to rejoice in our fastness. These are emotionally driven policy shapers, not policy themselves. They play to what is the cheapest and lowest among us. Not hard to understand, no. Impossible, however, to accept.
This fissure in our commonweal will not heal when the election is over. In fact, it may well grow broader and deeper. Though it’s a canard, I believe in this instance it is true. We are in a struggle for the soul of our nation.
