Ask for me on the morrow…
In a little under 24 hours from now, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of these United States! Now, I will be the first to admit that I REALLY did not see this coming. All joking aside, GeoPolichinelle has gone quite over the past two months due to a combination of shock, horror, and alcohol induced miasma. The entire premise of this blog is predicated on the notion that the world of politics is rife with clearly understood “truths” which, for the sake of decorum, obfuscation, and/or simply moving the plot-line along, all the major players (and the audience) choose to ignore, pay lip service too, or simply lie about, in order for the farce to continue. What is not supposed to happen, however, is for those “truths” to become…,er…True – with a capital T! For example, when RT reports that Russia is engaged in a regional life and death struggle against the forces of resurgent Fascism we all know exactly what that means. Or when President Erdogan of Turkey accuses foreigners of instigating the recently failed “coup” attempt, everyone in the room understands the not so subtle undertow. But what is not supposed to happen is for everyone to take this kind of blustery positioning seriously.
Everyone, that is, with the apparent exception of the American electorate. It turns out that no claim can be too outrageous, too blatant, too unbelievably crass and moronic, that it disqualifies the speaker from the highest public office in the land. We now truly live in a “post-truth” world, and without any of the saving graces of cynicism and irony that might make such a notion vaguely palatable. For the “true-believers” of Trumplandia, “post-truth” is an accolade, not an insult, and there is no arguing with that kind of position. Or is there? Lord alone knows what can be done to fight the rising tide of willful ignorance and abject stupidity that is about to overtake both the domestic and the international realms, but one way or another we are all going to find out.
Just off the top of my head, I can count of a variety of simply terrifying international “position” changes that are going to leave me in a cold sweat for the foreseeable future: Undermining NATO, for example, or getting into a pissing contest with China over trade policy, currency manipulation, and the “One China Policy,” or voluntarily abdicating the US position as the global leader on climate science and/or green technology, or abandoning the two party solution to the quagmire that is Israel & Palestine, or alienating our closest neighbor to the south with untenable demands and 3rd rate jingoism, or…, well…, you get the picture. The autocrats of yore were often accused of ruling by fiat, which at least still required some form of reflection and composure in the issuance – while our new glorious leader appears to dictate his foreign policy ad hoc, or “ruling by tweet” so to speak.
Truly, his words are almost Swiftian in their rapier like subtlety.
One way or another, we are all in for a rough ride. I’m not trying to single any specific demographic out for blame here, because there is plenty of it to go around, but I am suggesting that now is not the time to go gentle into that good night – if ever there was a time to get involved, then this is it, folks. Start small – attend a local council meeting, donate to your favorite civically minded institution, do the unthinkable and stand for office! Whatever the hell you choose to do, for the love of Jeebus, don’t let your resolution slip away. Your anger is a gift, but your resolve is your power.
And for all those on the right or the left who will instead choose to spend the next four years bitching from the sidelines, I say this – “I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both your houses!”
All your base are belong to him – for now!
GeoPolichinelle 