Tomorrow is election day! Every election day since 1960 has elicited in me a strong mixture of interest, excitement, and a frisson of danger. No one wants to see a president Nixon, a president Reagan, a president W. Bush. (Yes, I was strangely okay with Presidents Gerald Ford and H.W. Bush.) Only one election, however, rose in my estimation to the level of existential threat, and that was the last one. I had little enthusiasm for Hillary, but I was desperately afraid of Trump. For reasons that have been obvious since at least the late 1980s, I believed that Trump could be an extremely dangerous choice. Accent on the frisson.
After four years, we can take that statement out of the subjunctive and into the declarative. This election carries an even greater danger. Trump was, and remains, a profound threat to everything that makes America America. We're in a steep slide towards the mediocre, the undemocratic, the dictatorial, and four more years will put us on a par with Belarus.
There has been only one positive result of Trump's service: everyone in America can now clearly see the true nature and desires of the so-called Republican party. Those reactionary, anti-American, anti-worker, anti-woman, racist, Republican bastards have taken off their masks. That sea of doughy old white faces laughs unashamedly now as they pass tax cuts for their wealthy masters and tear up Federal regulations wholesale. Fiscal conservatives my ass. Small government and states' rights my ass. Family values my bony old white ass. They are the party of theft and corruption. The party of debt-slavery and corporate ascendancy. The party of limitless surveillance, endless incarceration, and totalitarian oligarchy.
The Democrats are better, by a narrow but clear margin. That much is clear in the statistics over the last five decades. During Democratic administrations, budget deficits have gone down, the national debt has increased at a slower pace, job creation has been much stronger, and working people's home budgets have been more secure. The truth is that both parties have failed us. The Democrats could have done a lot better. The Republicans could not have done any worse.
No one could imagine “worse” than the last four years.
“Republican” either has, or will soon become, a terrible curse in America. “Be careful, my child,” parents will say to their children, “the Republicans are hovering nearby to ambush foolish children.”
Who will be the face of the future Republican party? They are not exactly well stocked with sympathetic candidates to put forward in future elections. What are the names that have been coming up most often?
Donald J. Trump, Jr., and Ivana Marie Trump. (I refuse to call these rich-kid legacies by their nicknames. “Ivanka” carries the same weight with me as did “Mitt” and “JEB.”)
I kid you not. Signs have begun to show up at Trump rallies, saying, “Don Jr. in 2024.” It is fascinating to me that talk of Junior running for high office is appearing simultaneously with photos of Junior under the obvious influence of powerful drugs. Have you ever seen a photo of Junior with his children? There are quite a few of them, and they are his children, but the photos that I've seen look more like kidnappings. The children look like hostages.
Ivana Marie knows enough to keep her children well out of sight. She herself is interesting only as a creature of the medical arts. It's always hard to predict how those implants will age. In recent photos, the implant in Ivana Marie's chin looks like it's trying to burst the skin.
If anyone has mentioned Eric, I have not seen it. I don't see why not, though. He wouldn't be any worse than the other two. No one seems to be considering Tiffany either. I shudder to think what form Barron's future involvement in human society might take. Under his mother's guiding hand, he might aim much higher than the presidency of the United States, or whatever it will be called by then.
Yes, tomorrow is election day. Whatever happens, it will probably be a new experience for all of us. May God have mercy on our souls.
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