La Commedia è Finita — ??
May 31, 2024
For nine effing years this one man has fixated national attention like no other in our history. Just what his deranged ego craves.
When in 2015, Mr. “Bone Spurs” who didn’t serve derided John McCain’s war hero status, I thought so vile a candidate would be vomited out by America’s civic stomach. Of course I was wrong. This was no longer the country I thought I knew.
Then came “Grab them by the pussy.” My blog post was headed “La Commedia è Finita.” Wrong again.
I recall commentator Van Jones querying “when will America’s antibodies kick in?” But that immune system was overwhelmed. Perhaps our civic culture was already insidiously weakened, ripe for Trump’s coup de grace. Like a computer virus cunningly crafted to wreak havoc with our operating system.
So now: will we actually elect as president a convicted criminal?
He’s of course screaming it’s the system rigged against him (whereas the real story is how much he’s gotten away with). He calls the judge improperly biased because of a $35 political donation. While the Florida judge in his documents trial — appointed by him! — blatantly favors him.No problem there. And toady Stefanik charges Special Counsel Smith with impropriety for trying to move the January 6 case forward despite Trump’s delaying tactics.
Then all those Republican bigwigs gathered at the New York courthouse to denounce the proceedings and profess loyalty to Trump — disregarding the actual testimony inside, that his loyalty to Trump destroyed Michael Cohen. Painted by Trump’s lawyers as a lying scumbag — but what does that say about Trump himself, whose creature Cohen was?
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
But so far, as his criminality profile rises (with previous adjudications of fraud and sexual assault), so do Trump’s poll numbers. How low we’ve sunk when not only is an ex-president convicted of felonies, but few think it will much affect the coming election. It may, if anything, enhance his perverse allure.
Still, some hope enough will finally gag at the degradation. But over nine years of blogging trying to combat it, I’ve grown weary and demoralized. This sad sick saga sears my soul, shredding my sense of what’s good, right, and decent.
Trump voters have long since crossed their Rubicon. In for a penny, in for a pound. In a 2023 PBS focus group of Iowa Republicans, one woman declared Democrats have lost their minds and don’t know right from wrong! The others all nodded.
Facts and reality don’t penetrate their bizarro alternate universe. Its depth struck me recently in a messaging exchange with a very smart, successful acquaintance, saying Trump’s a great guy, “the real deal,” his presidency was a golden time, and he’ll save the country from Biden. At mention of Fox News he said firing Tucker Carlson shows it’s been corrupted, but there’s lots of “stuff out there” — to counter “Morningstar,” a CIA conspiracy stuffing mainstream media with propaganda. His final message displayed a farrago of unhinged Trumpist nonsense, commenting: “Facts are facts.”
But even as concrete a fact as a felony conviction (or 34 of them) can be waved away. Half of voters believe unemployment’s at a 50-year high. (It’s a record low). And that crime is rising. (It’s falling). While a majority trusts Trump more than Biden on their main concern, inflation. By raising import tariffs, curbing immigration, and deporting millions of workers? Sure to send prices through the roof!
If I hear one more time that “American voters are smart” . . .
But maybe, just maybe, just enough will have a grip on sanity in November. At least Trump’s conviction provides some hope. Though it would make his winning the election an even bigger national disgrace. And if he loses again, almost half the country will dangerously believe it’s another “stolen election.”
La commedia ain’t finita.