Dead End Blues

“To have a temporary, isolated sense of power over all events and circumstances, is a lovely illusionary privilege and perhaps the prime and most beautifully constructed conceit of being human.”  David Whyte

Halfway through Charlie Musselwhite’s set I thought of the coronavirus and looked around at the audience. The Arlington Theater was nearly full. Even the balcony seats were occupied. Earlier that day I stopped at Smart & Final to pick up a few items, and the store was busier than I have seen it in a long while. The couple in front of me in the check-out line were stocking up as if for the Apocalypse. Water, toilet paper, canned milk, frozen dinners, canned soup, macaroni & cheese, Gatorade, mayonnaise, ketchup, spaghetti sauce. $450 worth. By the time Jimmie Vaughan came on stage I had forgotten about the coronavirus. Jimmie and his band tore it up, and then the legend that is Buddy Guy came out, 80-years-old, and he made his guitar wail, and told some jokes that he has probably told a hundred times before. 

By definition, the coronavirus, or Covid-19, is a pandemic. Serious shit, and not the time for incompetence and fecklessness, which is what the people of America are getting from Donald J. Trump. The writer Charles Blow put it in context when he said that Trump will not be able to gaslight his way out of this one. Sooner, not later, Trump’s idiotic pronouncements will turn around and eat his lunch. It’s contained, says the Donald, and the next day the number of cases doubles. It’s no more dangerous than the flu, says the Donald. Tell that to the grieving in the state of Washington. We’ve closed our borders, says the Donald. Too late. The virus is already here, and closing borders is a medieval response anyway, as doomed to fail as bleeding the sick. On Monday, the stock market plunged 2,000 points, sparking fears that a long overdue recession is happening. We’ve got it under control, says the Donald. No, you don’t. 

Buddy Guy gave the audience the blues, the little joys and big sorrows that living brings to every one of us, sooner or later. Trump can jet around the country, hold rallies for his followers, appear on FOX and spout lies about how great he is, how he understands science like nobody’s business, but the wolf is scratching at his front door now, and the wolf is as ravenous as a starving man at a buffet. 

Meanwhile, the Establishment of the Democratic Party has almost landed its standard bearer. If Joe Biden does as well in this week’s primaries as he did on Super Tuesday, it may be game, set, and match for Bernie Sanders, the only candidate who stands a chance against Trump in November. I’m sorry I can’t jump on Biden’s train. The problem is that I’ve seen this script before, and I know -- with the same certainty with which Buddy Guy plays the blues -- how it’s going to end. Trump will attack Biden’s long, dodgy record, and for good measure bring in Ukraine and Burisma and Hunter, and top it off with attacks on Biden’s sketchy mental state. How will Biden downplay his diehard, well-documented, support for the punitive crime bill, the bankruptcy bill, Wall Street deregulation, and the disastrous Iraq War? Joe Biden is shark bait for Trump, so naturally, Biden will be the Democratic nominee. 

Here we go down the dead end road. 

Once again, the oligarchs and power brokers, who have no use for democracy, offer voters a choice of the lesser of two fatally flawed aging white men (Demented Trump vs. Decrepit Biden). No wonder so many eligible voters opt to stay home. Bernie Sanders has been running uphill since 2016, the Democratic Party honchos slamming him like a hurricane, the corporate media either attacking or ignoring his campaign. If Trump wins a second term, the destruction of our republic will continue, but at a higher tempo. If Biden somehow manages to survive Trump’s personal attacks and prevails in November, he will try to reimagine the Obama years. That might seem like a good thing, a return to normalcy, but while Obama was a decent and honorable and intelligent man, his eight years in office prepared the ground for Donald Trump. And in any case, history moves forward, not back. 

It all gives me the dead end blues.