Running for the Cliff

 

“Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving.” Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

Where’s Mike Pence? Where’s the VP while Don-the-Denier wanks and whines and blows idiot winds every time he opens his mouth? Has Mike jumped the Trump ship? Is he working on his story, a patriotic tale of how he, and he alone, prevented Trump from blowing up the world? Contrary to all the evidence, you can bet Mike Pence will portray himself, not as Trump’s docile lapdog, but as a ferocious behind-the-scenes champion of the American Way. Start putting the campaign ads together, because Mike Pence will be running for something soon enough. 

The Republicans, or as I now refer to the GOP, the Trump Party, hasn’t seemed to miss Pence. You don’t hear much about his whereabouts, which is a pretty good clue that even corruptible Mike Pence has a limit to what he’ll put his name behind. Mitch McConnell and the rest of the congressional gangsters, gadflys, goofballs, geeks, and grifters have no apparent limit. They represent a cesspool with no bottom. They lust after the power to force their minority viewpoint on the majority in this country. They’ve grown accustomed to wielding or withholding this power as they please. To them, compromise is a foreign, dirty word. Duty is in the eye of the beholder. Honor is reserved for the winners. 

The Democrats are generally less corrupt but no less owned and operated by Corporate America. I promised myself that I would not pay much attention to Biden’s picks for his cabinet and key agencies, knowing they would piss me off and make me feel discouraged before Biden assumes office. I  have watched Joe Biden for years, and to me he’s less a Democrat than he is what we used to call a “moderate” Republican. Believe it or not, there were quite a few of them back in the day, and they often joined Democrats in passing legislation that made the lives of working-class America less precarious. They’re all extinct now, not one to be found unless you count Mitt Romney, or possibly Larry Hogan, the Governor of Maryland. Hogan neither disgusts or scares me -- he seems like a sensible man and a decent human being. Mitt Romney disappoints me. He’s a wealthy man, beholden to no one except the Mormon church, with nothing at risk, and even Romney won’t step out and flatly declare that Trump’s clumsy, inept and stupid attempts to subvert the will of the voters is not only wrong, it’s dangerous for the nation.

Hey Trump Party members, answer me this: are y’all really going the Joseph McCarthy route, full batshit, conspiracies behind every door of every house in blue America; fever dreams about about brown and black people threatening to take over major cities; dire warnings about death-crazed Muslims intent on imposing sharia law in the white suburbs where the Christians live. Is that the deal with you people? Are you going to be bullied by a nihilistic movement -- I’m talking about Trumpism -- that is doomed to consume itself, and you with it? You need to repent by declaring yourself free of Trump’s hold. Crazy doesn’t work. Stand up and condemn the crap that Trump’s foisting on the nation day after day. Can’t you see how desperate he looks, and how dangerous what he’s doing is? Surely you can see. He lost. You know he did, the numbers don’t lie. The Supreme Court just sent you a very clear message. Joe Biden got 7 million more votes than Trump. Biden thumped Trump’s ass. That stupid Texas lawsuit is going nowhere. The election was a resounding repudiation of Donald Trump’s brand of dangerous, callous incompetence and madness. That so many people voted for Trump worries me greatly, but the majority declared that enough is enough.  

But no matter what, on January 20, 2021, the Trump Party will still be here. That diseased herd is running full tilt for the cliff, all chasing Trump’s long and ugly shadow, all willing to sell mind and soul for another handful of magic beans. They keep backing Trump’s play, mucking around at the perimeter of the law, afraid that Dear Leader will frown with disfavor and sic his most demented followers on them. Trump’s people are loud and mean on Twitter and Facebook, and  some of these fools are now showing up at the residences of elected officials, demanding they break the law and put the fix in for Trump. As for Trump, he’s never shy about his corruption, it’s business-as-usual to him, the way it’s done, so he calls the governors of swing states in broad daylight, from the Oval Office, and pressures them to rip up their state constitutions and order their attorney’s general to subvert the law and make Trump win. 

Trump is one dumb fucker, I have to say. It’s astonishing to me how stupid he is, how illogical and childish and moronic. He says the most ridiculous shit, like, “I won. I’m 2-0 in elections. I got more votes than Obama.” But you got 7 million less than Joe Biden, your opponent, or were you running, in that gelatinous brain of yours, against Obama’s ghost?

And how about Trump’s understanding of the Supreme Court? It comes down to this: If Trump appoints them, it means they are forever beholden to him and must always rule in his favor. It’s that transactional, that simple, they must obey the king. Trump still believes the Supreme Court, his Court, will somehow, some way, reverse the election results and hand him a second term. 

Where’s Mike? I don’t know and don’t really care. Maybe he’s hiding in the wings until Trump summons him to do him a service, to bend forward and kiss the ring, then produce a magic wand and make it all come true.