Our democracy has become an unpredictable system, one that seems to be constantly in flux. And now it is screaming for repair, made more broken daily by a deranged and dangerous president. A president whose potency is exacerbated by surrounding himself with a team of selfish, greedy, narcissists such as himself, who don’t give a hoot about their potentially disastrous impact on our country and our democracy. Trump utters strings of disconnected words that range from that of the aspiring dictator standing before his core to a babbling, bubbling man-baby hovering over his core.
(NOTE: This man represents an excellent example of a man standing before his believers, his core. He is a man who is continuously reaching out to the other side and who understands exactly how much work middle ground entails. A man continously striving to embrace his enemies and to heal their wounds. A man who is not about self, a man who understands real sacrifice, a man who gives and gives and gives some more. But he is upset because he thinks he is not appreciated and needs more time to prove his worth. But no worries, as you can see, his believers believe he is a man for our time.)
(NOTE: This man-baby represents an excellent example of a man-baby floating above his believers, his core. But he is not happy because he has the rare Flatus Mouth Disease (FMD). FMD occurs when a man-baby babbles so much nonsense that he produces so much gas that he becomes airborne. This causes him to float above his core, having to be tethered to avoid floating away to Heaven. But, no worries because as you can see below, his believers will chase him because they believe he is a man for our time.)
A friend just posted on Facebook a commentary by Dan Rather about the precariousness of our democracy. One paragraph in Dan Rather’s essay jumped out at me as being relevant to what I’ve said above:
…This is a moment of reckoning unlike any I have seen in my lifetime. I have seen this country in deep peril, as the hungry begged for sustenance during the Great Depression, as the Nazis marched across Europe and the Japanese across Asia, as missiles were moved into Cuba, as our political leaders were murdered, as a president ran a criminal conspiracy from the Oval Office, as planes were hijacked into skyscrapers. All of these were scary times, but through it all I never worried about a president actively undermining American democracy and inciting violence to do so – even Nixon, for all of his criminal activity….
Dan Rather has seen and experienced just about everything of import that the last century and the current one can toss at a country and a world. Now 88, a man of vast socio-political knowledge and experience, he has lived through three-quarters of the 20th and 21st century. This 120-year period has probably been unparalleled in world history for its lightning-fast change and globe-sized impacts. For Dan Rather to say that Donald Trump is the greatest threat he has witnessed in his 90 years watching a relatively young democracy try to mature in a chaotic world, is saying something.
The crises America faces today, including climate change, a global epidemic, and a fragmenting democracy, spell troubled waters ahead. These three threats singularly are monumental enough, but in concert, they become a synergistic behemoth, morphing and growing every minute. This is a beast that eclipses the Great Depression and the three big wars of our time combined in its potential for untold tragedy and suffering. From a global to personal level, its impacts rival that of a nuclear war and a nuclear winter in slow motion.
To survive to the 22nd century, we must get our heads out of our asses and start talking to each other again. We need to behave like adults and not like the infantile creatures we have become from Washington to you and me. This means relearning the art of compromise, of seriously listening, and of striving and striving harder for the middle ground. This means putting the common good ahead of me and you, individuals, and ahead of our personal wants and our continuous unhappy striving for happiness. Leaving the me behind and replacing it with my neighbors, my neighborhood, my community, our country, and, last but not least, Earth. It is surprising how comforting and content that shifting of emphasis can make a person. I have never been happier in my life than during the four years my wife and I spent in the Peace Corps in Mexico. John F. Kennedy said it as beautifully as it could ever be said in his famous inaugural address on January 20, 1961, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” A little over a month later, on March 1, 1961, President Kennedy created the Peace Corps. Were Kennedy alive today, he would be greatly disappointed.
Paraphrasing my other friend in his comment, “…..In the current political environment, it would help if there was mutual respect but that is sorely lacking. I would have thought that having a common enemy would bring both sides to the table, but unbelievably, it has had the opposite effect.” We must regain that respect for each other he is talking about and to be able to take on the “common enemy” as a country. That enemy could be Coronavirus or climate change or the tangible threat to our democracy or all three. This can only happen if we accept the wisdom of JFK. And once we stop focusing on what is best for me and replace it what is best for us, we will make progress.