Trick or Treat on Election Night
My fellow Americans, the day of reckoning is finally here! Today is Election Day in the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave. With the rest of the world watching, we proudly put our form of democracy on display as an example to follow. We show those totalitarians, those monarchies, those kleptocrats and commies how our model form of government could be theirs as well. How we have winnowed from 350 million citizens the two who can lead the Free World as president of the most powerful country in the history of mankind.
And tonight, the envelope please….
I know, you’ve had a belly full this past year. It’s been a long national nightmare that we never believed was possible, we never dreamed it could go this far, we can’t quite pinch ourselves to full wakefulness. President Donald Trump. I know, you can’t quite say it. You think: the man is a pig. The man is a bully, a womanizer, a philanderer, an ignorant arrogant egomaniac who campaigned only with his wife and kids and no political backers, a huckster whose claim to business savvy and deal making is a façade that covers multiple million dollar bankruptcies that he used to avoid, legally, paying taxes. He’s a racist, a xenophobe, a misogynist, a fraud and a cheat. He’s a liar who doesn’t appear to believe he’s lying. When confronted with the facts he simply repeats the lie. He claims he will throw his opponent in jail if elected. He wants to cancel Saturday Night Live for skewering him. He bans reporters from his rallies if they work for a paper he considers unfair. Like the New York Times. He encourages violence at those same rallies, ridicules the handicapped, finds it disgusting if a Miss Universe contestant gains a few pounds, tells us he’ll sue the pants off the dozen or more women who accuse him of sexual harassment.
This is the man who will Make America Great Again. Who will ban Muslims from entering the country, who will build a Wall, who will renegotiate trade deals, cancel the Iranian nuclear pact, get tough with China. Who admires Putin and declares him a much better leader than Obama. And no, Russia has never — will never — invade Ukraine.
Tonight, my anxious Americans, we will put on display an America we never really acknowledged, the one we kept hidden in the closet. The dark room where we keep our Confederate flags, the KKK, hate crimes, lynchings, sexual abuse, police racism, corporate tax dodges, a widening divide between the rich and poor, minimum wage stagnation, immigration problems, all those embarrassing traits we lock behind that door. The America half of us want to make great again is the America of angry white folks, folks who fear a polyglot melting pot nation of different nationalities and color and religion, all united, all Americans, all hoping to have an equal opportunity in the land of the so-called free, the land of the scared.
I’d like to tell you our long national nightmare will finally be over tonight. That the healing can begin. But you know and I know too, the skeletons in the closet are out now. It’s not just Election Night. It’s Halloween. The spooks and the goblins and the demons are out in the open, during the daytime, in the light of scrutiny. If you think they’re going back into the shadows, think again. No matter who loses tonight … they’re the real winners.
I guess all those zombie and vampire shows on the TV weren’t entertainment after all, they were a preparation for our bleak future. A future that starts tomorrow. Where dark, slumbering beliefs of the living dead, awaken, arise, and walk among us, with their zombie-like opinions surrounding us by day, their prejudice sucking at the life blood of our nation like vampires at night. There will be no avoiding the fear, loathing, and crazy in our days to come.
I think John Prine said it best so many years ago:
“Blow up your TV throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home”
I guess John Prine was absolutely correct. I plan to go back home and start focusing on things a little more important than obsessing with the politics I’ve stuck my nose in the last long year, things like music and walking the beach, gardening and making art. A lot of folks voted for a man so little concerned with their interests, it’s just hard for me to care for those interests either. As Hunter Thompson aptly noted when Nixon was re-elected, the hogs are in the tunnel.
Thank you Jack. We are still in a state of disbelief and – yes – mourning for the greatness that was lost rather than restored.
I’m an old man now who has, despite the last decades of trying to be a citizen in good standing for once in my sorry life, grown cynical. A lot of folks stayed home on this one, a lot of folks bought into the Fox mudslinging against Hillary for the majority of her adult life, a lot of minorities felt disrespected, a lot of women still prefer the jackboot of the cruel but ‘strong’ man. I don’t recognize this country, don’t really like the one I see. I think I saw some hope when Obama was elected. I was mistaken. I need to take some time to listen to music, not talk radio. Time to enjoy the tides and the changing seasons. Time to make some art and spend more hours with friends. The sun will rise again, the country will muddle along, the rich will get richer and the poor, well, there’s some harder times coming for them. Nobody said democracy had to be fair or compassionate. We just hoped it would.