The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

I hear rumors to the effect that Kool-Aid is served from 55 gallon oil drums down in the palace at Mar-a-Lago where the president-in-exile holds court. The steady stream of Republicans in more than name only drink directly from the drums, ignoring the oil slicks on the surface while Mr. Big Pants nods approvingly. Or, in a few instances, hilariously screams You’re Fired! before summoning the next contestant. All the right wing power brokers line up at the front gate, waiting their turn, terrified they might offend His Mightiness and lose an endorsement.

This is the state of politics in America. Thank god we can be diverted by the Russian onslaught of Ukraine, a war that makes Sherman’s march through Georgia look like a Boy Scout outing. Oh my, the bad bad Putin is threatening the democratic institutions of Europe! What can be done! What can be done? Or inflation, what about inflation, why doesn’t Sleepy Joe do something about inflation???

Meanwhile, in hearings, in courtrooms, in the mainstream press, His Importance is being sued, litigated, investigated and probably eventually indicted. No matter to the legions who Believe, who think the fat man behind the curtain is really Oz the Magnificent, who would vote for him a third time despite two impeachments and an endless stream of tax evasions, incitements for insurrection and plenty of testimony from his sexual abuse victims. Parse it, explain it, hypothesize, draw your own conclusions, the sad sorry truth is a goodly part of our population, our neighbors and relatives, believe the lies and mumbo-jumbo they read in Facebook.

I don’t like to say it too loud, sure don’t want to irritate the already irritated masses, but … the Deplorables are winning. The Republican Party thinks they can ride this tiger, play on their fears and their anger, and still maintain control of their agenda, whatever that is these days other than obstructionism. They forget all too soon that the mob in the Capitol January 6th was calling for Pence to be hanged. The guillotines might be coming back….

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So now we’re treated to crowds of yahoos chanting, not Lock Her Up, but Send Her Back! What part of the democratic process, if any, do these pea-heads understand? Me, I’ve had a dose of ignorance to last me a lifetime. Enuff, I think, to demand an end to it. You want to believe Obama was born in Kenya, I can’t help you. You want to doubt we landed Apollo 11 on the moon, fine by me. You think JFK was killed by aliens from Mars, have at it. But I don’t want you writing the history books, I don’t want you telling me your latest conspiracy theory, I don’t need you screaming en masse that if a person doesn’t agree with your angry imbecility they ought to be deported. I’m sick of it and I’m sick of you. Read a book occasionally. Educate yourself. You think every opinion ought to be treated with equal respect, forget about it. We might agree that you have the right to be stupid, but that doesn’t make your opinion right.

We live in the algorithm of ignorance these globally warmed days. Anger, resentment, bigotry, all combustible fuel in the forest of stupidity, just waiting for a spark or a match or a dogwhistle or two. I won’t say every person who voted for Trump was a racist or even deplorable. I have friends who voted for the carnival barker and yeah, they’re still my friends. But there are a lot of folks who voted for the guy who would just as happily have voted for George Wallace in the day howling about de-segregation, who would vote for Judge Roy Moore even when they knew he stalked under- age girls, who would vote again for Trump full knowing he was guilty of conspiring with Russians and guilty of covering up payments to porn stars and guilty of obstruction of justice. They’re mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore.

Trouble is, they just don’t have much of an outlet other than to rage against the machine. Along comes a demagogue like Donald, pissed off 90% of the time, tweeting his outrage, venting his narrow minded wrath against Muslims and immigrants and liberals and the media, against most everything, even the foundations of democracy. The future looks dim to him and the mob. It was better when the country was white, when Ozzie loved Harriet, when the kids were heterosexual, when cars had huge fins and got 10 mpg, when TV didn’t have sitcoms with people of color or people who were gay or people who looked different than … you know, Us. We didn’t have crime, we didn’t worry about climate change, we didn’t have transsexuals, we didn’t have any problems.

Oh, sure, the Russians and that communism stuff. Maybe some nuclear scares. But Father knew best and the Brady Bunch were a nice wholesome American family. What happened to all that Norman Rockwell goodness? Was it the uppity black folks? Did the immigrants erode the culture? Maybe the women wanting equality? Drugs and the hippie culture and now heroine and meth? Was that it? The American Dream became darker and darker. Jobs paid less. The Mexicans took all the good jobs from our white kids, you know, picking cucumbers and framing houses or working at Motel 6 as a maid. The government maybe, telling us cigarettes were bad, the air was filthy, the rivers were polluted, always the government, the goddamn government telling us what to eat, what not to eat, what was good for us, what wasn’t. Like we were children. Like we were too stupid to know any better.

It’s hard to say, hard to put a finger on it, hard to find the reason things went to hell. But the jobs don’t pay, the kids are on drugs, the kids are hooked on their devices, the kids are addicted to Facebook, the kids don’t want to work manual labor any more, the robots are taking over, the cars are driving themselves, the country is a mess. Hollywood has perverted everything, the media lies about everything, nothing is true unless it’s on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh. Something went terribly wrong back when and now, who knows, maybe it’s too late. But along comes this guy, a billionaire TV star, maybe he can fix it. Maybe we got nothing to lose. Maybe he can turn things around. Maybe he’ll drain the swamp.

Well, I got some bad news for you deplorables. He is the swamp.

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