It's starting to look as if we may all squeak by and survive Orange Guy's Level One Coronation by the GOP, in spite of the early numbers, in spite of ongoing verbal revelations from Crazy Core Central, in spite of the hypnotic pinwheel glare in an alarming number of matching glares and unblinking stares.
We'll see if we also manage to dodge the candidate's bullet when it comes to assassination innuendos to supporters. We'll see if we can duck the traitorous recoil of cheerleading Russians to hack his competition. We'll see if we can manage to remain in favor with the gods after favoring the exclusion of certain worshippers, races, genders...
Time for more visual aids here -- my hands. On the one hand, I am thrilled that a disturbed, reckless buffoon for the ages appears to have been stopped by his own foolhardiness, by his his own firestorm of outlandishness, and extinguished by his own blowhard-iness, too.
(How that wretched wreck of an alleged human being ever managed nomination by a major party will continue to be fodder for sociologists, psychologists, and for herds upon herds of assorted other -ologists for decades to come, even if nothing new happens... even if no new pronouncements come direct from Jupiter's 66th moon and then erupt from this unhinged candidate's hinged facial opening(s).)
Yes, and on the other hand, over here, I also still dread what will come next, from this ignorant, intolerant, arrogant person's supporters, after they lose.
(Don't get me wrong: I have dreads -- about half as many -- about Hillary Clinton too, who was pried only slightly away from a Right-Lite course, and was then forcibly leveraged toward the left, with her kicking and screaming the whole way, by Bernie Sanders, who dared reference policies which startled sane adults unused to scenarios in which all people might be allowed to succeed.)
And now, here's the other hand, my secret third one: Will every American city be torn up by frustrated, disappointed, resentful, disillusioned supporters -- in the way that cities are often left burning, car flipped on roofs, after rampaging fans demonstrate their good sportsmanship and self-control, after home teams lose their all-important Big Games?
If bozos will wreck a city -- or at least cause it to halt for a day or two -- over a sports loss, which controls nothing in people lives, what will a political loss do, which has the potential to control everything in people's lives?
Will it be better than the carnage from a who-cares sports loss? About the same? Way worse? How much worse? How long? Overnight? Weeks? Months?
Bad as that scenario might be, consider this:
All the forces painstakingly built by GOP planning, by kneejerk thugs and ideological bullies, will still be with us after Trump loses, after his fans feel betrayed, after his supporters think they detect the scent of election rigging and ultimate betrayal, and after these supporters act out, to whatever degree they will.
After the election, there will still be large pools of uninformed and misinformed Americans, marching under numerous philosophical banners, all rallied under the Trump-brella, all steeped in the lore and hate and manipulated information of Fox and Rush and all their perverted ilk.
There will be no shortage of angry people, pushed further in their daily angers, pumped up by GOP talking-point psyop-mills, right-wingnut think-tanks, and by those who torture innocent language and facts into the coiled serpents of propaganda, scape-goating, racism, misogyny, religious prejudice, and fear, fear, fear, fear, fear.
These people building and steering the Crazy are going nowhere. They will not suddenly stop, considering their positions, and decide to educate themselves. They will not gather facts and information, and will not perform critical thinking. They will not suddenly see any mistake in their always turning to millionaires and billionaires to do the work of the Little Guy, to change things, to make millionaires and billionaires lose so that the Little Guy may win one.
Every election, more and more voters turn out in their support of super-rich elitists whom they believe will be the salvation of everyday Americans, this time. However, last time, the Comparatively Sane won out over the Sorely Bamboozled, by 53% to 47%.
That might not seem like a squeaker to you, that count, but, in a crowd of 100 people who want to burn the country to the ground, against those who don't, it takes a while to detect that one side has a slim, 6-person advantage.
Until that small advantage is detected, there is a lot of sweaty-palmed breath-holding going on by you, I imagine, in that crowd, trying to surround yourself with the No-Burn people, trying to keep torches out of your hair, protest signs out of your eyes.
After Trump, the right-wingnut propaganda machines will all still in place. No move will have been made by these individuals and groups to produce and use countermeasures of untainted information and facts. No attempts will be made by the forces of the status quo to ensure that everyday Americans are trained away from their raging, storming feelings, and taught how to apply calm, clear reasoning to their situations instead. Instruction in options will not be provided by the GOP.
The GOP has no answers. They are fire-starters and arsonists, not firefighters.
Fascists and financiers failed in their forceful attempt of a 1930s coup in America, and they learned well that end runs would be needed to seize power: infiltrate every office at every level, control the message, disseminate the message, and keep pounding away at people...
... sic group against group, tell the big lies, distract the audience, and never-ever smarten up the chumps.
This is not the first time in world history when a stressed and stranded population was fed a ration of propagandistic crap and pre-digested pablum -- and when the population couldn't swallow fast enough.
There was such a time, in the days before television, when people were easily controlled by foul information. Today, we have teevee, which we know is one of the greatest propaganda tools in the history of mankind. Television works equally well for lies or truth. It shills dog food as easily as dogma.
Teevee is not truth, it only provides what we are meant to see -- which is why we have for so long believed a candidate is a brilliant businessman, not a failed or bankrupt inheritor of millions, via accident of birth. Teevee is why we think a candidate makes terrific and insight decisions, and is not lost in multiple psychoses of self. Teevee is why we see a brand and respond to the programming and propaganda fed to us. Guilt by association started with teevee -- we came to associate traits and qualities never due it, because we were told the Big Lie often enough, with our eyes wide open.
This candidate's supporters are going nowhere. They will be right here. These people will not change. They will only grow and grow as a group of people disenfranchised by their own saviors, their interests torpedoed by those they trusted. Republican philosophy -- or whatever insane new product takes its place -- will be with us forever, and the feelings of its followers will not fade.
This is because the propaganda, hiding behind the First Amendment, will not fade. It is a war for souls, money, allegiances, power -- and no war was ever fought fairly or politely. Power never wants less, only more. Power never wants to disperse on its own, it wants to concentrate. And, so, these forces will be with us long after Trump fades into nothingness.
As terrifying as a Trump presidency once was, I am now urging you to imagine the aftermath of Trump failing to become the leader of his terribly earnest, terribly frustrated, terribly wrong-headed supporters.
Now, imagine this same aftermath for years and years to come.
Sure, we may have dodged a disaster at the tenth hour, by a candidate's accidental self-immolation, but, hang onto your ass with both hands, folks: America has a long way to go yet in its continuing promise to embrace us all.
Republicans, in any form, will continue to limit that same reach, delay that same embrace, and eliminate that promise.
And we will continue to let them.
* * *
UPDATE, re: The Republican War on Bathrooms
Target has announced it will be adding more single-stall bathrooms to the 400 stores not already so blessed in its 1800-store stable. This is an ongoing outgrowth of the fiery battle over which should prevail in user restroom selection -- gender identity you choose in life or genital issue at time you were given life.
As much as the GOP hates the intrusion of some kinds of government activity (while applauding it heartily in other applications), I predict a hiatus in the eight-year-long "Just Say No to Everything" Campaign by the GOP in Congress, and their sudden creation of the Bureau of Ongoing Bathroom Affairs, organized under Homeland Security, with full search-and-seizure powers for all bathroom wardens, restroom guards, and Identity Relief Confirmation Sentinels -- basically, crotch-peekaboo agents.
Target's price tag for their new bathrooms? Twenty million dollars. Gawd only knows what BOOBA and IRCS will cost us -- materially or spiritually.
So:
- Will conservative protesters be soothed?
- Will Republicans ease back into Target stores now?
- Can Capitalism, Conservatives, Christians, and Bathrooms all live together in peace?
- Will this get to be a non-issue really, really soon, please?
- Can humans grow up anytime this century -- or next?
Stay Tuned!
Today's Bonus:
And now: Music for Appropriate Bathroom Routing and Relaxation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJUIgV7t8C0
(It's been a rough year. I think we all need to chill more -- but that's just me.)
