One of the things I try to do when writing a post is to find a common theme, some way to bring a number of perhaps disparate events together in a way that makes sense. This works fairly well when posting regularly. The material on the input end, the stuff happening in the world, somehow settles at a manageable level.
When, however, for whatever reason, posting gets delayed for a week or so, material on the input end gets entirely out of control. How do you keep up with the chaos, the destruction, the incompetence, the daily national humiliations wreaked upon us by the Trump administration? And then how does one categorize events so that they somehow at least seem to cohere?
It turns out that a nation descending into its twilight comes in many guises, disguises, events comical, ridiculous, but also disturbing, grieving, dangerous. And, it turns out, and this is both unnerving and heartening, a citizen in such a declining nation can find him or herself rooting against the nation’s own leaders, cheering their humiliation, applauding when their plans are thwarted, welcoming even a level of personal pain, even harm, if such destruction, such chastening, may, perhaps, lead to a renewed, if humbler, nation in the end.
Passing through the fire, however, we must acknowledge no guarantees can be given that a phoenix rising is our destination. Our end may simply be ashes.
And so, in the past few days, I have cheered for Greenlanders as they humiliated our easily dislikable vice president, forcing him and his inexplicably loyal wife to make their ridiculous overtures from behind the guarded fences of an American military compound. For to venture out, to mingle with the locals, was to risk the proverbial pie in the face.
I stood and applauded as the Canadian prime minister cut the umbilical that has tied Canada and the United States together for several centuries.
PM Carney: “The United States is no longer a reliable partner, so Canada will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere. The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over. We must fundamentally reimagine our economy. We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States.”
Nine years ago, President Obama received a rapturous welcome in the Canadian parliament. It’s safe to say Trump would get no such welcome. In just two months, Trump has managed to make Canadians, Canadians!!!, turn against us. The Trump magic touch. The rest of the world now despises us as much as we despise him.
I have exalted watching those Republicans with the guts to face their constituents in town halls get routinely shouted down. Just “radical left lunatics” taking over, claim Republican leaders. O.k., but then where are all the manly MAGA men? Shouldn’t they be there defending their MAGA leaders from said leftist lunatics? Or are they also feeling a whispering disquiet as they watch Trump golf while Elon destroys their retirement accounts and dispatches thousands of veterans to the welfare office? Perhaps it’s not “radical left lunatics” at these town halls at all?
I remember watching SNL a few years back when Elon hosted. I thought, “Weird dude,” but otherwise didn’t think much of it. I even felt guilty for thinking he was weird, when someone mentioned he was likely on the spectrum.
This week I cheered wildly as Tesla, his primary wealth generator, plummeted in value, as desperate owners, not wanting to cruise through town in the swastika car, try to unload their despised merchandise, as protestors rally outside his dealerships, as wealthy MAGA men suddenly find themselves purchasing electric vehicles in an attempt to shore up the fate of Trump’s hatchet man.
In October 1982 some Tylenol capsules were found to have cyanide in them. Seven people died. Tylenol pulled all of its product and shut down its sales. One year later Tylenol’s market share had declined by just seven percent.
Tesla sales in Europe, in just a couple of months, are down 43 percent! And, oh by the way, the sale of electric vehicles in Europe is up 31 percent. It turns out that Nazi salutes, toadying up to Trump, and destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of government workers is far more toxic commercially than cyanide. Keep the protests going folks! They’re working.
Then, of course, we have the invitation extended to one of the administration’s most hated journalists, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, to join a group chat and listen in as a bunch of teenage boys revel in their ability to drop real bombs.
Can you imagine Sherman texting Grant? Atlanta
No, you can’t. Because Grant and Sherman were serious men who understood the gravity of what they were doing. Not irresponsible incompetent children turned loose to play with our military.
That Goldberg was invited to the chat is his fault of course. The Trump team never accepts blame for anything. Trump called Goldberg “scum.” No explanation for why “scum” was invited to the chat.
One of their excuses is that “lots of people use Signal.” But you do realize that that is no excuse, right? You do realize that? Please tell me you understand that. That you understand that you should not be endangering American pilots on an app that “lots of people” use? Precisely because lots of people use it! You get that, right?!
Trump called The Atlantic a “failing magazine.” Cuz, you know, that excuses his team’s incompetence. But I can’t let that “failing magazine” comment go. I realize the vocabulary of The Atlantic is pitched far above Trump’s comprehension level, but someone should likely inform our Ignoramus-in-Chief that The Atlantic has been publishing regularly since November of 1857, that, and I can personally vouch for this, it is likely the best print journal going today, and it is faring so well that the editor, the aforementioned Mr. Goldberg, just announced that they will begin immediately to publish twelve times a year instead of ten. In an age of real threat to print journalism, The Atlantic is expanding, not failing. The Atlantic will be arriving in inboxes long after Trump is giving worms indigestion.
At any rate, Trump doesn’t know how it happened. Waltz doesn’t know how it happened. The CIA director doesn’t know how it happened. Nobody in the entire national security apparatus knows how it happened. The buck stops … in this administration, it never stops anywhere. Oh right, on Jeffrey Goldberg. Or maybe, somehow, Joe Biden.
I’m reminded that after George Pickett’s disastrous charge across that open field on day three at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee rode out to meet the few men who made it back. “It was all my fault,” he said.
He wrote to Jefferson Davis. “It was all my fault. I asked more of men than they were capable of.”
He didn’t blame General Longstreet. He didn’t blame Ewell for not gaining the high ground when he had the opportunity on day two. He didn’t blame Pickett or his men. He didn’t claim not to have ordered the assault. “Pickett’s men. They charged that hill on their own. Don’t know how it happened.” He didn’t claim to have actually won. A strategic retreat after a resounding victory. And he didn’t blame his defeat on Union General George Meade. Or on any random reporters.
“It was all my fault.” That’s leadership. Asking MAGA Republicans for such qualities is more than such men are capable of.
Although, come to think of it, Trump’s style of leadership does have biblical precedent. After Eve ate the apple, and after God ferreted Adam and his bride out of their hiding place, Adam sounded very Trumpian.
Adam addressing God: “It wasn’t my fault. It was the woman you gave me.”
Adam, history’s first MAGA man. Look out Tulsi. They’ll be blaming this on you.
Keen analysts of Trump have noted that what he offers his followers is a life without shame. Perhaps that is this week’s central thread. What is the meaning of taking responsibility, of honor, when you are unable to feel shame? And what are the costs to a nation led by such people?
Perhaps that is what we are about to find out …