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| Something is happening this year that I've never seen before. |
The dog days of summer
are here. The time of year I dislike the most is on us with its long, sultry
days when it takes herculean effort to achieve any task and its short, sweaty
nights that bring little rest. It’s uncomfortable
and people are cranky and short tempered, as they always are this time of
year. But there is something going on in
2016 that I haven’t seen before.
I recently watched Phillip Kaufman’s eerie 1978 remake of
the classic science fiction film Invasion
of the Body Snatchers, in which invasive weeds from outer space grow pods
that replace humans with perfectly emotionless, perfectly obedient replicas,
relegating humanity to dry husks and gray dust, which is swept up and discarded
with the trash. In the film the
dwindling number of survivors are overcome with paranoia and panic at the
realization that loved ones are no longer themselves and the certainty that
they are next.
Something like the invasion of the body snatchers is
happening in the United States this summer, but instead of being replaced by
emotionless pod-people, we are being replaced by mindless automata ruled by
fear and prejudice. I feel rising
paranoia and panic as I am verbally assaulted by strangers with fragile,
outlandish opinions that are deathly afraid of disagreement. People who have never laid eyes on me brand
me with simple-minded labels, such as “libtard,” and rejoice in the fact that I
will be dead soon. People I have known
and respected for years are suddenly venting their prejudice and showing
themselves to be ignorant, violent bigots, impervious to reason. It makes me wonder if any intelligent
relationships will be able to survive this brutal summer.
I blame it on the nasty Presidential election, our
national Rat Race that is being fought out in front of our eyes and between our
ears. The Republican nominee, Donald J.
Trump, has tapped into the ugliest elements of American culture and appeals to
the worst angels of our nature. Like a
spurting artery, he splatters the electorate with his hot, sticky opinions and
calls us back to an imaginary era of “American greatness,” built on genocide,
white supremacy and male dominance. The
urge to vote for Trump is a kind of national suicidal impulse.
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| Like a spurting artery the campaign spatters us with hot, sticky opinions. |
His opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic
nominee is not much better. A cranky,
warlike old woman who appears to believe that endless warfare is the key to
national prosperity, she pays meager lip service to the liberal ideals that
made her Party great while she opens her arms wide to the weary, beaten refugees
streaming out of the bleeding Republican Party.
The horrifying realization that Hillary Clinton, Hillary fucking
Clinton, is our only hope for preserving the American Republic leads us further
into despair.
Sure, there are other candidates. Jill Stein of the Green
Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarians and a kaleidoscopic array of flakes and
loonies enliven the debate, but they are nothing more than sideshow clowns and
present little hope for “voters of conscience.” In the end Americans must
reconcile themselves to a choice between impotence and irrelevance on the one
hand and Hillary Clinton, just more impotence and irrelevance, on the
other. No wonder we are so fucking
angry.
As a student of history I am fully aware that curmudgeons
like me have been lamenting the coming generations in despair for several
thousand years and somehow mankind struggles on. The fate of American-style democracy has
always looked bleak, but as Winston Churchill (Winston fucking Churchill) said,
it is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Naïve fool that I am, I still believe in the
U.S. Constitution – the only effective tool people have ever invented for
liberating ourselves – and I have faith in the “genius” of American-style
democracy – which holds that anyone, no matter how humble or limited, can rise
to great leadership, with the support of the people.
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| Where will this year's election leave us? |
We’ll see how long I can hold onto these frail
hopes. In the meantime all we have is
our love for ourselves, our family and friends, and our country, along with
faith in our gods, if we have them. Hold
onto that. Talk among yourselves. Listen to each other and try to hold your
tempers in check. Maybe we can make it
through this summer that tries our souls.
Maybe we can preserve the ideals of self-government, equality and
fairness. If we’re lucky. November seems like a long way off.
