Oedipus Trump
But only the children suffer
by Mike Meyer
The long slow dance of death by Donald Trump, with the entire American two party system as a Greek chorus, is reaching its inevitable anticlimax. Drama has been secondary to disgust through this entire theatrical presentation. A born rich, mentally challenged incompetent is difficult to make dramatic even with the entire Russian oligarchy as accomplices.
Needless to say that money laundering does not stir the blood. The half hearted collapse of the American political system is a sad end to a once brash, exuberant, but tragically violent nation state.
I’m afraid the audience may begin to leave before the last act is finished. Who wants to see an aging, befuddled comic dragged whining and screaming delusional threats from his office? No, thank you, I’ll read about it later.
Diligent prosecutors are not dramatists. They are accountants who gather massive amounts of evidence resulting in the progressive removal of spear carriers and go betweens. Done properly that weight of evidence revealed in excruciating detail by a sequence of indictments destroys all options but an anticlimactic escorting away of the principal and striking of the scenery.
We are at that stage in the Much Ado About Trump. Neither drama nor humor and probably not even a sigh of relief will result. The beginnings of damage to the decrepit American political system and economy predated this episode. A far greater drama was the Obama struggle to revive the existing nation ending in limited success but a larger, more tragic failure in vision. The nearly perfect example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It was the right approach to planetary trade but the wrong people took all of the roles and refused to share with the extras and the crew. An ecumenical approach in a polarized state with the opposition committed to denial of power at all costs was impossible to distinguish from abject surrender. The last, best hope was squandered on what once was but was already gone.
And the needed mourning and slow understanding at what had gone wrong under Obama was prevented by Russian digital sappers blowing the walls that protected the White House from low grade criminals resulting in Trump being foisted on an unhappy nation.
All of this is known in excruciating detail. We are so immersed in that detail that the weight of evidence was missed in the desperate desire to find honesty and fairness still existing around here somewhere. Only with the slow realization that everyone is both accuser and accused could the full extent of national squalor be seen. And now we can’t look away.
Whatever happens in the next two months is mostly irrelevant. At some point someone may sneeze and the whole thing will collapse. But that might not even happen. Who knows? At this stage our human weakness for violent consummation with a thorough cleansing in blood could reappear but I think we are, fortunately, culturally matured beyond that. Well most of us, at least.
There is a always a far outside chance that something of the real situation might dawn on Trump causing him to barricade himself in the Oval Office but where would he find a hostage? Sarah Huckabee Sanders? That would be appropriate but would produce an embarrassing lack of interest in the outcome adding yet another insult to the ignominious end.
Some satisfaction could be gained by frog marching McConnell and a few senators to some sort of detention but that would be pointless. Just let them go home. They will continue to pretend that nothing happened as they make speeches to each other just like old times and enjoy the millions that they have squirreled away on mid level executive salaries.
I’ve come to think the best solution after this is over would be shutting down the White House and Congress and placing one of those ubiquitous mall signs on the door: Watch this Space for a New and Exciting Government Coming Soon!
