Elegy

Day of The Dead

I was speaking to my Mom who is 97 and who gets so upset and emotional about the upcoming election, I have to make sure not to talk about it too close to her bed time. Luckily, the other night she texted that her heart was beating so hard watching the television. I put two and two together that there must be something going on. I tuned in and after chit chat that might make you want to turn your TV back off, Kamala gave a great speech. Well, I thought it was pretty great. I thanked my Mom for getting me to tune in.

This isn’t a think piece. It may well be an elegy. I can’t help but see another Trump presidency as just another extended, ongoing natural (unnatural) disaster. However it was also interesting reading how Republicans and Democrats hold a similar view of each other’s complete incompetence. So this is democracy – the will of the people will be expressed in whatever dysfunctional way the electoral college allows.. Que sera, sera. Live by the ballot or swing state, die by the ballot/ swing state.

I pine for the wise words of Noam Chomsky who has issued a consistent message ever since the sixties and now has trouble speaking due to a stroke – a man revered in other nations for his wisdom on intellectual thought and the moral responsibility to speak against injustice and clearly antidemocratic agendas. I relisten to George Carlin on Instagram and realize he was an angry, funny, caustic, very smart and enlightend man. I heard it when he was alive and I laughed and I nodded. I hear it now, and I’m like this guy was tapped into an understanding I didn’t fathom back then that only certain really smart outsiders have. They see the patterns, the absurdity, the inside job.

On the other hand, a ton of people really like Trump, and when I think of the masses voting for him, I’m upset. But when I think of a few individuals I know who I really like that I suspect will vote for him, that are lovely people that  I might give a kidney to, I feel like, que sera, sera. 

But I really do hope he doesn’t come for your neighbors, friends, family, or you, due to being or formerly being, a suspected non-resident alien, or whatever classification he comes up with. 

Or that he doesn’t keep a list of every woman’s reproductive activity as if this was now a responsibility of the government to safeguard the life of a fetus, nor that he imprisons a woman who does not follow the said guidelines.

I also hope you or your neighbors don’t happen to get arrested while being black, brown, asian, latino, south asian, filipino or only whiteish, (you get the drift) because due process of law is going to be up for grabs and the guy had swastikas hanging in Madison Square Garden.  That is the opposite of virtue signaling. 

He’s coming for you. And that’s who ever he chooses, whenever he chooses it. That’s who you’ve chosen to have in power. Crazy, no checks and balances, totally disinhibited, openly states he wants to be a dictator, that elections are stolen and he likes Putin. He might wake up and want to round up people who like candy or those who smoke cigarettes, or maybe just the women who are lactating, or maybe just the people eighty and older who can’t walk so well. 

And he doesn’t really like Social Security and Medicare because it smacks of socialism despite the fact you paid into it your whole fucking working life. You see, he’d like to cut the tax burden a bit more so the companies could rape and pillage the country a bit more thoroughly with even fewer taxes while the poor and working class die by the dozens. You know, because that’s how it was in the good old days. And he’s making America great again. Racist. Radically polarized between rich and poor. Attempting a new ethno-cleansing despite the pesky problem of America being a country of immigrants (rats), so he has to toe that line carefully.

And as in the days of old, raping of the land is also back in vogue, so have at it in anyway you see fit to fuck, suck, and felch the earth. Environmental protections will be eliminated, drilling, fracking, deforesting, dumping, release of sewage, nuclear waste, animal waste, will be rampant. Earth probably has less than five years. 

So, this is the guy to close the show – final act – last looks every one – he is apparently what the populous wants. That and lower bread prices. So eat up, butter cup. 

I mean, soon prices are really going to drop. Hope you have a big appetite. It’s going to be clearance, long time. Everything must go. 

Including you. Bye Bye.

And while Trump is doing all this crazy shit and there is a ton of yelling and screaming, also from the people that voted for him who are now upset and want their money back, do you think the country, the economy, our position in the world, our environment, anything, is going to be better? More money in your pocket? More jobs for hard working Americans? More lube for the ass fucking? That he’ll give ya.

It will all be putting out fires because the guy is a fucking nightmare, like trying to guide Godzilla through the Louvre – but I guess that’s why many people vote for him. He’s so fun to watch. He’s the wrestler (or green lizard) in the ring that makes you laugh and keeps you engaged. Stokes outrage and releases dopamine. It is a bit like the Twilight Zone where part of “US(A)” has slipped inside the Entertainment Box and is no longer truly cognizant of the difference between what we see on screens and what is actually real.

Trump is a hologram, a logo, a hat, a bumper sticker, a decal, a meme, a video clip. He’s vapor. But I still don’t get the con. Or maybe it’s a performer/audience love fest that has no center except self interest and self adoration, entertainment and self satisfaction. However, clearly the Donald has nailed the connection with his audience who will seemingly forgive him anything.

Personally, I don’t understand that because instinctively I see the bully in him and believe every woman who has come forward saying he raped/assaulted them. I believe humility is an admirable quality and that braggarts are never people you want to be around. Lastly, I used to always assess people by who you’d want to go on a hiking trip with. Nothing elaborate, just a basic couple of days in the mountains, but it can rain, you have to get fire wood, there’s limited food, people get blisters, etc. And there are people that really suck to have on camping trips. Donald Trump would be one of them. A simpering, entitled pile of a human being.

Now to be fair, initially, I think Kamala might be a little annoying on the camping trip; too perky, too talkative, maybe too much of a “know it all”. But she’d end up being a “go-to” or should I say, the person you were “going to”; kind of the natural leader; and you might be sharing a cigarette and a swig from the flask around the campsite with her too. Unlike some fools, she’s disciplined with that stuff, so keep a confidence.

A week from today maybe we’ll know the outcome. I think what is painful is feeling like you and some of your other fellow citizens have come to such a different judgement call given basic facts. The irony of a democratic country electing a president who plainly states he wants to be a despot, a king, despite the USA ousting British royalty 250+ years ago and establishing its own independence, seems like a stunning display of amnesia. 

And yet it feels like it’s done with a shrug of the shoulders. Come, kiss the godfather’s ring and he’s gonna take care of “your problem”. But what you learn, is this is just the beginning of a very bad deal. It’s not kindness, relief or mercy. It’s opportunity. For him. In your moment of weakness or deference or god forbid, belief in the Donald, where you buy his bullshit, the three card monty, you will now pay for that paycheck loan in perpetuity.

I suppose a handful might profit before the earth caves in. Elon is already planning to live on Mars, that fucking wombat. Have you seen pictures from Mars? And A/B’d them with Earth? Does that seem like a place anyone would want to go to? 

Can you imagine Elon and the Donald on Mars together? They’d be dead in three hours. Donald would insist on going for a walk to survey for building sites, too impatient to be outfitted with any gear, and Elon’s space suit would only be Gen 3 and fail as he tried to rescue Trump’s freeze dried body pulling him back onto the Mars pod. I guess it would be a robot that would finally recover them from that deliciously freezing, inhospitable, rocky and sandy surface.

It seems like it might be a better idea to preserve the much better place that we are destroying, namely the earth. And just saying “No”, to two year-old geniuses, future tech bros, entrepreneurs, narcissists, neurodivergents, spoiled brats, princesses, influencers, star performers, athletes. It might not be the worst thing. 

My bias is greatness is grounded in being completely average, being connected to the experience of the life around you and the people who live there.

I would hate for unchecked ego to be the downfall of the republic. I do think “old school” Republicans do not like Donald Trump. My Dad was a Republican for most of his voting life, but like my Mom, he would be appalled by Trump in every way imaginable. He would not care about the financial benefit, however alluring, and my Dad disliked taxes. 

I also think he may have been moved by Kamala’s speech the other night, especially near the end, where she said I’m going to be your President even if you don’t vote for me, I’m going to be working for you, because its about one country and not division, and something to the effect that I care deeply about this, I will fight for this, I’ll work hard for this. I’l work hard for all of you.

And that’s what it’s about. 

And that’s not what Trump’s about. 

I don’t think he’s ever used the words ‘work’ or ‘care’.

And the final point is, I think people know he isn’t going to work or care while in office, but they still will vote for him. I can only imagine this mirrors their experience of not working or caring about their prospects, their job, their future, their life, their town, their world. Call it a type of slow burn out, an American nihilism, but it’s no longer subtle.

This is becoming a choice for the dark side, however ill-defined. I just don’t know if the reality of this choice has truly set in. It’s like Trump devotees are pushing the button without having a firm idea about what the explosion will look like. 

I think they’ll be surprised about what gets set into motion, and like good audience members, they’ll watch in horror and fascination while taking zero responsibility for having helped create this monster.

Visit Tom Laverack at TomLaverack.com