A Coup, Out In The Open

When I was young, thinking myself oh-so-radical, I read books about the revolutionaries, and wore the circle-A t-shirt. Then I got older, maybe wiser, and figured out that our species is too ugly and cruel for such utopias. Humans can’t live around other humans without laws and the enforcement of laws.

Sure, many of the laws are stupid, the enforcement is sporadic and unfair, and neither laws nor enforcement exist past a certain very high bank balance, but it’s better than the law of the jungle, right?

Now comes Donald Trump — the dumbest, meanest, most un-patriotic and certainly the most un-Christian man ever to be President of these United States. His proprietary Supreme Court has ruled that he’s above the law, and he’s taken that as a challenge.

It’s pointless to detail what Trump has done and what he’s doing, because any list will be outdated in a few days. Like the (generally untrue) stereotype of an anarchist, Trump hates the law, abhors the constitution, and only wants to blow stuff up.

I am in awe at the brazenness. Malfeasance in high office is the American tradition, but it’s usually done on the sly, or under some lofty pretense.

This is all out in the open, and it’s simply a coup.

American law and government are being toppled, in treason orchestrated from the White House by all the President’s henchmen. The nation to which we pledged allegiance will not survive it, and things will only get worse.

Imagine this administration’s response if another pandemic sweeps the world, or there’s an ‘international crisis’. For decades we’ve been fed propaganda that the Russkies or Chinese might attack America, and it’s always been malarkey and easy money for defense contractors, but if ever the commies do attack or invade, they couldn’t ask for more strategic time or a more clueless commander-in-chief.

To anyone watching and awake, all this is obvious. What isn’t obvious is what to do about it.

Expect no leadership from the Democratic Party, which to my knowledge hasn’t even issued a concerned press release amid the maelstrom.

A few of the very few elected officials with backbone have Tweeted courageously.

Write your Senators and Congresscritters, yes, but if they need cards and letters and emails to explain that there’s a crisis, they’re either hopelessly naïve, or in on it.

There are marches and rallies, and they’re cathartic. I’m there, and recommend it for your mental health. It feels good to shout against the storm.

But protests won’t accomplish anything until they’re huge enough to interrupt the ordinary flow of commerce, and I am pessimistic that’ll happen, so long as most Americans are distracted by pro football and video games and other shiny baubles.

If someone tried a Second Amendment solution, as Trump famously suggested for a political opponent, I’d feel no grief. Please don’t do it, though, if only because his vice president is worse.

Revolution is American History, but the Trump administration’s response to anyone taking up arms or going all Fifth of November would be a modern reign of terror like America has never seen. They’d come after me for writing this, you for reading it, and the mass executions would stream live on YouTube.

So here we are, and who knows what to do about it?

All I wanted was a quiet retirement, a few years of decent health before being flooded or hurricaned to death by climate change, or cancered by the toxins amply spewed into the air and water and dirt. Instead, America is being dismantled, and there ain’t squat we can do to stop it.

I feel guilty writing the inconsequential stuff that usually fills this blog — movie reviews and bus rides and breakfast with my family — so yesterday I marched. It accomplished nothing, and today my ankles hurt, but I can say I did something. It eases my conscience, but not my worries.

God bless America, I am open to better suggestions.