Dear America,
It seems like all the news lately is bad. There is the war in Ukraine, which is as much an abomination as anything that has happened since the Holocaust. The only things that have come close are other genocides, like those in Africa and the middle east since the 90's, and the other wars perpetrated by Russia, which has been anathematized worldwide by its wanton cruelty and indiscriminate murder and devastation. Add to those crimes the fact that the closest Russians seem to come to telling the truth is prevarication, though outright lying seems to be almost the Russian native tongue, and it becomes apparent that Russia will be an international pariah in virtual perpetuity. As to the Russian people, they continue to reelect and support Vladimir Putin in what seems the direct analog to the "national socialism," or Nazi movement in pre-war Germany, and they are likely to personally suffer the derogation that their nation has earned. Who is going to trust anyone or anything Russian ever again?
Then there is the Ohio Republican senate primary in which our miscreant president-emeritus, Donald Trump, is playing a starring role. The candidates he is endorsing nation-wide are as repugnant as his choice in the state's senatorial primary, who takes pride in the verisimilitude of his politics to those of his patron while he equivocates about his "never Trump" position during the 2016 election. All over the country politicians are competing with one another to represent themselves as the closest thing one can get to the Trumpster, outside of the gutter rat himself that is. And now the fear of the non-Republicans across the country isn't just the loss of control of The Senate and The House, but the possibility that if these Trump protégés succeed at the polls, Trump himself may try to re-inflict himself on the nation in 2024...a legitimate fear.
The roll played by a lack of verity in the success of all these criminals and wannabes is grounds for abject consternation. What have we become, not just as Americans, but as a species? How can so many vermin ascend to power and even prestige at the same time, evincing the same lack of human virtue and integrity? If aliens are viewing what is happening from afar, are they seeing us as intelligent inhabitants of the planet or as a virus that spells its doom?
As for this country in particular, we now have a purported preview of a Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade hot off the pen of Samuel Alito, conservative dolts swarming school board meetings spewing the same nonsense about "cancel culture" and "wokeness," objectiing to teaching children about the civil war and the evils of slavery, and ranting about the trans-gender poisoning of their children, the same nonsense as their mentors in the conservative Republican Party have been trying to foist on the nation for the past six years. We have Kevin McCarthy being caught in a lie about telling Trump he should resign after the January 6 insurrection, but still being the presumptive next speaker of the house if the Republicans win in the mid-term elections, presumably not in spite of but because he is a Trumpist liar. Then there's the continuing travesty of Trump himself insisting that he won an election that he clearly lost and being believed by 70% of the members of one of the only two major political parties. Granted, 70% of Republicans is only about 17% of the electorate, but that's a lot of people who can that easily be deceived. As P.T. Barnum putatively said, there's a sucker born every minute. But my question is, how did the rest of them get here?
These are hard times. President Biden is being blamed by Republicans for everything from inflation to the weather, and most Americans are buying it. We're heading for another housing bust and no one is talking about it. They're all just counting their money. Economic inequality is at an all-time high and social inequality itself is not receding in any appreciable way. Working people's pay is not keeping up with inflation, largely because people like Jeff Bezos have to have half-billion dollar yachts that are 300 feet long, so Amazon can't afford, or just won't, pay its workers a fair wage. Professional athletes make multiples of what even the best doctors earn, not to mention the best teachers. Where are we headed?
My hope is that somewhere between now and this November, the American people will pull their collective head out of the dark place it's been in since Donald Trump made it acceptable for our people to unleash our worst selves. I hope that we, America, realize en-masse that Trump is the American Putin before he becomes the American Hitler. I hope the good people of America vote.
Your friend,
Mike
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