Thoughts for November

 

 

April 12 of next year we will (or at least I will) be observing the seventy-fifth anniversary of the unexpected passing of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. I'd like to believe that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania will have been sent a'packing by that time, but that's probably wishful thinking on my part. For those of us who are somewhat steeped in the history of America, April 12, 2020 will be a day of serious reflection. Although three-quarters-of-a-century may seem like a very long time to we mortals, in terms of the long arch of time it's a comparative flash of an instant. I can only imagine that, on that day, my mind will be pouring over the jagged irony that, in a historical instant, we've gone from Franklin Delano Roosevelt  to Donald Fucking Trump. How does something that horrible even happen? Mercy!

We really need to come to grips with the unsettling fact that the damage that is now being done to America will be felt for generations. The fact is, for those of us of a certain age, we'll be living with the reverberations of the Trump Age for the rest of our lives. I believe that fifty years from now, the president of the United States (who has probably not even been born yet) will still be dealing - on a daily basis - with the damage that this imbecile did to his country so many decades before. When one experiences a really bad dream, our subconscious knows that it is, in fact, only a dream - and that we will wake up from it in short order. We're not going to wake up tomorrow morning only to discover that the disgusting presidency of Donald Trump was just a harmless nightmare. This ain't no dream, kiddies. This is the real thing. Are you amused yet?

PREDICTION: Donald Trump will be remembered as the first chief-executive of the United States of America to die in federal custody. Does that sound like  preposterous prophecy on my part? We'll see.

Liz!

In this morning's New York Daily News, former-Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman wrote that, at the very least, the administration of Donald Trump is as bad as Dick Nixon's. She's a great public servant and a gracious woman (I had the honor of meeting her once), but she was as wrong on that score as she's ever been in her life. The fact of the matter is the scandals of The Donald pale in comparison to those of The Trickster. As I've said on this site too many times to count, Watergate was a paper-cut. This is a goddamned bloodbath. I imagine that Nixon's heirs have been breathing a profound sigh of relief these days. His reign as the most improbably corrupt president in the history of this doomed republic has come to a swift and merciful end. In fact (and I cannot believe I'm writing this) the hideous old bastard is starting to look pretty good. There are profoundly weird times.

In the meantime, the next few weeks promises to be as vile as any period we've witnessed in a long time. The justice department of Bill Barr is hell-bent on acting as Trump's private law firm. We really are living in heart-wrenchingly weird and interesting times. Dick Nixon resigned in complete and utter disgrace exactly one week before my sixteenth birthday, so I'm old enough to remember the entire period as clear as yesterday. I remember remarking to a friend at the time that the Watergate affair was the Grand Prix of political scandals, and that American politics would never again get that unhinged. I was wrong. Be sure to pay attention to everything that happens in the coming weeks and months. We are living through an extraordinary period in American history.

Cha! Cha! Cha!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY