Stupidity 2016

We will get nowhere consoling ourselves by calling Trump supporters stupid. Even if they are, they certainly have no monopoly on that quality. What about our friends at the DNC who did all they could to subvert the candidacy of Bernie Sanders (who, by the way, could have beaten Trump handily) and then, ignoring all the signs that voters were sick of the same old policies, forced Hilary Clinton, devoid of charm, suspiciously supported, and terribly vulnerable to attack, down our throats? What about Clinton herself, who doesn’t know how to keep her emails organized and wanted to win liberal voters all while cozying up to Wall Street? What about the “pundits” who couldn’t track the downward angle of a ball dropped out of a third-story balcony in a dead calm?

Now the hounds of greed, barely fettered up to now, are loosed and in full cry. Stupidity is what they feed and batten on. Let’s not blame rust-belt workers, screwed repeatedly from Reagan on, and call them stupid, when there is more than enough stupidity to go around. (2016)

It is heartening to see that everyone is having such a good time feeling self-righteous and appalled when Trump calls Warren "Pocahontas." How too too racist and vulgar! How shocking! How totally evil! And what an irresistible  target! Let's clutter the front pages with it and the talk shows and the social media! Leave no room for the fact that this administration is appointing federal judges--for life--who will take our legal system back to the stone age. Leave no room for the fact that this administration is going to take what little the poor have left and shower it on the very very rich. Leave no room for the fact that this President thinks that foreign relations are some sort if reality TV and that the risk of nuclear war is really a contest to find out which blowhard can blow the hardest. This failure to make important distinctions grows out of our Puritan heritage. You can tell that because, for one thing, it has no sense of degree. Masterbation and rape are indistinguishable to the Puritan. The theft of a loaf of bread and murder are really pretty much the same thing. All sins are of equal weight. Bad taste and atrocity might well be synonymous. Trump's tasteless, mean, insensitive comment is just as important as our legal system and our economy. Of course I care about racist comments--although I have heard far worse. I care more, however, about how this country is being destroyed by greed, ignorance, and hatred, but above all greed.