Is this the year when everything finally comes into focus? Is that why 2020 seems so unusual? I say this because of the god-awful load of caca that has gone down this year and which I thought I’d never have to experience.
Just for the record, here are a few things I thought I’d never see in my lifetime:
Wildfires burning up 4% of California’s land
area, killing 31 people.
Two hurricanes at once in the Gulf of Mexico.
The heart-breaking and untimely death of a judicial icon whose courage and brilliance could have done us a world
of good in the coming months. May flights of angels sing you to your rest, Justice Ginsburg.
A viral pandemic killing far more people within a year than were killed in the first year of any war in our nation’s history.
A president who admits out loud that he downplayed the danger of this virus while hundreds of people were dying from it every day.
And, worst of all, a hefty chunk of my fellow citizens continuing to support this president despite his criminal mishandling of the pandemic…
…and his failure to pay his fair share of taxes
…and his expressions of contempt for John McCain and other fallen veterans
…and his boasting about sexual assaults on women
…and his bigoted support of white supremacists
…and his idiotic dismissing of climate change as a “Chinese hoax”
…and his blatant contempt for American institutions of democracy including the free press, an independent judiciary, and constitutional provisions for impeachment
…and his illegal use of Congressionally mandated funds to extort an ally into spreading baseless smears against a political rival
…and his admiration for tyrannical thugs like Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Recep Erdogan
…and his long history of crooked business schemes including a fraudulent “university” and a “charity” that he used illegally for his own benefit
...and his mysterious indebtedness of 421 million dollars to...well, to whom? Is it to Putin or Erdogan or one of the other thuggish types that Trump likes to do favors for?
And…well, I won’t go on (though I could). You get what I’m saying. Five years ago I would have said, “No public figure as crooked, dishonest, and utterly self-serving as Trump could get even 20 percent of the voters to support him.” Yes, I thought I knew my fellow Americans, but I was deceived and deluded. Now I see that his cult-like following still comes to about 40 percent of the voting public.
Really, my fellow Americans? Really?
Trump caught many of us by surprise, but it isn’t entirely our fault. Most of us never imagined that a well-funded news organization would partner up with him to promote his insidious cons just to boost their own revenue. I never really admired Fox, but I didn’t think they would debase themselves by turning into Trump’s own personal “Pravda.”
And we could hardly have been expected to foresee hard-core Republican cold warriors like Marco Rubio and
Lindsey Graham simply falling into line with Trump when he cozied up to Putin and dismissed
his own CIA’s warnings about Russian malevolence. Trump is a crook who seeks
long-term benefit from his partnership with Putin – that’s one thing. But most of us
certainly didn’t expect the entire GOP leadership to say, “Do what you like
with America’s sworn enemy, Donald, just don’t hurt our re-election chances.” Lindsey?
Marco? Do you guys need some help finding your missing backbones? Or do you plan to stay with the Putin-Trump team indefinitely?
Where are the Republicans of character, the ones like Elliot Richardson and Howard Baker who told Richard Nixon he had crossed the uncrossable line? Sadly, they are few, far between, and not in office.
So – 2020, the year of things that just won’t stop sucking.
But I believe we’re going to get out of this year with bright prospects in the months to come.
It was a promising sign last spring when a kinky Korean comedy won the Oscar. And now an African-Indian-American woman of obvious talent and strong character stands ready to be our next vice president. Finally, there’s Joe, who is outperforming most of our expectations, certainly mine.
These seemingly unrelated developments speak to a fundamental recognition that we are, after all, part of One World. I know there are truckloads of Americans who bristle at the idea of One World, but those folks seem to be pretty bad at counting. We’ve only got one world by my count, and the sooner we make it as seamless as is feasible, the better off we’ll be.
So even in the face of the endless horrors of this year, it looks like the arc of justice is beginning to bend our way. And that’s good news for those of us who want things to start making sense. All we need to do now is vote next month, and next year get to work repairing the damage of 2020.
And, from the New Yorker, a fitting lagniappe:
