BACK TO THE FUTURE – Clear Signs of What's To Come

Can you imagine, given the 20/20 clarity of hindsight, the mindset of the fair-minded, charitable folks who comprised the tepid early opposition during the ascension to power of despots? Think the Soviet Union, Italy or Germany in the early 1920s, Spain in the early 30's, and later Russia, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria...the list goes on. 

PHOTO COMPOSITE: Metro

All these places ended up as electoral autocracies,* brutal dictatorships of which few Americans were even aware.

Do you think those kind people who let such outrages happen were saying, "Hey, we can't let our political differences over Chavez divide us," or "We need to have a civil dialog with those on Abacha's side," or "Everyone's opinion is valid, even that of our Landsleute who support Hitler."

Did those troubled by political winds of change really believe they had to consider—or at least tolerate—their poor, aggrieved compatriots' claims? "He may be obnoxious, but we like his policies," or "This guy's going to rid us of 'vermin'."

And, once it became clear what their compatriots' righteous indignation had wrought, how much worse than simply "obnoxious" things had become, could anyone have admitted just how badly they'd been duped? 

That, folks, is where we are in 2025 in the United States of America. Our country, this exemplar of Democracy, this beacon of hope to the oppressed, has elected as its leader (for the second time) an aggressively insecure con man without a single redeeming quality. A man easily played by the flattery of present day dictators—and of our own country's shrewdest oligarchs—who has promised exactly how he intends to dismantle democratic institutions.

PHOTO: Vanity Fair

       We know this man...and we know history. 

WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE
Since the Trump catastrophe started playing out in his first term I've imagined a tactic which, at least on its surface, seems it should work when trying to communicate with someone who believes such a charlatan deserves a chance. It goes like this: I start by acknowledging the person's beliefs—and if I'm having a good day I might even concede a couple of style points.

But then I ask them exactly what words, deeds and results from the man they support might cause them to start questioning that support. I suspect they might have trouble imagining such developments, but I press. What about if he disparaged veterans? Like shaming US soldiers who "allowed themselves" to be captured as prisoners of war.

What if he declared Jesus Christ a loser for having gotten caught and crucified? What about the Epstein files finally coming to light and showing he was a steady client of Sweet-16-Girls-R-Us? 

What about someone finally defeating the Ft. Knox-like impregnability around his academic transcripts? Or the "bone spurs" diagnosis that helped him dodge military service five times? Or his tax returns? 

Oh, hell, those are all softball questions. How about these: What if sound evidence emerged that Trump is actually working for Vladimir Putin? Or if someone caught him on a hot mic ridiculing folks stupid enough to vote for him?

AFRAID AROUND THE EDGES
Okay, you get where I'm going with this. Not one of these gaffes—screw-ups that would prove career-ending for any American in any profession—seems to matter in the slightest to Donald Trump's hard-core MAGA base. They, with considerable coaching from their esteemed leader, have made themselves immune to any ideas, any facts, any information but that spoon-fed them by Trump and his de facto state media. 

I know, I should know better than to imagine the perfect squelch to make these folks suddenly realize the error of their ways. At least the most ardent of them.

PHOTO: Shutterstock

But how about those few tentative supporters who might be starting to wonder, even just a little, about their Supreme Leader's qualifications and judgement? Is there any chance at all that some of these troubling realities—the kind so skillfully eclipsed by the banner of fear and grievance authoritarians have always raised—might see the light of day?  

The challenges to such doubts grow more formidable every day: the Crimbecile has relentlessly cast doubt on the democratic institutions—including free and fair elections—that have traditionally protected Democracy. He's purged career professionals who choose integrity over blind allegiance. 

He's ensured that any Congressperson who questions him is summarily "primaried" out of the job. He's coerced his base to abandon legitimate news media. He's bought and paid for the Supreme Court...I could go on.

        I must use the modest tools I have 
        to defy this loathsome little man.
 
SHOVEL VERSUS PEN
Alas, if only my right-leaning countrymen and women were not so afraid of history, if they could see the devastation the enabling of despots like theirs has always, always wrought. We cannot let that happen again.  

PHOTO: The White House

So...what to do? Do we, like those magnanimous citizens who accommodated other dictators, wring our liberal-elite hands and keep choosing the high road, while this egomaniacal charlatan's busy dig-
ging a tunnel under us and everything we believe in? Or do we heed the lessons of history, take the gloves off and fight to take away the shovel?

Since he's figured out how to Krazy-Glue that shovel to his tiny hands, maybe I can at least try to block his digging. I know I have only slightly more influence than the average Joe Sixpack Trump's counting on to love his worst failings. But I must use the modest tools I do have to 
defy this loathsome little man.

So I write. I submit opinion pieces to the media. I put defiant posts on Facebook. I talk to friends and family members. I make signs and placards. I stand in public protest with my like-minded compatriots.

I beg you: please don't be patient with the first American dictator. Don't think Let's give him a chance. Don't assume the system will somehow rein him in. We know this man and we know history.

Please don't believe the promises of a pathological liar. Don't hope a man who's selfishness is legendary will somehow have the slightest concern for you. Don't buy the patriot pose from a man who dodged the draft and who's repeatedly disparaged and dishonored our veterans. Don't buy the Bible bit from a deeply immoral convicted felon. Don't expect a shyster who's never once achieved legitimate success to suddenly succeed at leading a nation.

Join me in defying this aggressively insecure little fool. Find a way to speak out, and then do it. And keep doing it! 
And join me as we hit the streets in the next nationwide NoKings! protest on Saturday, October 18.

Roughly 5,000,000 of us showed up back in April. We must aim for nothing less than doubling that turnout! 

* “Popular Dictatorships: Crises, Mass Opinion, and the Rise of Electoral Authoritarianism,” by Aleksandar Matovski – assistant professor in the Naval Post-Graduate School's Department of National Security Affairs

OUCH! – Reaching Folks On the Fence About ConDon

On Memorial Day morning I joined a small—maybe 120 people—“NoKings” protest along the Ford Bridge here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

It felt good to be among like-hearted folks, and I was taken by the range of regime-change themes expressed on their mostly-hand-made signs: education, immigration, labor, Nature, veterans…

Most interesting, though, was the response of those driving by our little gathering. I’d say about 70 percent either honked their horns, gave thumbs up or at least waved cheerfully. Fewer than ten percent gave thumbs down or middle fingers up.

As encouraging as those numbers were, it’s the remaining 20 percent or so that really got me thinking. Those, I realized in a bolt of clarity, are the reason we’re out here. 

     The chances of them falling on our side of the knife 
     are looking better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

IMAGE: FreePik

THE KNIFE’S EDGE
All those hand gestures, whether pro or con, were by 
people who already know where they stand. The crystal 
clarity of the Crimbecile’s depravity is a knife’s edge; 
you’re either on the side of competence and decency or 
you’re not. None these expressive types is going to 
change their mind.

Those passersby who remained mute, well, we don’t know what they were thinking. Some, I’d like to think, are kind, generous, patriotic Democrats; others, kind, generous, patriotic Republicans. Either way, perhaps they’re just shy. 

Maybe, just maybe, a few of them are right on that knife’s edge. And I daresay, given ConDon’s increasingly unhinged behavior, the indisputable failure of his wild stabs at economic reform, and his slipping poll numbers, the chances of them falling on our side of the knife are looking better and better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

That’s why we must keep showing our colors, speaking truth. 

      

YEARNING FOR RELIEF
Let’s understand: Feeling aggrieved, blaming the bleeding-heart liberals, hating and fearing what they’re being told they should hate and fear, realizing they’ve bet on a pitiful little con man as their champion…it’s all exhausting. I believe that these folks—the ones on the edge—are hurting and actually yearn for relief from having to be against everything. They’d prefer, once again, to be for something.

Our challenge is to craft the message, paint the image, of what that relief looks and feels like. 

Contact your elected representatives; write an opinion piece for your newspaper; share your views on social media. And, please, show up for one of the nationwide No Kings* protests near you—coming up on Saturday, June 14. See you there!

* For more information about the No Kings marches and main sponsor Indivisible, visit: INDIVISIBLE.ORG

Given the topic's surging presence in social media, I suppose by now you've heard of Project 2025.

That's the right-wing Heritage Foundation's vision for a second Donald Trump presidency. This vision is so out there, so frightening, that even the Trumpublican party's poster boy is claiming to know nothing about it. 

Right. 

The cretin is mentioned by name 240 times in the document. And CNN found nearly 140 former Trump aides and advisers who have contributed to Project 2025, including six former members of his Cabinet, four of his ambassadors, and Republican National Committee members appointed to their positions in coordination with the Trump campaign.

It's hard to think of an adequate way of responding to such a blatant anti-Democracy, fascist intention. Millions of our countrymen and women have fought and died to defend our country against such ambitions. And this one's taking place right here at home, right under our noses.

PHOTO: Mediadrum Images / NARA

Lacking a military option, we should be facing the threat with whatever weapons we do possess. Writing about it. Sharing it with friends. Flooding social media with it. Taking it to the streets...

...and calling to task major news media for what to date has been their paltry coverage of this existential threat to our democratic way of life.  To wit the letter to the editors I just submitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

To Star Tribune editorial department:

Why is the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 once again not front page news today? Why is it not every day?

This 900-plus-page document is chilling in both scope and detail—nothing less than a manifesto for a fascist, Christian nationalist Trump regime.

From a wholesale dismantling of hard-won environmental and consumer-protection regulations, to blurring the separation of church and state, to undermining longstanding safeguards against abuses of executive power, to supplanting capable public servants with regime loyalists, to gutting our government’s vital checks-and-balances design, to suppressing dissent, Project 2025 is a blueprint for the destruction of Democracy.

How much more disturbing would this ultra-right-wing playbook have to be before
the Star Tribune gives it the urgent coverage it deserves?

I urge you to consider Project 2025’s newsworthiness in light of other events and issues which would surely capture front-page, banner-headline coverage in your paper. Like a nationwide power blackout, a major airplane crash, or the U.S. Capitol being overrun by an angry mob of the same kind of traitors who would find new empowerment in Project 2025.

Please, I urge you to pick up whatever weapon of expression you possess and use it to expose the shocking reality of Project 2025. Your voice, your feet, your wit, or, as I have, your pen.

Our precious Democracy—the peace and freedom most of us have enjoyed all our lives and that we so dearly wish for our children and grandchildren—is at stake.

ILLUSTRATION: Norman Rockwell

THE REAL ENEMY – Overcoming Apathy In the Defense of Democracy

Less than five months from now we, the people of the United States of America, will either have affirmed our country’s precious values…or we will have trashed them, dishonoring the brave vision of the nation’s founders and the sacrifices of the millions of our countrymen and women who have fought and died defending those ideals.

        I implore you to take stock,
        take heart, take action.

The term “existential threat” is losing its potency for overuse, but that’s exactly what we’re up against. A large minority of our fellow Americans have renounced our democratic institutions and lent their blind allegiance to a man who’s all but promised oligarchy and dictatorship, and who clearly admires our worst adversaries’ ruthless rulers.

Yet, if we think this deranged man, this misguided movement, is our worst enemy, we must think again. Our greatest concern should be not for things beyond our control, but for our own lack of focus, the possibility that, while we Democrats and Independents waste our time venting our outrage, the MAGAts are quietly, methodically working their strategy to win (or at least proclaim victory) in November.

We must recognize and solve the problem of indifference, especially among younger voters— one of the voting blocs most essential to Democrats’ success. This isn’t an abstract threat; polls repeatedly show that Trump devotees are far more motivated, far more likely to turn out at the polls than Democrats.* And that many young people feel voting is an exercise in futility.

But we—we Americans who still believe in Democracy and this country’s “shining light on the hill” mantle—are not powerless. There are things every single one of us can do, and do right away.

So I implore you to take stock, take heart and take action.

We know they have cheated, are cheating and will cheat.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Here’s what we must do:

First, we must know our adversary. Realize they’re unlike any political—and I’m inclined to say moral—affliction ever to infect this great country. 

Unswayed by proven facts, the glaring contradiction between their candidate’s pretentions of patriotism and Christian virtue and his actual behavior, or even the man’s unanimous felony convictions, they’ve fallen into lockstep with his march to destroy Democracy. In fact, the more proof of the man’s corruption, the stronger their support.

It’s not by accident that the new right in America has become a force. First, nothing brings and holds people together like fear. Like a common perceived insult. Like a common enemy.

Donald Trump and the brown-nose toadies who enable him have been very effective at stoking these emotions among a class of Americans who believe less in helping those not in their “tribe” than in controlling them. Immigrants, assertive women, non-straight folks, racial minorities, smart people...I could go on.

We know they stick together. We know they now control a significant pseudo-journalistic media network. More disturbingly, we know that they’re being helped by some of our nation’s sworn enemies—China, Russia, Iran and others—all of which desperately hope to turn their most feared adversary into their ally—something the Little Orange Man has all but promised them.

And we know they have cheated, are cheating and will cheat.

            More and more potential Democrat voters
            have simply given up.
 
OUTRAGE TO ACTION
So, knowing what we’re up against, what can we do to save our country from this dimwitted wannabe dictator and his groupies completing the butchering of democratic institutions they began in his first term?

First, I suggest, we need to turn our negative emotions—anger, frustration, discouragement—into a positive vision. Let us imagine how it will feel to restore our nation’s soul. To once again be respected by other nations. And then let us turn that vision into action.

Unlike our opponents’ fear-driven fervor, we progressives are motivated by hope. But let’s face it, hope isn’t quite the motivator that fear is. These people vote.

It’s no secret that, with the demoralizing impact of a polarized populace, a dysfunctional Congress, leaders no longer able to conceal their hypocrisy and corruption—not to mention a democratic candidate who, despite his undeniable policy successes, fails to inspire—more and more potential Democrat voters have simply given up, disappointed with both candidates, or unsure of whether their single votes could make any difference.

Our own personal resolve to vote is a good start, but it’s not enough. As our adversary continues to coalesce around its fears, how do we mobilize those progressive-minded, but disillusioned voters around hope and get them to the polls?

  They’ve persuaded somewhere between one and three
  percent of letter recipients to actually get out and vote.

A MORE EVOLVED AMERICA
For as long as I can remember, the go-to method for Jane or Joe average citizen to help get out the vote has been “door-knocking,” going house to house, talking with folks, asking them to step up on election day.

But for those of us too thin-skinned to face all the possible rejections—or even rancor—of face-to-face appeals, I’ve discovered the perfect alternative: Vote Forward.

VOTE FORWARD is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization empowering grassroots volunteers to send heartfelt, handwritten letters to unregistered and low-propensity voters in key districts around the country encouraging them to participate in our democracy.

The effort, which just before the last presidential election delivered some 6,000,000 such letters to potential progressive voters in key districts across the country, is evidence based. Analysis of Vote Forward mailing campaigns show they’ve succeeded in persuading somewhere between one and three percent of letter recipients to actually get out and vote. In direct mail that’s a remarkable success rate.

       I figure at least six of my letters proved to be
       the impetus some reluctant Biden/Harris voters
       needed to step up and vote.

10,000,000 LETTERS
Whenever a news story or a negative thought about the existential threat looming over our Democracy starts raising my blood pressure, I just reach for a pen and my stack of Vote Forward letter forms and start writing. More than good therapy, it’s a way to actually make a difference.

                            

And writing letters spares me the stress of having to face strangers on their own doorsteps. I can do it on my own time, day or night; I can do it while I’m traveling; and I know it’s effective.

Prior to the 2020 election I wrote and mailed 600 letters. Of those I figure at least six proved to be the impetus some reluctant Biden/Harris voters needed to step up and vote. That’s probably about six more than I could have convinced in months and months of preachin' to the choir on my blog and in social media rants.

This summer, I’m aiming for at least another 600 letters—so far, to people in Pennsylvania and Michigan. (If Biden’s chances take a big hit, I might just have to up that to 1,000.) And, overall, this year’s much anticipated Vote Forward Big Send (October 29, the day they instruct all of us letter writers to drop our boxes of letters at the post office) aims for a flood of 10,000,000 letters.

Please, won’t you join me? Check out the Vote Forward website. Start out with a list of just five or ten potential voters. If you like it, you can download 20 or 100 at a time. You create your own nonpartisan message describing why voting is important for you. You hand-write a salutation and that message onto the sheet, fold and insert it into an envelope which you then hand address, stamp, seal and store until the day of the Big Send.

C’mon folks, the stakes are literally life or death. But we are not powerless. We can do this!


* In much of the country, most experts agree that Trump is currently ahead. Even here in staunchly Democratic Minnesota, Biden currently holds just a five percentage point lead.

FOOL YOU ONCE…

I really thought Pop This Boil would be winding down by now, after the inept, chaotic first term of the worst president in U.S. history mercifully came to an end. That the guy would run out of obnoxious stunts, fade from the headlines and disappear into the trash can of irrelevance.

Alas, Donald Trump—the only person ever to ascend to the presidency of the United States of America with not one redeeming quality—is running again. Incredibly, even after deeply embarrassing intelligent Americans and even inciting insurrection, he continues to command the blind allegiance of a significant minority of my countrymen.

Whether from an intentional ignorance of history, a warped sense of entitlement, a need to vindicate some dystopian vision, or out of sheer spite, these fools somehow still see this utterly unimaginative little man as the answer to their prayers. As giving voice to the thoughts they so staunchly believe have been stifled by those fucking liberal elites—thoughts that reflect their worst instincts.

What these poor folks don’t realize is exactly how badly they’re being conned.

OUR BULLY
It’s like the old adage: What do you get when you marry a man who cheats on his wife? In this case, what do you get when you elect a man who’s spent every waking hour since he was ten cheating, lying and bullying?

But that’s okay, they must figure; at least he’s our cheating, lying bully.

But do they really think, after the Brat Man demolishes all the hard-won laws enacted to protect the rest of us from tyrants like him and the insatiable tycoons who fund and flatter him—and that restrain Joe Sixpack from four-wheeling through nature preserves and beating the missus—that he’ll stop there?

Do they believe this Putin groupy who’s touting the ruin of democratic institutions will keep acting that out on their behalf? That his aggressions will target just those they fear or hate? That’s where my  Shame on Trump turns to Shame on you, MAGAts!

     …he’ll turn on you like the self-
     obsessed, loyalty-or-death Kim Jong
     Un wannabe he is.

HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY
What he’ll really do—he’s as much as promised it—is establish himself as a virtual dictator. And then, as every such autocrat in history has done, he’ll turn from controlling those you fear to controlling you. Eventually, he’ll ask something of you you don’t want to give. And then he’ll turn on you like the self-obsessed, loyalty-or-death Kim Jong Un wannabe he is.

And there you are, knowing you threw our precious Democracy away, trashing the sacrifice, soiling the honor, of all our courageous countrymen and women who’ve fought and died defending it. And all for your little “pick me or I’ll steal the ball” tantrum. Hope you’re happy.

OUTRAGE TO ACTION
If you want, as I do, to turn your outrage with this traitor into action, please consider volunteering with VOTE FORWARD. Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit empowering grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote.

Vote Forward’s considerable, evidence-based success hinges on their brilliant mailing list, which targets people deemed unlikely to vote, but who, if they were to vote, might tend to vote blue.

It’s the perfect opportunity for introverts like me to avoid that ol’ reliable get-out-the-vote effort, the door-knocker, and still make a difference. It’s easy; there’s zero risk of face-to-face rejection; and we can do it where and when we like, even in pajamas.

For more information and to download your first list of recipients, visit VOTE FORWARD. And, if you like it, tell your friends.

        “Democracy means not ‘I am as good as you are,’
          but ‘You are as good as I am.’”
              REV. THEODORE PARKER

WELL, YOU NEVER ASKED – Trump’s Shameful Failure of Expectation

One would be perfectly justified in blaming Donald Trump for the outrageous things he does—or the tremendous amount of good he could do but won’t. But these are, for Trump and his ilk, just the bright shiny objects they dangle to lure the attention of an undisciplined media and of gullible folks with lots of rage and short attention spans.

The least-appreciated failing of this near-total failure of a president is not his behavior, his policies—more like childish impulses—his corruption, his pathological lying, his lack of civility, nor even his outrageous immorality. Everyone knows these faults.

No, Donald Trump’s most under-condemned failure as a leader is how little he’s expected—of himself, of others, of us, the citizens of this great and good nation.

   

LIVING DOWN TO EXPECTATION
Healthy, functioning social entities, be they nations, communities, businesses or families, ask something of their constituents. Sometimes a lot.

They ask folks to balance their personal freedoms and wants with the welfare of the group. They needn’t see eye to eye on everything, but they do agree on a constructive, civil process for resolving those differences.

In a democracy it’s just assumed that citizens make small sacrifices for the common good. We pay taxes; we share our time, talents and resources; we abide by laws ensuring no one causes harm or takes more than their share of common resources; we look after our less-fortunate fellow citizens. 

          

And during periods of extreme challenge or crisis— like wars, natural disasters, economic collapse or a super-ambitious national initiative like our War on Poverty or the Space Race, great nations—the ones that come through the crisis stronger and wiser—are those which ask their citizens to rise to, and grow with, the challenge.

On the other hand, failed nations, from Angola to Russia to Venezuela, and their paranoid, iron-fisted dictators—for many of which Donald Trump can barely conceal his admiration— expect nothing approaching a higher order of thinking from their subjects. Just hard labor to feed the insatiable corruption. And, of course, often on pain of humiliation, ruin or death, their loyalty. Sound familiar?

    Go ahead and show your utter contempt for
    common decency by coughing and sneezing
    on anyone you damn well please.

INDULGING FOLKS’ WORST INSTINCTS
So here we are. It’s 2020 and the United States of America is facing an unprecedented “perfect storm” of catastrophe: a global pandemic; a firestorm of rage and grief over long-smoldering racial injustice; the looming cataclysm of global warming; and a chilling, brazen assault by oligarchs and disciples of chaos on the bedrock of our democracy.

And what of any virtue at all has Donald S. Trump asked of the American people? Absolutely nothing, especially from his base. Nothing more, that is, than what he sees as the status quo. Just keep doing your own thing. Don’t listen to—hell, just go ahead and beat the shit out of—those crying out for justice. 

    

Don’t give an inch on your, or your employer’s, “right” to continue fouling the air, water and soil. Don’t worry if people’s constitutional rights are the price we have to pay for "law and order." Don’t even pretend to stifle your meanest, basest instincts to demonize those you deem a threat to your perceived entitlement.

And, for God’s sake, don’t listen to the scientists or public health experts about this COVID-19 “hoax.” In fact, go right ahead and show your utter contempt for common decency by coughing and sneezing on anyone you damn well please. Those few (hundred thousand) frail old folks were dying soon anyway; small price to pay so Billy Bob can go party hearty in Sturgis.

Do whatever you want…oh, unless you disagree with me or refuse to kiss my ass, says Donald Trump. If you fail that, well then, you’re yesterday’s news. You’re fired.

    Instead of an expectation, Trump has given
    his base what Barak Obama wouldn’t give
    them: permission.

BORN TO BE BOORISH
It’s not simply failing to expect the best of Americans; it’s insisting on their worst. And, sure enough, hundreds of thousands of folks this charlatan has somehow managed to hypnotize dutifully line up, sporting their "Don't tread on me!" flags and MAGA caps, eager to comply. After all, this is what they love about the man.

Instead of an expectation, Trump’s given them something they’d been praying for during the entire unbearable eight-year “reign” of Barak Obama. Something that college-boy, holier-than-thou, liberal elite (oh, and uppity black man) with the impudence to expect Americans to act like adults wouldn’t give them: permission.

         

The reality-show president is playing to folks who are already so aggrieved, so afraid of evolving, that many literally see him as a gift from God. Trump's one rude, ignorant, corrupt, self-obsessed little man who’s finally given them his okay to be as shallow and hostile as they really are.

He’s legitimized their fantasy that it’s their God-given right not to grow intellectually, socially or spiritually. And to distrust anyone who does.

      I don’t know which came first, Trump’s
      inability to ask for anything resembling
      higher-order thinking from his followers,
      or their inability to give it.

LOYALTY TRUMPS ALL 
Say what you will about Donald Trump and his disastrous personal shortcomings. The man could have, despite those considerable handicaps, been a decent president—could, indeed, have helped make America at least not worse again.

He could have, as the nearly-as-dull-witted ex-pro wrestler Jesse Venture once did when he found himself governor of Minnesota, at least surrounded himself with smart, capable people. But for Trump, too threatened by anyone’s pretending to know anything he doesn’t, there’s simply no help.

Nope, he doesn’t dare expect intelligence, competence, aspiration, creativity, challenge, sacrifice. None of those positive, constructive qualities. Not from those who support him politically, and certainly not from anyone who works for him. He doesn’t even expect basic human decency.

All Donald expects is what every petty tyrant expects: blind allegiance— not even to the country, but to him. I don’t know which came first, his inability to ask for anything resembling higher-order thinking from his followers, or their inability to give it.

   

Their portrayal of their enemy as a bunch of pretentious, snot-nosed, holier-than-though little brats is ironic, for it’s exactly those traits that have been exposed in them during their little MAGA tantrum these past few years.

And, for folks who so vehemently reject expectation of any kind, it begs the question, “How’s that goin’ for ya?” With the economy? With our country’s standing in the world? With crime rates? With the condition of our air, water and land? With natural disasters? The list is long and the answers chillingly mass-delusional.

        

TO ASK OR TO ASK NOT
Throughout this whole moral, constitutional crisis—it feels like a street fight between the sordid underbelly of America and its noble soul—I keep hearing echoes of John F. Kennedy’s famous entreaty: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

And I’m wishing, praying, for a couple of great leaders who, come January, 2021, might articulate that kind of aspiration. Might rekindle the spark of kindness, generosity and hope I’m convinced still smolders deep inside every true American.