A Sad Day for America
Well, the rally on the 19'th at the Capital One Arena painted a more damning picture of the incoming administration and more importantly the path America has chosen than I could ever have myself.
There was so much dumb shit at that event, but if I had to pick a favourite, it would probably be using clips from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (seemingly without attribution) as evidence of the U.S. military's past greatness. I kid you not:
Watching the coronation the next day, I was reminded again by the strange fundamentalist Christian undercurrent in American politics. That was a lot of praying at a state event for a state that's supposed to have separation of church and state. A lot of praying, but not a lot of Christian values in the new immigration policies.
Off all the tech barons, I was most disappointed to see Tim Cook there. I always suspected him of being a weasel, but what did he actually have to gain by being there? Tariff relief on Apple products? Or more importantly - what does Trump want with him? He doesn't control the media - unlike his other oligarch buddies. Once so proud of being gay and pro-minorities, now bending the knee to the most homophobic U.S. president in living memory. Anything for a dollar, I guess.
Shortly after the event, a quote from H.L. Mencken (On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe) started to circulate on Reddit:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Reading some of Mencken's elitist views on race, I'm not convinced Trump would fit his definition of said moron. It's even possible that Mencken would have voted for Trump, but that comment is nonetheless fitting and timely. With the U.S. being such a vocal proponent of Democracy for so long, it's easy to think that theirs is also somehow the most advanced and nearest to "perfection" but is it? What if that title actually belongs to the oldest democracy - Iceland - instead? Looking at their handling of the 2008 financial crisis provides some compelling evidence.
Maybe the point about Democracy is precisely that it is never perfect. That there is no "perfect union". That the only advantage it has over other systems of government is that it never claims to be perfect and therefore remains in constant flux. After all, people change, the environment changes, technology changes. As has been noted many times before - the power of Democracy is just as much about voting the current people out as it is about voting new ones in.
That makes me think of the inherent contradiction between democracy and conservatism. It seems like these two ideas are diametrically opposed. Democracy is inherently progressive! My one silver lining from the Trump's 2016 victory was that it would reinvigorate American democracy and motivate more younger people to run for office. Which made the 2020 and 2024 choices all the more depressing. Are - as one C-SPAN caller put it - "a geriatric patient and a convicted rapist" really the best and the brightest that this great land has to offer?
My initial plan for Trumps Second Coming was just to ignore him. But here's the problem - Bob Woodward was right. Democracy does die in darkness. And sometimes I wonder if that's precisely what Trump is counting on. That with overloading the world with his bullshit, his opponents will finally give up and tune out, leaving him and his cronies to roam free. But I sincerely doubt that he's that smart.
But this tactic of DDoS'ing democracy is a shared by many populist far-right political parties. They just don't give up and refine their public image until it becomes palatable for enough people. Then gravity takes over and their ideas start becoming mainstream. It happened in Hitler's Germany, it's happening in Sweden, in France, Latin America. It even happened in Finland. The True Finns - once an openly racist and xenophobic political party - went from 0.9% support in 1999 to 20% in 2023.
America is a country in cognitive decline. A painful reminder of the insidious effects of a broken education system. Europe and the rest of the world would do well to pay attention. But it's is also a country of great diversity. For a great moron like Donald Trump, there's a great humanist like Dr. Martin Luther King. For a fascist asshat like Elon Musk, there's a brilliant mind like Claude Shannon and for every soulless hack like Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg, there's a true Hacker like Paul Baran and Alan Kay. Just to name a few.
So good luck America! Especially the investigative journalists. I have a feeling your hands will be full for the next four years. That is, if they're not cuffed. And good luck to all of us in weathering the incoming political shitstorm.
PS. shout-out to Michelle Obama and Karen Pence for not attending!
PPS. We wouldn't be in this mess if the DNC had nominated Bernie in 2016.