Life in Suberia
(Suberia=Suburbia that feels like Siberia. Get it?)
Monday November 14, 2016
Predicting the Fall of the House of Trump
Welcome to Life in Suberia! I've had the notion I should start this blog for a long, long, time, but have been apathetic and/or busy for a long, long time. So why even start a blog, if I'm prone to being apathetic and/or busy? Well, sometimes things need-a-sayin.
Which brings me to today's blog entry. After watching the collapse of life as we knew it last Tuesday, I've done a lot of bitching and moaning about a stolen election, etc. I mean, we have no way of knowing, really, right now, if the election of the country's first orange President was legitimate or not, even if one accepts the ridiculous notion an election can be legitimate where the one who gets the least number of votes among all people, and millions less than their far-more-qualified opponent among the people who are likely to live through the term, gets to be the winner.
But, for me, that's almost beside the point. The point, for me, is that this election, legitimate or not, represents a double-fisted FU to the children of America. It represents a disgraceful moment in American history where old white people said SCREW THE FUTURE, it's all about us, right now, at least for the next couple of years before we slither off this mortal coil!
And that's just wrong...
So, how can I make such a pronouncement, you might ask? Because I pay attention, that's why. Although Trump's slogan was Make America Great Again, I never heard anyone describe what this meant outside of some nebulous claim we need to assert ourselves in the world and return order to our streets. And none of this blather made much sense. America's influence around the world has probably never been as high, and our streets are as safe as they've been in decades.
So I suspect what was really meant, albeit in a code akin to the 1960's use of the term "State's rights", was Make America Mine Again--meaning Make America a White (Christian and Straight) Country Again.
And should one doubt me on this...just imagine the response of Trump supporters should Trump appoint a non-Clarence Thomas-like black man Attorney General or a non Condoleeza Rice-ish black woman Secretary of State, or, God forbid, a lesbian Latina to the Supreme Court. They'd crap their pants and you know it!
So, let's not pretend, okay?
So, then, what about the children? How do they factor into this mess? I have a son. He's in second grade. His class is taught to pledge allegiance to the flag. And sing patriotic songs. They are also taught that Martin Luther King wanted to stop white people and black people from being separate, and that's why he was killed. And, oh yeah, that it's wrong to lie. And, here's the big one. That it's really really wrong to BULLY.
Now, right or wrong, this represents a huge shift from my childhood, and, no doubt, the childhood of Donald Trump. Back then, we were taught that bullies were a fact of life, that you had to stand up to them, or risk being picked-on your whole life. It was almost like we accepted them as high priests in some peculiar rite of passage.
But no more. Today's schools teach children there should be zero tolerance for bullying--that it is entirely unacceptable. They have assemblies entirely devoted to it, along with Nancy Reagan's contribution to western culture, "Say No to Drugs."
So what does it tell our children when our schools tell them we should have zero tolerance for bullies, and the biggest bully in America--the man most famous for bragging about how great he is, making unwanted and inappropriate advances on women, and mocking the obese and the handicapped (not to mention threatening to use his money and/or power to sue or prosecute those who stand up to him)--is the President?
I mean, something's got to give. Either the faith in institutions so prevalent among America's children will be irreparably damaged--to the extent we will no longer be able to pretend the President is a role model--or the families of young children in the country--the heart of the country that will be alive and voting in four years--will fail to accept Trump as a legitimate President, no matter the vote, and work to oust him from office.
I'm hoping for the latter.
Now, admittedly, I'm a bit of a sucker for scenarios in which children defeat bullies and monsters. I cry at this stuff all the time. One of my favorite movie scenes is when Scout says "Hey" to Mr. Cunningham in To Kill A Mockingbird. To refresh, Atticus Finch is sitting outside the local jail, guarding his client Tom Robinson (a black man wrongly accused of assaulting a white woman) while the local Sheriff Heck Tate goes out on a call. (This, one might only assume, is a bogus call designed to lure Tate away from the jail.) In any event, the expected lynch mob arrives and Atticus tries to talk them down. But is unsuccessful. But then, just when all hope is lost, Atticus' five-year-old daughter Scout, who wasn't supposed to be there but came anyhow to see what her father was up to, starts talking to a member of the mob she recognizes, Mr. Cunningham. She reminds him of the favors her father has done for him, and, in the process, the favors he has done for all the men in the mob. And the mob leaves, shamed back to sanity by a child.
I suspect something similar will happen to Trump. The seeds of the seventies are already planted. Children in this country, by and large, expect and prefer a classroom and world where races happily sit side by side and bullies are exposed and made to stand against the wall at lunchtime--NOT MADE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND GIVEN THE NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES! Unless Trump changes his act--and fast--they will never see him as THEIR President.
His time is past. Within four years, Trump, and the uneducated lynch mob behind him, will evaporate into ghosts, after being shamed into the shadows by children. They just don't know it yet.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Donald Trump is Gaston
I just thought I'd throw this in. I've been thinking about it for a year, but have been unable to write about it. But now I think I need to write it down before someone else comes along and claims it.
DONALD TRUMP IS GASTON! AN OLDER, EVEN CREEPIER GASTON!
For those of you not in the know, Gaston is the villain of Beauty and the Beast. Unlike most movie villains, he is not ugly. No, Gaston is the biggest, strongest, and best-looking guy in town.
And he knows it. Yep, unlike most villains, who are sickly or ugly and driven by some sort of envy, Gaston (as Trump) is driven to villainy by his sense of entitlement. I am the best--so why shouldn't I get to have my way?
Yes, in his sense of entitlement that he and only he is deserving of Belle's (America's) love, and in his over-powering resentment (sickness) that she has instead given her love to a beast (Obama), Trump resembles one of the most entertaining (yet reviled) villains in movie history.
One can only wonder then how long before he falls from the roof!