Existential angst. I was 7 when JFK died, and didn’t know the term. But I had it then and have it now. As cerebral beings we have to make sense of things. But there is no sense to the universe, no justice, no Truth. Just void and matter and nothing matters. It is awful for an atheist to be constantly reminded there’s no God!
The people voted in a permanent leadership. The thing was closer than the press stampeded us to believe—perhaps a million and a half votes. But the Democrats discouraged 8 million voters from Biden’s run. Now we on the far left are done with their corporate “liberalism.”
Nothing works in this country. Not schools, not healthcare, not law enforcement. Not insurance, not credit card debt, not retirement savings. Not sustainable farming, not environmental protection, not disaster relief. This was a protest vote, richly deserved.
Don’t tell me the voters are stupid. People don’t like to be called stupid, especially stupid ones. They also don’t like to be called racist and fascist. Even if they made common cause with “fine people on both sides,” they don’t like to be lumped in. But people bumping their butts on the ground know their circumstances. They’re not swayed by a booming stock market or the employment and inflation stats. They trust their butts. They voted in people who will make their plight worse, acceleratingly so, but not out of stupidity but a righteous spirit of “F***-all!”
Gays, Latinos and prominent Trump critics will suffer. But the former have been inferior citizens right along and may not notice the difference. The latter may be punished (in inverse proportion to celebrity), but mostly left to suffer the attrition of changing entertainment tastes. (Remember Fred Allen? He was a big deal.) The print press will complete its slow death by a thousand advertising cuts, leaving journalism in the capable hands of talking haircuts and boobs on the internet who heard something somewhere.
There will be upheaval overseas. But the only war will be in precincts we’re used to turning a blind eye to. The Pax Trumplandia will come about for his allegiance to Vladimir Putin. It will be as if an alternate timeline opened up in which the America First movement allied America with Hitler, and England stuck with appeasement. Peace in our time! It makes perfect, practical sense that the nuclear powers can never actually come to blows, but at a cost to America’s sense of purpose. The Baltic states will fall, Taiwan, maybe South Korea to Kim, while Israel will complete its one-state solution in Gaza and the West Bank exactly by the method of the last stage of the Holocaust, starvation.
Now the good news! The decisive election means the regime will keep not just the forms of democracy but the reality. They will rely on their advantages from incumbency and propaganda to win real elections foreseeably. And that could mean a democratic rebound if the kleptocrats crater the economy. But please let it be a Socialist democratic rebound! Entrust the republic to folks who understand obscene wealth and democracy can’t co-exist.
The likelihood of a global depression owes to the venal nature of Mr. Trump. He’s an established ignoramus with delusions of genius and bottomless greed. The global exchange currency is the last bastion of American power, allowing us to freeload off the world’s material production in exchange for dollars we conjure into existence. Trump threatens to betray that power for a server-ful of crypto. (Will America be crucified on a block of chain?) Trump is the “enemy within” he warns about. But I am so ready for the rotting zombie corpse of Amerika to follow its soul to the grave!
Now, then, what if worst comes to worse, and Trumpism succeeds? Will I be able to swallow my propriety for prosperity? Sure. Why waste the existential angst?
M. WARNER, Minneapolis Minn.
Why are the Democrats so hesitant to fight, while the MAGA-Repubs revel in fighting hard and dirty? Take Trump’s call on his future Repub-majority senators to immediately recess when they take over, so he can make administrative and judicial appointments without Senate approval. Yes, it’s legal. Yes, it has been done before, in some limited ways.
But hey, the Dems are still in control of the Senate … for the next two months. Hello, Chuck Schumer! Are you listening? Are you watching? Schumer could do the same thing, tomorrow, thereby enabling President Biden (yes, he’s still President for two months) to install over 100 Federal judges. He could even install four or five SCOTUS Justices … if Biden and Schumer only had the fighting spirit that the Repubs have.
Well, maybe Biden IS too old, too tired, too constrained to fight the good and necessary fight. Then, how about Kamala? She had enough juice to conduct a positive, energetic campaign; does she actually have the Fighting Spirit (“we’re NOT goin’ back)? Or was that just bluster? Biden could resign; Kamala becomes the first female President, AND the Senate recesses so Kamala can make the judicial appointments, without worrying about Senator Manchin or Senate majorities.
Dems will clutch their pearls at this suggestion, “oh no, that would set a horrible precedent.” Hello, Dems! The Repubs are going to do it anyway, so why not do the same while you still can?
Reasonable people might argue that the SCOTUS would shoot down such a demonic Democratic scheme if they try to do it. Oh yeah? And then the decision would prevent the Repubs from following suit when they take power in two months? What is the downside?
The only thing preventing this good plan is Democratic weakness: they do not fight for what they believe.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
Editor Notes: At this writing, Senate Democrats are working overtime to confirm as many of Biden’s judicial nominees as they can before the Republicans take over. After that, Democratic leaders might be thinking, let the Once and Future President run over them with recess appointments of federal judges. It’s possible, given his limited familiarity with the Constitution, the president-elect may be unaware that recess appointments expire at the end of the congressional term. (Don’t tell him!)
After seeing Trump’s nominations for critical government posts, It would be wise to see what Hannah Arendt said about totalitarianism in her work on authoritarianism, “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” over 70 years ago:
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
KEN ARMSTRONG, Campbell, Calif.
My concerns about the election were correct. The results were disappointing but predictable.
My background is that of an attorney: two terms as an elected prosecutor, public defender and attorney for the banks. It is also as an educator of the law: 10 years as an adjunct and 10 years as a tenured professor. I am a student of history and national history.
The legal system is the foundation of society; Trump will alter it to the detriment of the country! He will also threaten freedom of the press.
If I were in good health, I would move to Canada. A portion of lower Ontario is on the same latitude as northern Michigan.
I leave you with certain facts about the 1976 presidential election, which I hope you will ponder. Both Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon had resigned in disgrace, followed by Gerald Ford ascending to the throne. Ford was no political virgin; he was ambitious and well aware of the toxic sewer into which he entered.
Ford’s pardon of Nixon was not done because of altruism; Ford pardoned Nixon in order to take the corruption issue off the table, out of the public eye, and away from its connection to him. Ford’s argument that he pardoned Nixon to heal the country was BS.
During the Ford presidency, inflation increased and the economy remained in a recession. Ford narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan at the GOP convention for the nomination.
After all of that chaos, Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter by only 1.5 million votes. He carried Michigan (his home state), Illinois, New Jersey, many New England states, all of the Plains states and all of hte states west of the Rockies, except Hawaii.
Carter, from Georgia, won the election thanks to loyalty from fellow Southerners.
The voters must have had a poor memory about the previous eight years — not a good sign!
Speaking of pardons, thank you for the editorial correction to one of my letters, which incorrectly mentioned the William Calley “pardon.” [Nixon ordered Lt. Calley released to home arrest pending appeals after he was sentenced by a military tribunal in 1971 to life imprisonment for his role in the deaths of civilians in My Lai, Vietnam, in 1968. Calley was released on parole in 1975.]
Keep up the good work!
STEPHEN LANDUYT, Quincy, Ill.
This month (December) offers me a chance to look back. You mailed out holiday greeting cards. Christmas jingles were heard at the super market. It was the ‘70s. Madison Avenue came out with some good advertisements. The department stores were well decorated. Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State. Richard Nixon was President. You drove a station wagon to the train station. Choo-choo ! The holidays are draped in a spirit of giving. Give back.
LELAND ALPER, Barnet, Vermont
Hey, congratulations to Trump and his MAGA Christian zealots. However, 24 hours after his election win, he has already broken his first election promise. He specifically stated that as president-elect, he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of that confirmed president-elect date but, as usual with Trump, he lied and it didn’t happen.
Evidently, this is what America has become with his election and what we can look forward to for the next four years.
MIKE EKLUND, La Porte, Ind.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2024
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