Mom, is this my real life?
An innocent but existential question
Back in my child-rearing soccer-mom days, I spent a lot of time hauling kids from here to there and back again. From the kid’s perspective, being chauffeured hither and thither wasn’t the greatest either. On one such trip, said kid piped up from the back seat: “Mom? Is this my real life?”
I found this innocent question hilarious at the time. Today, when our electoral politics have became a daily soap opera/horror show, the question is no longer funny.
America’s cheesiest and scariest reality show began the day Mr. Apprentice descended the golden elevator in 2015. And new episodes are released so fast it’s impossible to keep up.
In what once was a normal election year, the candidates would do their best to make themselves and their policy positions look good and the opposition candidate look bad. One candidate would get more popular votes than the other, and if they also got more points in the electoral college (a totally fucked-up system—but that’s another topic), they would win. The losing candidate would graciously concede and two months later the newly elected President would take the oath of office.
In 2016 the Apprentice somehow got elected. He did not enjoy the work. He preferred watching TV, tweeting, and playing golf, to reading the presidential daily briefings. But what he loved… craved actually… was the attention he got. The power and sense of importance made him giddy, especially when meeting with foreign despots, who knew how to flatter and manipulate him. He made clever deals that lined his own pockets. And he did some bad things that got him impeached. TWICE.
Human beings have terrible memories, especially when we’re bombarded by more than we can process every damn day. To remind us of what happened during the Apprentice’s reign, Robert Reich catalogued the Ten Worst Things about the Trump presidency. It’s astonishing how much I’d already forgotten.
In 2020 the American public came to its senses and chose Joe Biden instead of the Apprentice, in spite of all the ways the GOP tried (and is still trying—even harder) to make it more difficult for folks who might vote for Democrats to vote. Meanwhile, legal-wise, the Apprentice was “going thru some things,” and the Dept. of Justice was no longer “his” to wave it away. He had become a LOSER. Worse, a loser who might just spend the rest of his life in jail.
So he claimed Biden had stolen the election, because he claimed that scads of people had voted illegally or local election officials had counted wrong on purpose (60 lawsuits across the country—all thrown out for lack of evidence). That failing, he got his followers to storm the capital on January 6, 2021 to prevent certification of the vote. “Just some peaceful tourists visiting”… If you haven’t seen how excited those “tourists” were, please review the video:
.Even out of office, the Apprentice continues to create chaos—telling GOP congresspersons to vote down the bipartisan immigration bill, forbidding his loyalists to vote for any measures that might make the Biden administration look good. Hence we get a Congress which has accomplished the least since the 19th century and is the looniest per Dana Milbank at WaPo:
Republicans have filled their committee hearings and their bills with white nationalist attacks on racial diversity and immigrants, attempts to ban abortion and to expand access to the sort of guns used in mass shootings, incessant harassment of LGBTQ Americans, and even routine potshots at the U.S. military. They insulted each other’s private parts, accused each other of sexual and financial crimes, and scuffled with each other in the Capitol basement…
Those breathless hearings about the “Biden crime family” evaporated when Harris replaced Biden on the Democratic ticket.
In lieu of consequential legislating, they passed bills such as the Refrigerator Freedom Act, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards (SUDS) Act. On the House floor, the Republican majority suffered one failure after another, even on routine procedural votes…
Give them credit for this: a bipartisan debt deal to avoid a default crisis that they themselves created. A pair of temporary spending bills (both passed with mostly Democratic votes) to avert a government shutdown crisis that they themselves created… Their months-long failure to approve arms for Ukraine enabled Vladimir Putin to inflict punishing losses on Ukrainian forces.
And I don’t even have the energy to cover the Apprentice’s shenanigans since election season began. Suffice it to say, his hateful rhetoric, demented behavior, and unconstitutional policy promises have brought out the most unexpected collection of Republicans who now endorse Kamala Harris because of the danger the Apprentice poses to democracy. I mean: Dick Cheney??? George Will?? From former GOP pundit Charlie Sykes:
“741 former national security leaders endorse Kamala Harris.”
—15 four-star Generals
—10 former cabinet secretaries
—10 service secretaries
—Multiple GOP leaders who served under Trump
The group characterized the election as “a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism.”
So yeah, kids, this is our real life, and we’d better work like hell to make sure the Apprentice never gets near the presidency again.
PUT YOURSELF IN THE WAY OF BEAUTY
The spectacular ceiling at Pacific Northwest College of Art, formerly the main Post Office in Portland, OR. The building was designed by Lewis P. Hobart and was built between 1916 and 1918. Those were the days when we were willing to spend money for beautiful public architecture.
Do you have any beautiful public buildings in your neighborhood?