It HAS Happened Here

Donald Trump likes to brag about his prowess as a real estate developer but, when it comes to the man underneath the comb-over, the only thing he's capable of building is a seemingly endless series of moral sub-cellars.  Everytime we learn about some new personal failing on his part, we pray that we've reached the end of the line when it comes to these revelations, and our knowledge of what he's capable of saying and doing can't possibly get any worse.  And, just as soon as we reach a point at which we think our prayers have been answered, the Donald reveals the existence of yet another sub-cellar, proving that he's only capable of descending further and further until he's reached Dante's tenth circle of hell--and, as President, taken all of us along with him.

Which is why I'm struggling right now to determine whether his announcement this past week to consider ingesting Clorox, Lysol, or ultraviolet light as a means of fighting COVID-19 means that he's truly reached rock-bottom, or perhaps is just a sign that this moment, like so many others before it, is just another subway stop on his (our) one-way subway trip to national damnation.

This much I will say for certain:  I can't say it's the single dumbest, most dangerous thing any President has ever said to the American people, because I'm only 63.*  However, I have heard a number of distinguished historians and other experts say that it is in fact the single dumbest, most dangerous thing any President has ever said to the American people.  So I'm going to go with that, and my Clorox and Lysol are staying in the cabinet, where they belong.

But where's the outrage, to quote Bob Dole on the subject of a far less outrageous President?  Where are the calls for his resignation?  Where is there any evidence that the sycophants who make up his Administration might be moved to finally invoke the provisions of the 25th Amendment.  Where is any of this?  Nowhere.  All we get instead is a whole bunch of explainaway malarkey, and a spike in calls to poison control centers.

Trump is officially Jim Jones, and his followers are drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid  There is no longer any reason to suspect that Trumpism is a suicide cult, fueled by racism and misbegotten nostalgia.  That can be considered a confirmed fact.

And so can one other thing.

The debate over where or not "it" can happen over here is now officially over.  Because it has.

Vote this fall like your life and freedom depend on it, and make sure that everyone you know who is 18 and older does the same.

*With apologies to the late drama critic Walter Kerr for that appropriation of a line from one of his more negative reviews of a musical.