Road Trip

One of the great scenes in movie history is when Oskar Schindler, on an otherwise idyllic horse ride with his attractive companion in Warsaw, gets a hillside seat for the liquidation of the city’s Jewish ghetto. Spielberg takes extraordinary care in portraying a situation so systematically chaotic, so absurdly violent, and utterly evil that a man who thought he realized his life’s dream of war’s riches suddenly understands it’s a pact with the devil, and he’s looking at hell itself. From that point on, for the sake of his very soul, he must atone. Enter Ben Kingsley…

One can only imagine, if provided a similar vista overlooking our southern border, what kind of images an equestrian could witness unfolding as desperate mothers have their children ripped from them to be taken away screaming and crying, embraced by the type of horror reserved for the bleakest circumstance. Yet here we sit, as people we know and maybe even once respected mouth inanities like “the law is the law.” News flash douchebags…the stormtroopers in Warsaw were doing nothing deemed “illegal”!

The crux of our situation remains the same as it has been since last January: how far will we follow a hateful nihilist. How low will we have to go before selfies with friends and graduations begin to lose their luster, dimmed by a palpable sense of national shame, and some inkling of a determination to turn course? It all feels so willful at this point; millions doing their damndest to ignore the fate of their country, and the damage this Administration extends on the hour. And let’s be as clear as we can be; if those doing their best to “only focus on what really matters” raised their voices, called their Reps., told their friends, posted on social media, and otherwise simply demanded better, we would be well on our way to cleaning up this mess.

But right now one is still left to ponder how much further this road goes. Trump is for all intents and purposes destroying our most basic alliance, fully disputing 75-year old core foundations. The transformation from ally to economic usurper to enemy can be swift once we allow ourselves to be set adrift, losing control of events. If one assumes that Europe’s elected leaders are loyal to the national interest, unlike our own, how long should we expect them to abide Trump’s recklessness. He has no vision for new trade arrangements, only punchlines about deficits and “horrible” past deals. Perhaps they are hoping to soldier on until 2020, when we come to our senses. What if Trump is re-elected? If they take the initiative to put together new military, political and economic agreements, freezing us out, what sort of response can we expect from this White House? It’s not a slippery slope, it’s a ruinous cliff.

Had our first Black POTUS hastily arranged a personal summit with the world’s most repressive tyrant, and then breezily admitted to not preparing for the encounter, confident his life experience was sufficient, a bipartisan outcry would have echoed through the land. Oh, that’s right, Art of the Deal!

Meanwhile, a GOP Trumpie running for Governor drives around pledging to fill his bus with “illegals”. And in West Virginia, Democratic incumbent Senator Joe Manchin is more than implying he will endorse Trump’s re-election in 2020. Were Trump to win in 2020 it would mean roughly a decade of his pestilence on our political and cultural life. Where could we end up? Consider that in 1928 Hitler and the Nazis were scarcely known other than “the butt of jokes.” By 33’ Goebbels was overseeing book burnings in Berlin. 1938 gave us Munich. Ten years is more than ample on the road to ruin.

We as a nation had, before 2016, long ago collectively agreed that prosperity and freedom required looking out and leading by example, understanding the parts were meant to add up to the whole. Leaders don’t keep score and bitch and moan about what they aren’t getting. They focus on the big picture, fully committed to the long game. Trumpism rebukes that common wisdom with nothing to replace it other than satisfaction that “liberals’ heads are exploding.” It’s the Greg Gutfeld doctrine.

And always the question is how far will it be allowed to go. Wholesale round ups of profiled Hispanics? Arrests of reporters? War with Iran? Refusal to accept electoral results? Is there anything Trump won’t do if the legal noose begins to tighten? To gaslight these scenarios as paranoia requires one to discount what is already happening and present a cogent defense for actions already being taken. The silence on that front is deafening. Moreover, it is worth noting that some of Trumpism’s fiercest critics are Republicans, fully aghast at the complicity of the party.

A very dear friend, who I worked with in the 80s, is married to a wonderful woman… smart, obscenely charismatic and likable, really fantastic. Although we lost touch of each other when he moved north years ago, Facebook revived our relationship. It is clear his wife suffered and fully conquered some health challenges through feverish devotion to positive lifestyle changes – diet, exercise, attitude, etc. Her transformation was remarkable, fully justifying her evangelical desire to share it with others as a “life coach.”

But she has made clear to me there is not a sliver of her life available, at least publicly, for the downer of politics. No place whatsoever. She is nothing but positive; it was her salvation and it’s now her brand. The other day she posted a perfectly innocuous post about being stopped by a state trooper and how she was respectful and cooperative, and how nice he ended up being etc.etc. Many of the commenters, all white as she is, went right to the ol’ “see, if you are respectful to the law, it’ll all end up fine.” There was no doubt what informed their comments, and someone as sharp as she could never miss it. Yet she merely replied back with inane thanks and agreement. I pasted my DR column, “Division” about taking a knee and Black Lives Matter as a comment. She promptly, without a word, deleted it. That is where we are. Where we may go depends on when, if ever, she leaves that comment up…or maybe shares it. BC