He’s bound to be nervous, like a pacing lion. This is new to him and he never seemed to really want the job. He wanted crowds, applause, attention – said so himself.
Voters realized we’ve outgrown the old and needed to take a chance on the new while keeping a white-knuckle grasp on our best qualities. We knew this was different.
We realized in November’s election, or in the 18 months building up to it, that the media really is polarizing. Conservative cable show hosts ranted and chanted against Hillary, and liberal cable hosts were every bit as pompous and eviscerating in their dismay over a candidate, who like no other ever, got more votes every time he said something mean-spirited or inaccurate or just plumb awful.
And here we are, finally understanding that corporate media is set on causing distress rather than relieving it. We will have to live with it until we don’t, and no amount of cussing, finger pointing or disbelief can prevent that.
In the meantime, as long as we have free speech, we’ll use it. We have a shaken reality, we feel anxiety and loathing, and don’t seem able to control our sadness which is somewhere between the dog dying and the house burning down.
We’ve all heard the tattered phrase, Follow the Money. That’s where the sentence and thought stop, as though those three words are open to neither interpretation nor attention, just inevitability. There is no treasure map or blueprint to follow that money. And if we did? Would we find that Russians, Israelis, Iowans and the Monsanto board are all paying elected officials under the table to see no evil? No environmental oversight? No federal taxes on the wealthy? Anyone, anywhere, can own an automatic rifle whether they know how to use it or not, and if they make a mistake, well, it’s their right. We are so swamped with change that we’ve lost sight of the bathtub and the baby.
One wonders why voters would elect a man who has no memory, moral compass or savoir-faire. On the one hand, he clearly knows how he wants things to be. He’s accustomed to getting his way. And he did begin his campaign by going head-to-head with Republican orthodoxy and tradition, an action that infuriated and embarrassed Republican leadership for 16 or 17 months. Suddenly those same naysayers are embracing a fair-haired boy who might not say anything truthful or coherent, but he shows up every day and doesn’t seem to be drunk. Score!
On the other hand, we know the man is full of surprises. He is familiar with the dark side, for goodness sake, he’s in it and proud of it, so he might be just what we need to expose nefarious political corruption. We can’t accuse him of being complacent.
And the man is contradictory, which could be our best hope. We really don’t know what he’ll do once he takes the oath of office a week from Friday, but we know he can change because we’ve seen him do it. He used to be a Democrat. He is capable of understanding that the government should not be run as a business, it should be run as an accountable overseer that taxes citizens and puts that money toward better lives for the citizens who pay the tax – solid education, environmentally thoughtful developments and utilities, teachers, farmers, artists – you know, health!
Our 2016 election did not leave room for emotional obscurity. Voters said they would rather the state get money from pot sales than from taxpayers. Voters want the government that has OK’d chemical spraying, strip mining and food manipulation to be responsible for their part in these catastrophes. Voters want to thrive, and know thriving doesn’t come from prejudice and intolerance, it comes from e pluribus unum.
Come on, legislators. Pay for the healthcare crisis brought about by greedy decisions at the highest level. Don’t tolerate companies that poison us and then tell us disease is our fault. Pay for the healthcare we choose, whether conventional or alternative. Stop treating us like we’re your subjects. Guide the new guy in office.
Unless of course you want to deal with the population on an even more uncomfortable level than free speech.
Mary Pat Boian
Meryl Streep? Overrated? Kidding?