Turning the Car Around
We’re arguing again.
We’re arguing about what to do. We’re arguing about how to do it. If we don’t do it this way, or that, we’re doing it wrong. We’re fucked. If we don’t do it this way (or that), it’s just gonna happen again. Like it always does.
We’re arguing again. We’re arguing with ourselves.
America is arguing.
Which, y’know, is kinda the point, the point of being Americans, the point of having a democracy where we can argue with each other to our heart’s content. Fine. Put it to a vote. Let’s see who wins.
We argue like a family on vacation. We squabble. We’re noisy. We’re intense. We’re bothersome. We’re the kids in the back seat. Dad’s gonna turn the car around if we don’t shut the fuck up back there.
That happened to us once. Dad turned the car around. We went back home. Have you ever broke Dad? Not fun.
So, what are we arguing about this time? Those of us who give a shit are arguing what to do about The Usurper, the guy who didn’t win an election but took power anyway. (Long story. You had to be there.) Now that we’ve caught him in the act of betraying us — not like we haven’t before, but that’s another long story — we’re arguing about how best to get rid of him, and what will happen if we don’t do it the right way, or at least try.
Because we won’t really get rid of him. Not gonna happen. We all know that going in.
What we’re arguing is whether to nail Capone on tax evasion — easy case, caught him red-handed — or whether to roll up some murder charges with it, which after all is why we want to nail Capone in the first place. If we focus on tax evasion, if we take the easy case and let the rest slip, well, that’s not really justice, is it?
And you know what? It’s not. But at least it’ll get him off the streets, where he can murder no more. There’s that. If it works. Which it might not, but that’s yet another long story. It’s all long stories these days.
We’re inclined to the argument for justice, for making the case as completely as possible, for getting everything down — for witnessing the injustice — because, given all those long stories, that may be all we can do. Tax evasion may be an airtight case, but the jury is bought, the judge has sold out, and honesty, we’ve seen better prosecutors.
You might be more familiar with that version of things. It started with a white Bronco.
We’re inclined to the argument for justice. But we’re not going to get it through impeachment.
What we really need is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
And in saying that, in knowing that, you know how far we are away from ever having that.
All we can do, given all those long stories, is what we can, with what we have, and sadly, it ain’t much. It’s actually very little.
Democracy wasn’t supposed to be that way. Our democracy wasn’t supposed to be that way. It was a fine idea, well-expressed — governments derive power from the consent of the governed — and it was well-elaborated too, given what vicious critters we are. But it wasn’t airtight. We weren’t endowed by our Creator with perfection — far from it — and over a couple centuries we’ve found all the holes in the system, all the flaws, all the ways around the idea that gave our democracy life in the first place.
We’ve undermined ourselves.
So yeah, it would be nice if we could find some justice in this mess, to do it right, to do it really right, to settle the matter. God, that would be nice. But there aren’t enough of us, enough of us who want that, not just a democratic majority of us, but an overwhelming majority, a majority that can’t be excluded or gerrymandered or carved in unequal sizes with equal weights.
There aren’t enough of us because there are too many of them. Too many who don’t want justice, never mind truth, never mind reality itself.
We’re not arguing with them. They’re not worth arguing with.
And really, we’re not arguing with anyone at this point. Just get the asshole out of there. Get him off the streets. Fuck justice, we need to stop the harm.
Get him on tax evasion if that’s what works, if that’s all you can do, if you can even do that. Because yeah, we want justice, we want a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we want Nuremberg, but look what it took to get either of those, and look at us, look at America, and tell us we’re getting anything like that anytime soon.
N’PEECH and then nuke Mar-a-Lardass from space. It’s the only way to be sure.
Yep, just us Americans squabbling like one big family right before the murder-suicide.
@¡Andrew!: That one was actually (but not sufficiently explicitly) Pareene and others arguing for an extensive impeachment investigation, and not just a Ukraine quickie. Totally fair point, but what they seek is really something else that our elected leadership simply isn’t capable of. Nail the dude on Ukraine, force that Senate trial that Moscow Mitch is now promising, and let the chips fall.
@nojo: Gotta love how the Ru$$ians are now telling investigators exactly where to look.
“Oh please, please, comrades, don’t release the Putin call transcripts, we beg you! Dasvidaniya.”
Yeah, they might as well just upload the piss tapes.
“If you like subpoena coladas,
and getting caught in Ukraine,
If you’re not into governing,
and you don’t have half a brain,
If you like steak that’s drowned in ketchup,
and sanity is a reach,
We’ve got enough whistleblowers
that we are gonna impeach.”
—Will Frank
I woke up giggling about a fucking MOAT at our southern border. A MOAT!
Annnnnnd then I watched him lose what is left of his mind IN REAL TIME. Like seriously psychotic shit from the LEADER of the FREE FUCKING WORLD. I know he’s an illegitimate president, but for the time being, he is our president, and today was some real-time fucking crazy shit!
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will convene once we finish the one about slavery.
This is a solid piece. Solid.
I swing by so I can stream of consciousness it in the comments. Then I read your piece. Right on.
Wait. North Korea fired a missile FROM A SUB? Today? This is a manic day – this is what mania feels like. Our president is so fucked up that North Korea firing a missile from a SUB didn’t rate a chyron? Jong-un trolling Putin style. I need to sleep for a year.
@¡Andrew!: Ha! (And eventually I read the comments.) ;)
It’s incredible that they can still find world leaders like Zelensky that will sit down for a photo op with Emperornazi No Clothes.
They look as happy as if they’re being held hostage in a terrorist’s ransom video.
That Bri-tish ambassador who wrote that the Tr666p regime would end in downfall, disgrace, and America’s national humiliation must’ve been some kind of psychic. (rolls eyes)
How strange that our techno-dystopia would be so much less like William Gibson and more akin to living in a Vonnegut novel—and not one of the good ones.
/off topic/
Something I’ve never understood about religions: If someone’s so certain that theirs is the One True Way, then why would they care if anyone else believed it?
@¡Andrew!: Never quite thought about the deep psychology of it, but I’ll take a stab: Doubt is contagious. Especially if you doubt what I hold to be certain. Your doubts trigger doubts in me I’d rather not think about. Better to just smite yer ass.
@¡Andrew!: In other words: Fear.
@JNOV: Umm, according to Mango Mussolini, it’s a moot, not a moat. One of the times I love that Twitter doesn’t have an edit button…
@¡Andrew!: Our techno-dystopian novel existence is all Atwood, all the time.
@SanFranLefty: I just finished The Testaments, and now I’m neck-deep in S3 of THT.
I scared myself yesterday morning when I almost greeted a colleague with “blessed day.” That robotic theocracy lingo that Gilead’s victims are forced to speak is contagious!
“Everything, I’m into all of it: sex parties and M&Ms. As a matter of fact, I smoked pot then bent my bodybuilding ex-Marine boy toy over a barrel and spanked the sass outta him with a copy of the Sherman Antitrust Act!”
—Elizabeth Warren by way of 9 to 5
“Mama Horny”?
@ManchuCandidate: Don’t make mama get nasty.
Whistle blower became a chorus.
Blame it on Perry!
Because when one thinks of Rick Perry, international espionage mastermind are definitely words that are right at the top of the list.
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