Dispatches from the 148 by Fred Ryan
In the old days, when farm fairs began, there were side shows with weirdos and
Dispatches from the 148 by Fred Ryan
In the old days, when farm fairs began, there were side shows with weirdos and
wonders in which we’d find Trump-like buffoons, orange comb-over, all mouth, little Napoleons – that sort of thing – and we’d all marvel, laugh, and go home feeling smug and superior. Today, the real show has taken over centre stage and there’s no going home to avoid it.
If we can’t escape today’s always-on show, we can at least say the US President is not our leader, but he is. He’s our “president”. Let’s not feel too smug! What he and his government do, dictates what we do, in large measure. Our PM walks a delicate line, but there’s no hiding Canada’s geography – nor our trading economy’s reliance on the President’s economy.
Thus he’s the topic here, as everywhere. There’s more public comment about him than of our own leaders. Can Pontiac’s candidates for MRC Warden snatch press time from Mr Trump?
This caution applies to supporters of Mr Trump, as well detractors. What the USA and the world are really getting into while our attention is focused on Mr T’s Twitter remarks is in the big tent, not the side show we watch daily.
Trump supporters should wonder if “draining the swamp” of big government really is happening, or are we getting a different set of swamp creatures? Are the
creative energies of small entrepreneurs really being liberated by giving multinational corporations what they demand? Are corporate media’s “lies” being cleaned up by substituting Trump-friendly lies? Is anyone’s future’s
greatness being assured by threatening nuclear attacks, or by dismantling public
education and environmental protections? Trumpeteers should give this some long, frank thought.
While we sit at dinner, on our decks or around campfires, or the coffee break, and review the latest Trump drama, we’re not focusing on the big tent.
The story we’re missing in all our scornful distress is this: Trump is designed to shock. That’s the plan.
He’s no dummy – he’s a billionaire, who made it big in show business by knowing not only how to manipulate the media but how to manipulate the population. He puts Mencken’s adage into full-force: politicians can never go wrong under-estimating the American public.
As long as we’re smirking and feeling smug (perhaps because we got rid of our own mini-Trump, last election), we’re missing the real action that’s taking place elsewhere – in regulatory agencies, in budget-making and funding programs, in cutting and re-purposing subsidies, in appointments to sensitive positions, in privatization (especially of public infrastructure, coming soon), in the privatization of schools, and college-loans, and in appointments to very influential positions like the courts. That’s what’s really happening, not the charade on social media. We’re not laughing, we’re being laughed at; our world’s ambitions and
traditions are being dismantled. Fascism is being nurtured.
Trump – referring to his movement, his government, his “dark money” funders and his cabal – they’re re-making the world, not just the USA. We are the targets, not wise folks at home nursing a sense of humour.
While we talk about Trump’s ridiculous remarks – they’re designed to be
ridiculous, to distract us – his government is dismantling environmental, health, labour and safety regulations, and increasing the privatization of social assets and necessities, from highways to elementary schools – infrastructure upgrading which means privatization – while the affected population is divided and
fighting itself on racial, gender and cultural lines.
And we haven’t even mentioned a new NAFTA . . .
Stop laughing, folks.
