Don't Laugh

Yesterday I caught myself chuckling about a Trump idiocy one of my colleagues here at Vox Populi had related to me.

It suddenly occurred to me to ask if it was really funny. It's almost too easy to laugh at the Lunatic-in-Chief. Even making up names to call him (thereby stooping to his level) makes the process seem whimsical. We laugh at him because he's such a pathetic caricature of a leader. We sometimes even cringe when he says or does something especially egregious, as if we feel sorry for him.

We must not. We must never let empathy or sympathy or compassion cloud our vision of what he truly is: cheat, liar, coward, bully, cretin, adulterer, traitor, imbecile, creep, criminal, ass, bigot, loser.

I am tempted to add mass murderer of the thousands of Americans who have died of COVID-19 because of his criminal negligence in not even attempting to find a response to the disease, but I won't.

The response Americans should have toward him is raw hatred, screaming incandescent anger, a collective emotional pulse to make his head explode, a nationwide prayer for him to contract a massive case of COVID-19.

The thing I fear most about this election is that the Biden-Harris campaign won't fight dirty enough. Republicans almost always fight dirty. It was they who gave us Watergate, the "birther" absurdity, Iran-Contra, and Earl Butz. And that's just a sampling since the middle of the 20th century.

Democrats tend not to get what it takes. They don't get rage. Not paltry anger, but rage: The head-banging, bare-knuckle, red-mist-in-front-of-the-eyes emotion that comes so easily to the Ragged Right. I'm not suggesting that Biden challenge Trump to a fistfight, but I do wish the Democratic Party could muster the gumption to launch an all-out dirty-tricks, in-your-face, no-holds-barred campaign.

They probably won't because they're afraid the Litigant-in-Chief will sue them, but what the hell? He'll sue them anyway. Might as well get sued for something worthwhile. And another thing: The Republicans will sacrifice anything and anyone for victory. The Democrats have to be just as heartless if they're going to win.

I'm not talking about our parents' Democratic Party here, or even my generation's. I'm talking about a party that is going to have to adopt some distasteful practices if it hopes to meet the Republican incumbent and his mass of goons, foreign and domestic, on a level field.

I don't care how melodramatic it sounds, this election will be for the fate of the United States of America.

The Constitution must remain intact if this country is to survive. I fear it won't if Trump is re-elected.


--- Diogenes, 8/12/2020