We’re hurtling toward Christmas, Trump has been impeached, Republicans have compared him to Jesus, Colbert and SNL still think he’s funny, the prevailing opinion of many deep thinkers is that he’s on a glide path to being re-elected, at a Michigan rally on Wednesday night a Trump supporter said, “I’ve never had so much faith in a human,” and the thriving economy continues to provide a deep, insulating layer against the reality and consequences of his lawlessness.
If Trump is Jesus, I’m the emperor of Pennsylvania, he has never been funny, no one knows what is going to come roaring along to influence the 2020 election, the words ‘faith’ and ‘Trump’ linked together tell us more about his support than any other two words and insulation works to a point — the cold eventually finds a way through.
The only thing I know for certain is that something is dying in this country and no one has any idea what kind of new life will be born to fill the void. We have not reached the point where political brawls are breaking out at WAWA or polling places are beset by well armed crews of militia. We have not reached the tipping point of that kind of violence (unless you are a brown child in a cage in an outpost of the American Gulag or a black child in Flint poisoned by lead corrupted water). It feels like it’s coming though, doesn’t it.
However, this is Christmas, and even now, beneath the vast and ceaseless noise of buying and selling, some fragment of fellow feeling has endured. Scrape away all of the commercial and cultural dreck of the moment, and it is still the human being in front of you at any given moment who counts and our actions toward him or her are under our control. Conducting ourselves with grace and good will toward others does not change whatever demented trajectory we are on, but it may provide a comfort to the lonely or the despairing in this most isolating of seasons. So, what the hell, Merry Christmas, good cheer towards all but the worst, and remember that children, always children, depend upon us to figure this out.
