It has come down to this: Clinton and Trump, two of the most unliked public figures of these times we live. One a brass and stupid buffoon; the other a cagey opportunist too smart for her own good. We are to chose the one least likely to lead us further down this road of decay. Both are like characters in a Greek Tragedy playing out their doomed destinies never for a moment attempting to face the personal consequences of their flawed egos-- hubris unchecked will always signal the destruction of that which is coveted the most.
Hearing Obama invoke the cadence of MLK, exhorting the crowd to elect Hillary, one wonders if his efforts are designed more to affirm his popularity. Will this be his legacy? To elect an unlikeable person because he will, and in his words, “ she will carry the torch,” “she will finish the race.” What race? The race to mediocrity, the race to allow corporate greed to go unchecked. Obama is a good man, and he would have been remarkable if he had a strong senator and a congress to take his mediocre proposals and fashion them into truly innovative policies and programs. Was it too much to ask that the country take the bold steps like those of FDR and repair a nation and its people? Why does it always come down to a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Alas, now we have a Democratic candidate who has been singled out as a person with poor judgment. While a server is no big deal, what happens when the consequences of actions become serious? And what of her husband, the first “whatever?” This mischievous miscreant who has a history of doing things that are truly embarrassing has the tendency to put personal above country. Why else would he use the oval office for his assignations? And if that wasn’t enough we have the two of them acquiring wealth? Does one think that with her ascension to the Oval Office Hillary will now be able to do the things she never was able to do. Sure, she could handle the Department of State, the Office of Blah Blah Blah. Her work in the Senate was as much about helping Wall Street as anything else.
How uninspiring she is or will ever be, she pales in comparison to Donald Trump. Here is an example of a Mencken observation, “no one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American Public.” A character right out the pages of a comic book he saunters forth babbling like a fool and spouting nonsense. He is a textbook narcissist. He is a product of a culture and a party that have given itself over to ignorance. That he rose above the circus of the candidate field in the Republican Party shows how low an organization can fall when it opts for lies and chicanery to promote the selfish aims of its cabal.
Democrats are not much better. They rig a selection process designed to reward the one who will reward their loyalty with the spoils of high office. Of course, the chorus, to return to the allusion of a Greek Tragedy, is comprised of the moneyed people who stand ready to grab even more.
The play is entering the 3rd act; soon the forces of our fate will drive the action. As we learned, hubris will rule the day and the fatal flaws will in one last and disturbing thrust reduce all to the outcome we all knew was coming but was hoping it wouldn’t.
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