Charles Pierce - "...and the audience of equally vicious buffoons..."

[bobabode]

"We have had good presidents and bad—a Buchanan is followed by a Lincoln who is followed by an Andrew Johnson, and so forth. But we never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We have had presidents who have been the worthy targets of scalding scorn, but James Callender went after giants. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.

Watch him make fun of the woman again. Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut the fuck up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don't have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
Watch him again, behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now." Esquire

https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...exual-assault/

Mr. Pierce pretty much nails it. It seems like we're living in the end times so bleakly and cynically described by H.L. Mencken.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken


Call me naïve but I have to believe we will survive the era of Trump, it's going to take an enormous amount of work and a huge investment in education going forward.

In the meantime, I'm waiting to see what happens in the upcoming elections before despairing completely of the American experiment. s/?