“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. 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.” — H.L. Mencken.
Elitism is out of fashion these days, and no one did it better than H.L. Mencken. They don’t make them like that anymore. He’s too cynical for me, but he always makes me think.
And his words still sting with some truth.
Democracy is one thing you don’t think about much or appreciate until you are about to lose it. Most of us in America – myself included – dropped the ball. We failed to appreciate it or pay attention, and we came within a hair of losing it.
“Whew” is the mood of 74 million people today. This is an amazing time. I can’t believe how many people voted.
(My granddaughter told my daughter today as they watched the news, and people began pouring into the streets, “I told you that bad people are real!”
Tonight, channeling the brat “Dudley” from Harry Potter, Donald Trump is holed up in his great house while thousands of people carrying “You’re Fired” signs chant loudly outside of his bedroom window.
Trump refuses to concede, claims to have won, and is tweeting posts insisting he is the winner, not a loser. Shame on his parents for failing to teach him grace.
Trump looks less menacing and more pathetic by the minute. That is a shame.
He was a consequential President with a large and devoted following, and he raised many important issues in his raucous term.
I wish for him and his followers that he finds a wayleave with dignity and honor, for his own sake as well as history. It is painful watching a President humiliate himself in so a wrenching away. There is no joy in seeing that for me.
I blush for our country.
Democracy, like a garden, is fragile and needs constant maintenance and care. When it loses its vigor and fails its people, the demagogue rises like Dracula waiting in his castle to come out and search for blood.
Our democracy got a huge transfusion of blood today. More Americans voted in this election than in any election in American history. Donald Trump did that, and that may well be what history remembers about him.
I believe this: when the dust settles, he didn’t ruin our democracy; he raised it. His remarkable legacy is forever stained by his inability to see reality.
Right now, this is a democracy of purpose as well as division. Perhaps he woke us up just in time.
I loved reading H.L. Mencken when I was a political reporter, he loved democracy, but he grasped its ironic duality: it is a dreadful mess, but the best mess available.
Mencken warned again and again about demagogues, an inevitable plague that strikes unwary and lazy democracies and is a familiar part of the American political experience.
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.” He wrote that the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
That was (oops, is) the whole point of Donald Trump and his politics. Social media and the Internet has made it possible to keep the public menaced with one hobgoblin after another 24/7, from murderous Mexicans to South Americans to Black neighbors to people from “shithole” countries to Democrats, to political opponents, liberals, mask wearers, doctors and scientists, strong women and the numerous plots to destroy his holy work.
Only the demagogue understands; only he can solve it.
It’s a great formula for winning elections in America, many of whose citizens don’t pay close attention to politics unless their paychecks stop.
It is a diverse land of many different peoples.
The Internet brings these tribes together like no other force in history. The demagogue scares them, and then they scare one another. Only he can rescue them.
I think of Donald Trump as the God of the Gullible and the savior of those who yearn to believe and be led. The miracle drug-peddlers in the 1900s made a fortune traveling in America.
People wanted – needed – to believe. That is the pain of the left behind.
They still do want to believe. I know I’m different and living in a divided world when more than 70 million people believe every word Donald Trump says, and I don’t believe a word he says.
As I watched the election coverage for hours today, I had a revelation – people like me keep missing the point. We like to rail on about what is wrong with Donald Trump, but we are just beginning to understand how he also saved America and our democracy.
When I saw how bad it could get, I also learned how good it could be. One connects to the other.
He roused the Middle, he forced it out of the background and into the center. He made us all pay attention.
The thing about democracy is that if you love it, you have to work for it and fight for it. It doesn’t just renew itself. I didn’t know that until 2016. On both sides, it was renewed today big-time. Trump did that too.
Trump got more people to vote than any presidential candidate in American history. He got Black people (thanks Stacey Abrams) to organize differently than they had ever organized before and become a powerful political force.
He got Republican state and voting officials to help save our democracy by conducting transparent, honest, and careful voting procedures.
The vote counters were heroic, the police were professional and kept people safe, only the Republican Party failed to rise to the moment and contain their Frankenstein Monster, and they will pay for that in many ways.
This election was a huge triumph for the middle. Americans aren’t looking for extremes. Each side got something big.
The Black middle class rose to make their voices heard in the most powerful of ways. Seeing all those photos of crowds all over the country spontaneously dancing in the streets. The women’s revolution has broken through; the country will never be the same.
Donald Trump is suing everybody all over the place, but the Emperor has no clothes at the moment, none of his lawsuits make much sense, and Joe Biden has amassed too great a leader and popular vote to be stopped now.
It is time to be relieved and also hopeful. I have no idea what will happen down the road, but I see and feel what has happened now.
It’s good, a new beginning for sure, another chance. And just in the nick of time.
Remember, this is politics, not religion. My last word is from Mencken:
“If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.”- H.L. Mencken.
Here’s my take on it all. While I always voted, my interests were like warm, taking it all for granted. The silver lining to Trumps presidency is that it was a slap on the face to all of us complicit voters. The American people needed a wake up call and I am among them . I hope this has brought all of us to attention. We have come to the edge of a dictorial or worse society—-‘close to loosing what this country was founded on. This should be a lesson to all of us. I hope Mr. BIDEN can put us back on the right track. The job is a big one. I believe he is up to the challenge but he will need our help. Ok, I am getting off the soap box now.
I went to the corner store this morning, for catfood and a paper notebook. In the parking lot was a monster sized truck, with a monster sized trumpet flag, and a humongous U.S. flag attached to the truck. I saw it. I went in and there was an enormous man in camo gear and I was thinking, it must be YOUR truck! Seriously, is that the leftovers we’re-going to have to be patient with? He looked like he wanted to kill anybody. I just wanted my catfood and notebook.
I had to laugh tonight when Dave Chappelle (who lives in my town, by the way) commented about Trump – “at last, we elected an Internet troll”. I breathed a huge sigh of relief listening to President-Elect Biden speak and I was downright joyful listening to Vice-President-Elect Harris speak.
I also thought that DJT has done some good….he motivated and inspired the Women’s March and birthed a whole new generation of activists like nothing we’ve seen since the 60s. I’ve been watching today’s events all day, except for a short break to finish re-reading “A Good Dog” for the third time. I have most of your dog books as well as other favorites on my “critter shelves.” I go to them for a good story, for humor and for the occasional good, cathartic cry. The other day, I was at the part where you describe taking Orson to the vet to be put down. I always cry at those (as you know, critter lit always involves the death of the pet…I think you even have a disclaimer at the beginning of one book where you tell the reader “no dogs die in this book”) But strangely, I did not even whimper Thursday when I got to that part, and even thought to myself how strange it was that I didn’t cry. What was wrong with me!? I pictured the scene of you on the vet’s floor with Orson. I’ve been in that scene myself many times with dogs and cats in my life. Should have been hysterically crying. But wasn’t and didn’t give it further thought. Then today, when I picked it back up to finish it, I lost it. Really Lost It. What the heck! (The more emotional language in that later chapter got to me). I then realized that watching the joy in the streets today and coming to tears many times listening to people being interviewed tell about their feelings, that I finally let the stress of 4 years and, especially of 2020, come blubbering out. So, thank you! I needed that! Just wanted you to know. I think that book is my favorite of yours. The rest of your books sit on my table each ready for another reading. BTW…my husband and I adopt senior dogs…they’re so wonderful. Take care.
Jon…
I’ve learned this lesson about government from the current administration: Many presidential decisions are discretionary and not encoded in law or regulations.
How many times over the last (4) years did I whisper, “Can he do that?” And the answer was: “Yes, he can.”
That’s why honesty, wisdom and sound judgment must be vital attributes for a chief executive.
You wrote, “Shame on his parents for failing to teach him grace.” From what I’ve read about the senior Trump family, I suggest they couldn’t teach what they didn’t know. Father Fred is the villain in Woody Guthrie’s song “Old Man Trump”. His mother does not come off better. They did realize they were raising a problem child, and (again, according to my left wing sources) sent him to a military school that had a reputation for straightening up difficult kids.
Yes, yes, Jon. You and Mencken both convey common sense, tongue in cheek humor and satiric words of wisdom.
I slept soundly for the first time in weeks, getting up refreshed and smiling. Our country’s glass is half full, not half empty and our street rejoicing shows it.
Now for hard work ahead, with Biden at the helm.
So let’s see what the “invalid” and his doctor wife can do.
My understanding is he still has two months in power, is it really an opportunity to raise the hell we know him to be capable of? I am not alone in my terror Jon. If you chose to address this in your blog, I would be very interested in your opinion of what damage he could still do, before he becomes yesterday’s news. In the mean time we here in Canada are dancing in the streets. I wonder if we celebrate too soon?
To Joan’s comment; The “weak one” has been invalidated by American voters!
It’s my thought that underlying much of the division in our country is partially rooted in the stress we are all living through. We have a virus that has taken almost 250,000 lives yet is easily spread by asymptomatic people who don’t even know they have Covid. It’s like living with an invisible monster. Bottom line. Joe Biden can’t slay this monster without our full cooperation. Mask wearing number one. And the economic impact caused by this monster is causing everyone stress in so many ways. How does one stay home with their children and home school if it means losing income. Worries about aging parents and what Covid will do to them. And let’s face it even young people and children have been taken by this virus. And many, many children have asthma today. And most people have some health condition. It’s my hope that we Americans can now join together to defeat Covid and get back to normal.
And I would like to say a few words about Jill Biden. First, while being in the White House with Michelle Obama she fought hard for our veterans, she has White House experience, she raised two sons that were from Joe’s first wife (not an easy job). She knows how to smile and has a sense of humor. She earned a doctorate degree. They just don’t hand degrees out. As a non-traditional student I can vouch that earning college degrees is hard work. The one thing college taught me is to think differently. It didn’t make me a better person (I hope I was a good person before my college experience). It just made me understand that there was a lot to learn in this world. And the constant turmoil of the last 4 years can’t be good for anyone’s health. I’m not a democrat or a republican just an American who wants life to get back to normal.