Bread and Circuses

This cynical reference of the masses from the time of Cicero is still relevant - the leadership redirects discontent with the sleight-of-hand of food and entertainments and the people are complicit by not looking beyond their appetites. Today, "appetites" would be the answer to the narrowly defined 'what's in it for me?'

On Steven Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary, most folks will stop reading after hearing he wants big tax cuts for the middle and lower middle class. Has to be good, right? But what can we infer after his role in acquiring IndyMac (sub-prime lender that became shorthand for the housing meltdown) and the Treasury's oversight role of Wall Street and the financial markets? He bought the failed bank for pennies on the dollar and conditional on the FDIC covering most of the losses. He renamed it OneWest and came under regulatory scrutiny for pushing home foreclosures without due process. His was one of many banks that enjoyed our "caught, paid fines and released" style of business justice.

And now he would like to scuttle the Dodd-Frank Act, the consumer protections put into place after the resulting financial crisis from sub-prime mortgages...because, you know, we can all be confident of self-regulated industry acting in our best interest...

The Best Government Money Can Buy

The old saw about people getting the government they deserve speaks to apathy- a lazy electorate loses the right to complain. Not implied in the statement is that the deepest-pocket propaganda machine wins. Thanks to the SCOTUS ruling in favor of Citizens United, very deep corporate pockets went to work for their own agenda.

Pigs and Yams

...or the "Big Man" theory for Trump as President

One of the frequently heard reasons in support of their candidate was "I just want someone to fix this mess" - and yes, this from people capable of abstract thought. Even curiouser, this from people who are quite well off by any standard - hardly the "fly-over America" demograph.
"Sooo," I'm thinking, "you want a political savior? And once installed in the White House, what's the metric for a successful fix? And what else are you willing to overlook to get your pet fix?"

Underlying their definition of 'mess' are fear and anger, thriving in a relatively fact-free environment. During the campaign they were obviously willing to overlook, well, everything- for the shot at change. Their defense of Trump was largely based on "he can't be bought", a theme he reinforced at every turn and "he's a fighter that won't quit", leading to his jaw-dropping "only I can fix this" declaration.

Many puzzles can be solved by following the money and, wow, you don't have to dig deep to grasp the influence of OPM or "other peoples money" on Trump. Republican Super PACs switched from Cruz to Rubio to Trump to further their agenda. Check out: http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/politics/rebekah-mercer-trump-super-pac/index.html
So, from installing key people in his campaign to their picks for cabinet posts, Trump can, in fact, be bought.

As to Trump's role as the "Big Man" - well, to re-hash Anthro 101: it's the power structure found in various tribes in Papua New Guinea. A strong man bullies and cajoles to leadership with a toxic brew of intimidation and distribution of scarce resources. His legitimacy derives more from the tribe being cowed into submission than from consent by the governed. The Big Mans' tenure is only as long as he continues to deliver the goods: I see some parallels here.

Idiocracy?

One word surfaces repeatedly, across all issues and mediums: vigilance. Every policy move and appointment by the President-elect will be scrubbed within an inch of it's life...I'm exhausted at the prospect of four years of the neccessity of this...but here we are.

If the divisive, outrageous tenor of his campaign was not truly his character, then the good voters just elected a fraud. I kinda believe "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck..." and you know the rest. To me, 'idiocracy' is the wholesale unwillingness of people to exercise any intellectual discipline...to allow that "if A, then B which leads to C" is not a valid statement, even when supported by facts...to pick and choose which Constitutional Amendments you'll uphold...to deny that words matter in some instances, but howl at the affrontery of them in others...to have passionate opinions devoid of any social nuance or historical context... idiocracy...

So far, I'm not comforted by any transition team moves: Steve Bannon as co-Chief of Staff- he may be brilliant, but everything I know about personal branding and his role in crafting Breitbart News as an alt-right platform has me beyond uneasy.
His comparing Trump's oratory to William Jennings Bryan, known as the "Silver Tongued Devil" is laughable (although made in the same interview lauding the dark powers of Darth Vadar and satan over an unsuspecting public gave me pause).
Trump is not very intelligent and prone to be both malleable and a loose cannon...god help us...and then trying to install an oil and gas industry advocate to head up the EPA; not hard to figure out where we're going with climate change...

But back to the idiocracy we've become: not hearing much rumbling about Trump's business conflicts of interest with his new status. His empire is going in a blind-trust run by his children (thus negating the 'blind' portion of the term). His son in law getting a government role (didn't Congress do something about that after JFK put Bobby in as AG?) There are yuge loans to foreign banks, his Washington hotel lease will be negotiated annually with a government agency...and that's just what we know so far. But, his good supporters are more concerned with the plea for inclusion made from the cast of "Hamilton" to Pence..without a shred of hypocrisy they are outraged by what they view as disrespect. Well, the new normal is going to cut both ways, folks - buckle up.

Pox Americana

...yes, the vowel substitution is deliberate. Pax Americana, or American peace, has been domestically fractured by this campaign and election aftermath. Memes tossed around, again, as "truth" are condemning the nationwide protests of a Trump presidency.

C'mon, we became a country from our dissent to the King of England; the First Amendment gives us the right to assemble, albeit with the 'peaceful' disclaimer.
For the most part, the protests have been orderly; I admire their effort and we must defend our right to do so. Folks didn't take to the streets after a similar election outcome in 2000 so why now? I'm hoping the takeaway is a rejection of the character of the campaign we endured: these demonstrations prove we won't tacitly accept normalization of hateful, divisive public discourse...we must be better than this.

Listening to the talking heads this morning - and the largely lunatic fringe call-ins - I realized these Trump supporters voted for a narrowly defined platform. The Supreme Court (read Pro-Life) , bible endorsed white supremacy and 'drain the swamp' were passionately, if not factually, argued in favor of a Trump presidency.

Here's my question: what will the protests look like when the realities of political process dilute or eliminate a talking- point-turned- vote? It's entirely possible they'll get "Roe v Wade" overturned down the line so that will make a lot of campers happy...but the first test will be draining the swamp; lots of perils in that one...I only hope is that the angriest living in "open-carry" areas voted on anti-abortion...

Backstory

I'm looking forward to being proven wrong about many things...that an intellectually incoherent, constitutionally illiterate and tempermentally volcanic candidate Trump will morph into the opposite as President. But first, I need to do an autopsy of what I missed throughout his campaign to better understand the America I didn't see coming...

In July, I realized that pretty much everyone I knew was for Trump. Incredulous: after all, how could any reasonable person not see what I was seeing?! Still, their anger and passion was real so I set about seeking rational arguments for a Trump presidency. Short answer: the only one I could identify as real (though not rational) was "burn it to the ground".  I couldn't believe such upheaval would actually carry an election... first red flag. By the end of a long day of research, I couldn't admire Trump as a businessman or respect him as a person and had to come down on the side of the constitution.

Realizing it's all too easy to have the media reinforce a personal bias, I started combing through everything from rabid right-wing sources to 'tinfoil as hats' on the left; I wanted to get all spins to arrive at some semblance of balance. Along the way, my own values and beliefs became challenged, clarified or amended. Late in the game, I read something from the CNN website that became an "Aha" moment: I was taking Trump literally, but not seriously. His supporters were taking him seriously, but not literally...hence the hall pass on all his transgressions that would have torpedoed any other candidate in any other time.

Using a broad brush, I am:
Pissed off- because I even have to try to make sense of this
Sad- because I'm almost sure I won't like what I'll discover along the way...still...this needs to happen

Today's comment: seeing the protests across the country, can't help but think what a Clinton win would be looking like in an "open-carry" city