Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas.
I had an epiphany this morning. I’ve been wondering why it’s been difficult lately to drum up much outrage. It’s been a struggle, but I keep writing to my elected officials because it’s my right (for now) to voice objections when I have them.
But these days, I think we’re all more or less in the same mode. Vulnerable to a pandemic that our government has failed to protect us from. Trapped in Groundhog Day, but without the happy ending in sight. Roiled by whatever the current politically-motivated, but always reprehensible, actions of the Trump administration may be. Disillusioned that our collective vision of America is so fatally divided.
In all these things, I expect we’re all concerned by, depressed by, and can see no good, positive path forward.
So there’s that...
But there’s another reason I think I’m apathetic. Although I’m not sure it’s really apathy. I think it’s more like the realization that no way in heaven or hell will Mr. Trump be re-elected come November 3. His shtick is stale. His reaching for ever more desperate measures to engage our anger is ho-hum. He is doing great damage to our country, but even your party is getting fed up with his antics.
Every hero,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson a century before the president was born, “becomes a bore at last.”
So, he is uniting us as I always assumed he would...against him.
And that’s why I can’t get revved up much. We’ve tuned out to the continuous chaos parade. Nothing comes from engaging with it. There are no actions taken to rectify anything. It’s just wash, rinse, repeat.
So, the American people are taking care of ourselves. Watching the s@%t storm is not our overwhelming current concern. Just surviving until November 3 is.
And looking forward to that is absolutely worth caring about.
