CALLING MR. SMITH

     Mr. Smith went to Washington and surprise, surprise, as he remained true to his principles in the midst of temptation and greed. Where, oh where, is our Mr. Smith today? One thing I know for sure: he is not to be found among the Republican Party, for they have all seemingly sold their souls to the devil in return for.....power? money? greed?
     There certainly is no Mr. Smith among the witnesses testifying to Congress and even in closed door hearings we have leaks and the leaks are frightening, hintng at a deluge to come. It is up to us to manage that deluge and make sure that it does not sweep our country and democracy away.
     Watching Trump lately is to watch the further devolvement of a man into that long dark night of dementia. The sad and surprising thing about this devolvement is simply this: why and wherefore have so many people blinded themselves to this? How have they managed to ignore the rages of dementia, the constant aggressive behavior, the name calling, the paranoia, the insane decisions that reverse on themselves again and again? How do they not see or not care about his poisonous narcissism,the very same thing that is destroying us and the world as he indulges himself in it up to his miserable neck? And yet, he packed a stadium the other day and yes, I am afraid of that, very much so, for these are the people who turn rabid at his barbed and hateful remarks, the ones meant to dehumaanize his opponents, the ones meant to say that it is okay to indulge in violent prejudiced actions, the ones that say it is okay to cage and mistreat people, even children, even people who cross borders by accident!
     And the rats keep coming, doing their dog paddle to the dock in the form of testifying about their boss. Mulvaney does not even see what he did as wrong for he tells us to 'get over it" as if we were making a big deal over a boo boo on the knee rather than over world changing craziness. The great man in all of this? Schiff, who maintains his calm in the midst of slurs and barbs. Elijah Cummings, who in his last hours still thought of the good for others and signed two subpoenas dealing with stopping the repeal of health refuge for sick kids from other countries. Pelosi, who has hung in there with the strength of a lion, standing fast in the face of great pressure, getting legislation passed in the House even as the Senate refuses to do so yet complain that the Democrats are not doing anything.
     It is frustrating to see all this and to know, yes, know, what could happen after the elections or even before. And what awaits in the wings? Pence, who just sold us down the river again, along with our former allies as they fight for 'the sands of Syria'. And like the acolytes of the Naked Emperor, those who persist with Trump refuse to see the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest; their thinking powers have been dulled even as their trend toward violence and threatened defiance grows.
     How people do not see the violence with which Trump has ripped up our Constitution, how he has sold out our allies and made love with our enemies, how he has grasped the strings of government and pulled them every which way all the better to enrich himself and his buddies, emoluments galore, endangering the security of the nation and shaming us in front of the world. His latest deed is best described by Romney: "a bloodstain on the annals of American history
           Mr. Smith, where are you? Where are the Americans who used to be you? Where is our courage to set things right, to do the right thing? Where are we going? Where have we been led in this disgraceful reign of Trump and when, if ever, will we be able to stop it and recover or will it be too late in every existential sense of the word and thought. People, this is a great blot indeed on our history, on our values as a country and its citizenry. We need to be better than this. We need to be better than this. We need, in the ungramatical project of the invisible Melania, to "Be Best". Wish she would start at home!