All the King's Horses

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

-  Mother Goose

 

There are times when I need to remind myself that a "perfect storm" is a bad thing. Meteorological conditions come together to bring nature's might down upon we wee mortals who build our homes and dreams where, perhaps, we should not. And newsreels are filled with images of shocked people staring at destroyed homes and lives wondering how, or if, they will ever be able to rebuild.

A perfect storm has settled over America. If I need reminding I simply need to look at some news source - any news source - to learn of the most recently ravaged countryside. Our current perfect storm is not meteorological, it is political. We all see the world through our own unique set of lenses. Mine focus on education, art, the environment, and - as the husband of one, father of two, and grandfather of four - women, women's issues and related social concerns - including the associated impacts upon the economy. Sadly, without exception, those lenses see destruction, victims of the perfect storm.

The perfect storm is most clearly seen in the actions of two powerful figures current entrenched in Washington; one elected, one not. The elected entity is Donald Trump, a president who has proven time and time again that loyalty to him outweighs any concern for the impact of his policies on the nation. The unelected sidekick is Elon Musk, richest man in the world and poster child for all the rich, entitled, insecure bullies you may have encountered.

Together they are laying waste to much of what I hold dear individually and as a member of a cherished democracy. Whether purging entire departments, like education, or medical concepts like mRNA vaccines, or important societal realities like gender and diversity, or attempting to ethnically cleanse the various Smithsonian entities to foreground more purely American concepts, or similar inclinations for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump and his boy wonder, Musk are seemingly following a script unseen in a Western democracy since Germany in the late 1930s - an historic movement of whose salute Boy Wonder seems overly fond.

While professing to eschew the power of various "woke" movements Trump and Musk and their various sycophants are actually seeking to empower their own special interest group - the WWs - those who are White and Wealthy. Those of us who fall into half of that group simply by virtue of being born, gain no such natural membership into the second W. While much of the American middle class can be seen as "wealthy" compared to large portions of the world's population, compared to the Boy Wonder - richest man in the world - and Trump - chief billionaire wannabee - we are mostly paupers, concerned with the price of eggs and the possible impact of various "on again - off again" tariffs on our jobs, pensions or savings.

My concern is the fragility of the Humpty Dumpty of American democracy. Even many in the twin movements of MAGA and WW are concerned with the fractures being caused by a White House out-of-control. How long will it take to put Humpty Dumpty back together again? I fear that even should I approach my father's century mark, I may not see that day. I pray that my daughters and their children will bear witness to the repair of the nation, damaged as little as possible by the process.