It is not uncommon for an individual to be enjoying good health for an extensive period of time, and then quite suddenly, experience illness. Customarily, after an initial period of realization and acceptance, relevant measures are thereafter sought, preferably, with the guidance of an experienced physician, conducive to the restoration of one’s former state of good health.
Who, in his most troubling and irrational nightmares, would have been capable of conjuring up the remote possibility, that our young nation, well on the road to achievement of the status of the world’s avatar of republican democracy, would be suddenly, stricken with such a malignant illness, as to effectively reduce it to a contemporary reprise of the Dark Ages, [autocratic rule, medieval protective walls, lack of concern for the poor and needy, abuse of free speech, threats to critics, especially the media, covert dealing with foreign despots, self-serving financial dealings in the autocrat’s sole interest, discouragement of learning and advancement, assertion of bellicose threats against other countries, and self-licensed, obscene and reprehensible behavior]. Even a casual student of history, would have little difficulty in seeing this anachronistic and atavistic return to the nightmarish Hell of the Medieval Dark Ages.
The devastating etiology of this sudden onset of serious pathology, is unarguably determined and specifically identified, as the shocking elevation of Donald J. Trump to America’s Oval Office. Once this pathogen gained entrance, the body politic suffered a predictably rapid onset of the metastasizing, disease, presenting dire symptoms, and a panic-stricken, citizen-wide awareness of its apocalyptic possibilities.
Mr. Trump’s resume reveals experience as a former host of an inane television game show, and real estate sharpie; a job interview would have uncovered a persona whose overweening ego and feigned self-confidence, camouflages his low character, and his declared unsuitability for the Office of the Presidency. He evinces the possession of that ultimately hazmat combination of basic, reductive ignorance, accompanied by an ersatz demonstration of supreme confidence added to a neurotic need for attention. This less than salubrious melange of adolescent neurosis, has brought about a sharp decline in respect for the office of the American Presidency and, in many ways, the nation, itself.
Prior to the disastrous election of Donald Trump, the institution of the American Presidency, had,, generally enjoyed a long, salutary and deserved history, of reverence and respect, from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln, from the two Roosevelts, to the recent, admirable and enlightened term, of Barack Obama.
With the surprising election victory of Donald Trump, our healthy and progressive Ship of State appears, to have mortally struck an unseen iceberg and, like the onset of any sudden disease, shortly thereafter, began to manifest multiple symptoms of serious import to our body politic. We will not, here, recount the overstuffed Pandora’s box of despicable and shameful examples of mismanagement, poor judgment, mendacity,and bigotry, which we have previously enumerated; any continued useful discussion, would now properly focus on the urgent need for a restorative cure for the malady.
That portion of the treatment, regarding the attenuation of the major observable symptoms, is easily and quickly administered; a permanent immunity, may well require a somewhat longer course of therapy.
Relatively quick, symptomatic relief, can, with be identified by consideration of the cause of the onset of the pathology. In the last election, a great many regular American voters stayed home. The portion of our population, which we have, perhaps unkindly, referred to as the low information, flat earth people, which usually, does not vote, this time, voted in great numbers, due a program of insincere “pie in the sky” promises, tactically engineered, and financed. by the wealthy industrial, anti-regulation, air polluters (who value profits above human and planetary health).
Symptomatic relief, as well as complete restoration of the nation to its former condition of good health, can be achieved by the excision of the harmful pathogen from the body politic, by a large regular voter turnout. We are often required to repeat Thomas Jefferson’s prescient admonition, that for a democracy to work, it requires an informed and literate citizenry.
Long -term, or permanent immunity, is acquired, in addition to regularly staying informed as to the current political scene, by engaging in those activities that affirmatively promote personal growth and wisdom, ex, reading good literature and interest in the arts and sciences. The latter activities, whose promotion has been the raison d’etre of this blog space, also rewards one with a richer and more fulfilling life.
-p.
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