One State, Two States, Red State Blue State

Dr. Seuss, roll over.

One fish, two fish; one state, two states -- apparently, it matters not, at least not to us. "Our" new president, putting the artfulness of his deal making on full display; "our" president, consensus builder, Mr. "Let's Just All Get Along." Whatever makes both sides happy. So nice.

A friend of mine who has been far more judicious and quiet on Facebook than I was moved, yesterday, to shout out a well-earned atta boy to the Fox news anchor who came out swinging at fake news and, more pointedly, our pathologically lying president. Amid the many thumbs up and the approving comments was a harsh rebuke from a "friend" of hers. Stop all the mean talk! Barack Obama was a complete idiot, and nobody complained about him this way. Note to self: research lunatic rants from former U.S. presidents other than Nixon.

My friend, meanwhile, did not engage, other than to mention that, as Americans, we have always enjoyed a right to voice our opinions and out dissent. I have long admired her for her wicked forehand, her punishing backhand, her keen and self-deprecating sense of humor, and her fierce devotion to her family. Now, I just love her a little bit more.

It's bad enough that we somehow have a president who is perfectly happy to tell journalists to shut up and sit down when they fail to ask a "simple question" (i.e. one he likes), who proudly reveals his assumption that all black people know each other while proclaiming he is the least racist person he knows, and who responds to most questions with rambling reminiscences of an exaggerated electoral college win. A president who has called all journalists liars. Nixon on steroids: I am not a crook. Everybody else is a crook. It's bad enough that we have an emboldened Republican Congress that is too busy drooling about its agenda to care that it is endorsing and enabling an unprincipled megalomaniac who has bullied his way into the Oval Office. It's bad enough that there are enough folks out there in this country, our country, who have been liberated by this man, unleashed to voice their racism and hatred and staggering ignorance because a shameless privileged man-child in a tuxedo has somehow convinced them he is on their side. Sure, he gives a shit about them, to the extent they handed him a golden ticket to the ultimate notch on his bedpost.

Yes, it's all bad enough. But what makes it worse -- far worse -- is that so many other people have decided it's okay to look the other way. We have become a nation of folks who think it's okay to look out for number one, even at the expense of, well, everything. Liberty, the planet, civility, for starters. Another "friend" of a friend shouted a response to a Facebook plea for an end to the insanity: Look at the markets! He's doing a great job. Give him a chance. Stop being a sore loser. 

The markets. I think about Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, twirling precariously on rotted beams in an old barn while a hateful government works tirelessly to make him and his ilk disappear. If I were a rich man....  He fantasizes as he tap dances on the precipice, of life as he knows it -- not well heeled, but well lived. "Our" president pops into coal country on his way to a weekend of exclusive clubbing, beckons miners to the podium to attest to his greatness. Do they really believe that he will make them rich? And, more importantly, do they really believe that is the answer? Tevye knew two things: he would never be rich, and, even if he were, that would not solve the real problem.

One state, two states? Let them do whatever makes them all happy -- he actually said that, as if that is  a thing that exists. Why take a side when you can be on everybody's side? The truth is, he is on nobody's side -- except his own. We need more brave souls to stand up for what's right, red fish and blue fish seeing past the colors, past the agenda. It's a matter of survival.