Bored to Distraction

March 14, 2017

Okay, I scanned the morning news, looking for a coherent theme to work with – you know, something to focus on like a particularly outrageous quote or some insane act of Republican greed. Hell, a uniquely despicable personality would do, even though personal attack always feels kind of dirty. But after one-hundred-twenty-six post-election days of rooting around with the Trump gang, dirty seems acceptable – even a step up.

The news, of course, was riddled with multiple stories of greed (healthcare scam, pipeline erection, Planned Parenthood defunding); it was chucked full of outrageous quotes (Kellyanne and Sean have been in rare form). And despicable people abound throughout, with white nationalist coming out in the oddest places, like in the House of Representatives.

But, you know? None of it seems all that unique anymore. The political landscape’s gotten repetitive again, hence monotonous. Sure, the issues and rhetoric remain shrill, but the same old shrill bullshit repeated by the same old despicable personalities is just shitty storytelling – again.

Perhaps, Trump plans is to bore us into submission with ridiculous narratives told by characters who neither have, nor engender, sympathy. Maybe if Kellyanne tells us enough angry fairytales, we’ll stop asking questions out of frustration or fatigue. Might be, if Sean Spicer spins the word wiretap one more time we’ll all become too dizzy to notice Trump holding Putin’s hand under the proverbial table.

Maybe – maybe not.

Admittedly, there’ve been a couple small blips of interest like:

Shep Smith of Fox News recently complained there’s been “Too much lying” by Trump and friends. I guess Shep yeans for the good old days when, then, President Bush lied just enough. (Yeah, me too.)

And Steve Bannon is trying to provoke a fight with Paul Ryan by publishing a tape of Ryan trash-talking the Donald. Insider fights tend to hold interest in that, either one of the players goes down in flames or they are forced to publicly kiss and make up. Either outcome promises rich political comedy.

But other than that, it’s been the same old, same old. I hope this isn’t what they mean by normalized.

Once again, the republic has become bored with the leadership. We need either better liars or, preferably, the truth.

In Peace and Justice,
osv