Our Dead Zone President

At the end of the 1983 science fiction thriller, The Dead Zone, a demagogue presidential candidate grabs a baby and holds the child up in front of him as a human shield. 

 

A reporter photographs the incident, which then appears as a cover story in a major news magazine, preventing the election of a man who would have authored a nuclear holocaust. Looking back at the film now--a young Christopher Walken playing someone who can see the future and hopes to kill a Hitler before the man assumes office--I see the similarity to Trump rallies, to the whipping up of a base dangerously infused with rage and misinformation. But there's no visionary Walken around to get Trump to make that fatal mistake that would lose him his base.

 

It's easy to imagine Trump grabbing a baby and holding the child up as a human shield. But he'd probably have to do that ten or more times before the meaning of such an act dawned on his base. The man can seemingly do no wrong, even for folks who say "he's not perfect" but they like him anyway. They like that he's not perfect. Or they see him as a father figure. Or they find him sexy. Or manly. Or delightfully capable of getting away with cheating, assault, murder. They love his shamelessness. They adore his lies. They feel empowered when he speaks. I think Trump could get away with the moment that ends the career of the fictional President Stillson, chillingly played by a very young Martin Sheen. 

 

A very old man whom I knew saw Hitler speak. Several times. Commenting that the "guy sounded like an idiot," the old man--who'd been a young lawyer in Vienna at the time--said he realized the guy "wasn't an idiot" after all. Hitler altered his accent and behavior for each crowd. Any politician can do that. But not every politician feels the absolute self-confidence of the true narcissist or the lust for destruction that marked Hitler's, and Trump's, reigns. 

A Flavorful Vegan Meal

 We still have fresh rosemary growing in an outdoor planter--and rosemary goes so nicely with garlic and pepper and olive oil:

and this freshly washed rosemary, crushed garlic, pepper, and olive oil mix decorates the potatoes so prettily: 

Pour the rosemary mixture onto the potatoes and mix well; put a sheet of aluminum foil over the dish (so the rosemary doesn't dry out) and slide it to an oven pre-heated to 220º C (about 425ºF) for about forty-five minutes. Stir occasionally, and remove the foil for the last ten minutes or so. 

Then you get this:

It's tasty, especially with a cucumber-mushroom-tomato salad tossed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dill, and salt:

Also pumpkin soup, which is already up somewhere on this blog. And a glass of red wine. All this makes the nightly news of Mr. NonConcession marginally less distressing. I've tweeted the man "Vote Him Away" videos with messages like "Scat!" and I hope against hope that he'll scat or scram or skidoo or crawl far, far away.

My Friend the Trump Supporter

Entirely by accident, I found out one of my friends was a Trump supporter. Someone had sent me one of the "Vote Him Away" videos.  I forwarded it to almost everyone in my address book, and 99% of my recipients expressed delight.  My friend represents the other one percent.

A very good writer, someone whose work has been nominated for a prestigious prize and someone who teaches at a university, my friend doesn't fit the typical profile. He's neither wealthy nor uneducated. 

Initially my questions were rebuffed--until I made it clear I wasn't criticizing him. I just wanted to understand the appeal of Donald Trump to a person who seems far more intelligent and aware of the world than the president he admires. 

If I discovered anything, it was fear: he thought the country would head for "Marxism and Socialism" without Trump. He didn't want free-loaders. What he didn't want to see, he wrote, was "socialism" in the sense of "industry run by the government and the ideas of competition and the potential for gain eliminated." He added that any such government interference "would bring about the end of America as I have come to know it. This is what I'm afraid of."

He believes "the media" suppresses "anything positive about the president." He believes "the president brokered two middle-east peace deals." He insists that Obama started the policy of separating children from parents (see Politico for a lengthy refutation).  He defended Trump's comment about pussy-grabbing as locker-room talk that's been exploited to harm his reputation. He suggested that "crass dialogue" on Sex and the City was just as bad, but perceived as feminist. He thought Trump's Charlottesville remarks had been selectively misquoted: "What he actually said was "There were very fine people on both sides, & I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists--because they shold be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."

And COVID? Trump's refusal to wear a mask? My friend said that as the leader of the free world, of course the man would not wear one. He compared Trump to FDR, pointing out that FDR took care to hide the leg braces he wore after being crippled by polio. I couldn't resist pointing out that FDR didn't have a contagious disease. My friend did not reply. I don't expect him to do so, and perhaps he's no longer my friend. I ask myself how someone this sensitive to art and literature could come to such conclusions, but there's a long history of the very gifted having very strange ideas. How could Ezra Pound have said--have thought--the anti-Semitic things he apparently believed? Or wished that Roosevelt would get shot? 

Maybe the greater mystery is my own revulsion. I take one look at Trump and recoil--before he speaks, I know all he wants is admiration. I know he doesn't give a damn about anyone else. I know this from his face, his gestures, his voice--I know this without the daily horrors, each one so awful as to make us forget the thing he did the day before. I know he's cooking up some awful thing, that he'll assemble his thugs and try to buy the Republican party or run the government from some four-star secure location. But I hope I'm wrong, that he'll end up with a ball and chain and in an outfit that matches his fake tan.

 

 

Humpty Trumpty

Humpty Trumpty very slightly cracked his shell.

Humpty Trumpty said that was very, very, very unfair and they shoved him on purpose and he's gonna call his Mommy and the Supreme Court, so there!

But all the Lindsey Grahams and all the Mitch McConnells

Couldn't swing Trumpty into the White House again . . .

A Meal to Get You Through The Election

Here's a meal that'll brace you for the last days of hope and dread before November 3: Spaghetti Bolognese, with lots of veggies on the side:

You will need:

olive oil

salt and pepper; a flavored salt with paprika is nice, too.

red onions

garlic cloves 

ground pork--about a fourth of a kilo

a can or two of tomato sauce with basil flavoring, or a few chopped basil leaves

zucchini, green beans, tomatoes

spaghetti

Parmesan cheese

(1) To a large frying pan in which you've heated a few tablespoons of olive oil, add two or three chopped red onions and stir. Allow to become transparent over medium heat. Add chopped garlic. I could always consume around twenty cloves, but there are those who are perfectly happy with one or none.

(2) Add the ground pork and brown it, breaking it up into bits and mixing it with the onions and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Add tomato sauce and allow to simmer, stirring occasionally.

(3) In a second frying pan .  .  . yes, same procedure as step one, but now you'll add vegetables instead of meat. I sautéed sliced zucchini and green beans, for about five minutes before adding the tomatoes.

(4) White you're doing the veggies, start the spaghetti, which usually takes around ten minutes. Grate the Parmesan.

Enjoy with a glass of red wine!