West Coast Observer: The comedy isn’t funny

By William Silveira

The persistence of local Trump support – that is, around my part of California’s Central San Joaquin Valley – is baffling. To write a whole column about it would be a challenge I’m not sure I could meet. Trump is our Comedian in Chief, and it is sad that too many people still find him entertaining, not to mention what an insult it is to the American taxpayer that his or her dollars go to pay for Trump’s road shows, like Monday’s in El Paso.
    But I’ll give it a whirl, as I’m happy to share some thoughts with Moristotle & Co.’s discriminating readers. Much that I might say has already been said before about the people who continue to support Trump despite his elaborately manifest unfitness for office.
    To a great extent, thank goodness, this malodorous and spiteful beast has been hemmed in by the Democrats’ taking majority control of the House of Representatives as a result of the mid-term elections. But the Democrats are going to have to play this carefully. Trump’s continuous lying and blaming could yet have an effect. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are skillful politicians, but the extreme right wing (Rush Limbaugh et alia) are on the prowl for something to undermine them and the Democratic majority in the House. As long as Trump demands ridiculous amounts of money for a border wall and the Democrats refuse it, they’re on solid ground. I’m sad to point out, however, that some locals here are convinced that a border wall is needed – despite the evidence and the good sense otherwise.
    The Democrats need to float some legislation that will address a few key real issues in this country. Health care would be a good place to start. And although it wouldn’t have a chance in the Senate, I believe that Democrats should advance an immigration reform package that would give permanent residency status to the “Dreamers,” fund a sufficient number of immigration judges to address that huge asylum request backlog, and launch an investigation into the reasons the INS couldn’t keep track of the children and parents it separated. If that investigation reveals gross incompetency (and I believe it will), they should then introduce a bill to thoroughly overhaul the whole structure with strong enforcement provisions built in. The more Trump is cornered, the more he will claw back. Fortunately, he’s not someone who engenders much sympathy.

I was thinking today about the many Democrats who are contemplating running for President in 2020. Of the whole group only Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden have any significant experience in federal government. The public seems to want celebrity rather than experience. I’m afraid that I must add my voice to that of many others and say that presidential elections are just celebrity spectacles orchestrated with obscene amounts of money (courtesy of our Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case). And Trump’s particular strong suit is to behave like those wrestlers who used to appear in fake television wrestling matches. (They aren’t on television any more, are they?) He warms up the crowd with fake aggression and then gives them what they want in the form of rabbit punches, eye-gouging, and other mayhem directed at Latin Americans and anyone generally who disagrees with him.
    Election campaigns in these circumstances tragically ignore the continuation of untrammeled environmental degradation, an “issue” that might cap all else in the all-too-near future – the future of our children and grandchildren anyway, not to mention other species of life on the planet.

Copyright © 2019 by William Silveira