Sheer Chaos

Nearly half the population is mesmerized by a piece of evil named Donald Trump who, when he speaks, which is far too often, does little but lie and think almost entirely of himself, and denies all his crimes and ignores the science of global warming, which is everywhere in evidence in the wildfires out west and in Canada, not to mention in the rest of the world — and now wants to be president, even after a large group of historians has judged him to be the worst of them all so far. He wants to be a dictator only on day one of his administration, if there is such an event, and we are supposed to believe that.

Oh, sure. And the moon is made of green cheese.

An assassin’s bullet came within an inch of killing him.

Meanwhile, the wealth gap continues to grow, homelessness grows as well, border crossings from the south grow worse, as America comes to seem the only safe place left on Earth. Shootings with AR-15 style rifles continue to increase, children continue to die in schoolrooms all over America, and it feels like chaos is running loose in the land. In the person of a single man, the worst president we have ever seen in this nation, where so much depends on following the rules of the game, established over more than 200 years of history.

What happens next? I am optimistic enough to believe that the nation has not gone sufficiently insane to let chaos reign again. But I have my doubts.

I don’t trust polls; everything depends on whom you ask, what the questions are, etc. It’s not, as they say, rocket science.

I am quite old, and I can remember the ration books — when everything of importance was rationed, when you could not replace a rubber tire, when shoes were rationed, meat was hard to come by, and a new car had to wait until we won World War II.

Now? Mutual assured destruction.

Now? Muslims barred at our borders. Millions of undocumented immigrants to be deported. Are they serious? Because they are not documented, they don’t even know who the undocumented are. What do we do? Put them in concentration camps? Where? Maybe we should just declare that World War II didn’t happen; maybe we should tell each other that it’s 1928 and the Depression never happened.

It gets stupider and stupider. Did we leave our brains at the movie box office? Don’t we see that this world is ours, that we created it, we are its authors?

Let us look briefly at our actual history. No. 1, the stock market is at its highest level ever. Ever.

No. 2, unemployment is at its lowest level within living memory. Within living memory.

No. 3, for which I have no figures, intermarriage between races grows every year.

No. 4, racism in America affects fewer and fewer Blacks; to test it, you have only to look at your TV screens. Who knows? Maybe in a hundred years it may disappear.

On the other side of this balance sheet, the Supreme Court had gone completely corrupt. Immunity for the worst president in American history? Are they serious?

What happens to a country that abandons the rule of law? Chaos runs wild.

And look at Sag Harbor, if I may? Unbearable traffic, long lines, restaurants too crowded and too expensive to cater to anybody but the rich. To get home from a brief visit to a friend, it took less time to try to break into the traffic than to go home by the longest possible route.

I fell yesterday, had to call the police to get me on my feet. Our cop was very nice. It’s only the second time I’ve fallen. Falls can be fatal. But that’s not my point.

I came here many years ago because it was beautiful, a lot more beautiful than the ugly suburb I had been living in. Now? I would not choose this place again. I have been involved in local government. I know the place intimately. But it is in many ways beyond saving.

We’ll see what happens.