The Show Will Go On

Americans think they’ll be happy to see Trump go. We've been enduring the endless tirades with empty threats and computer-inflated “statistics” and the venomous, seething hatred, and we say we’ll be glad when that's over.

But we won’t. Not really.

We are addicted—most of us—to the entertainingly divisive rhetoric as much as we are hooked on “The Walking Dead” and Big Macs; as much as we lust after the steady stream of sexual misconduct and Sasquatch encounters; as much as we love a good train wreck.

We’ve become dependent upon conflict and dispute, on winning and losing, and we simply have to have it.

But take heart; it’s not going to go away. After his drubbing in a little over a week, Trump will declare himself the “Real” winner and take his show to the airwaves, where his faithful accomplices-in-fantasy will remain steadfast to their empty threat to overthrow the government and, much worse, take to the streets in senseless acts of violence and hatred against those their leader has already established as the enemy.

But at least America will have an on-going war at home, because, even though we are decidedly in combat on five fronts around the globe, it just doesn’t feel right to us, being so far away. We have to have blood baths and the us-versus-them competition that makes America “great,” right here in the "home of the brave."

The social media firing squads will erupt with fabricated “facts,” replete with “reputable” sources, and the memes will be all about rigging and fraud and e-mails and prognostications detailing the how’s and when’s of the nation’s total demise.

It’ll be fun stuff.

For those whose lives are so boring and unsatisfying—you know, the ones who have good jobs and big houses and lots of cars and boats and cruise vacations, who are certain that it is taxes to pay for social programs that keeps them “poor"—life won’t change much. They will still sit before one of their humongous televisions and consume a steady diet of divisiveness and hatred and conflict—and wings and beer and generic cigarettes—to satisfy their empty lives.

And, regardless of his declaration that, “If I lose, you’ll never hear from me again,” Mr. Trump will still be out there, up on a stage somewhere bloviating whatever it is his followers want to hear—and happily accepting their donations to his “causes,” as easily as they accept his fantasy-land assertions.

Behind their backs, of course, and out of the camera lens, Trump will be the one who’s laughing. A master of promotion and sales, Donald Trump will say and do whatever it takes to keep his supporters’ bile churning, so long as they keep the money flowing.

It’s kind of like Joel Osteen, but Trump’s con is at least right up front where one can deal with it. And--so far--doesn't hinge on the disposition of your eternal soul.

Of course, life won’t change, not that much. Real issues like the economy and health care and homelessness and climate change and veterans services and Social Security and the big one, education, will get a lot of lip service. Immigration, legal and illegal, will remain intact, by the way, because it’s really good for business (even Trump’s).

And relax; we'll still get all the sexual perversion we need to satisfy our wretched--but "forgiven"--souls.

And America will still be great, as great as it has been for two-plus centuries.

And I like things that are great.