What You Gonna Do Brother?

America, how can I write my holy litany in your silly mood.

-Allen Ginsberg, America

Yesterday I read this, a "funny" piece of commentary from back in March.
Last night, Trump won the Indiana Primary, and Ted Cruz bowed out of the election.  This does not make me entirely unhappy. I have been coming to the realization that, in many ways Trump's crass huckster is preferable to Cruz's single-minded zealot.  But either one of them as the Chief Executive of this nation of ours is a disturbing indicator of our spiritual state.
Because here's the thing, whether we think that whoever is President is just another political beast who happened to claw their way to the top or we delude ourselves that the power of that office can make a real difference in our lives, the fact remains that the Oval Office largely remains a figure-head of our government, limited in the scope of its power by the design of our Constitution (I'm not going to go back into that puddle right now).  Presidents are important for what they say about us as a people, what they reflect about our character.
I grew up with Ronald Reagan as my President.  As an adult I dislike a lot of Reagan's policies and, in fact, I believe that many of the things he did have led us to the disastrous level of income inequality and economic injustice that is besetting us now.  But as a kid, learning about what a thermonuclear weapon can do, and finding out that the USSR had a bunch pointed at us, and we had even more pointed at them, it made me feel at least a little bit better having a man who could (and did) credibly play a cowboy in one of the old westerns sitting behind that desk.  The relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev, to this day reminds me that leaders matter, and the fact that my kids don't have to know, in the 6th grade, what Mutually Assured Destruction means, well that's a good thing.
They have to learn about new horrors.
There will always be new horrors.
More than anything we need our leaders to help us face those horrors with something like dignity and sensibility.
That's why this joke isn't funny any more.
This is the problem I have with both Trump and Hillary, neither one of them is going to help us face our horrors, both of them might just make them worse. I want to hand my kids a world with less horror in it, not more. What we have been doing is simply trading old horrors in for new ones.
What we have been doing is very selfish and self-interested, both Trump and Clinton, in their own special ways reflect that self interest.  They both have a ruthless drive to win at all costs, and honestly, at this point in history, you really couldn't come close to being President if that were the case, and therein lies our problem.
If you didn't take the time to read the article I linked above, here are Scott Adams' five premises of the Trump Campaign that really get my wheels spinning:

1. People are basically irrational.
2. Knowing that people are basically irrational, appeal on an emotional level.
3. Running on emotion, facts don't matter.
4. If facts don't matter, you can't really be wrong.
5. With fewer facts in play, it's easier to bend reality.
6. To bend reality, Trump is a master of identity politics and identity is the strongest persuader.

That's the thing, as a kid, I though Reagan was great, because he appealed to my kid-wired brain, which was essentially pre-rational,  Kids function out of emotion a lot, in fact, the "inner child" was at one point a psychological gimmick that actually did help people discover and honor their emotions (it has since become sort of silly, but there is truth in most jokes).

The state of our political discourse at the moment would seem to indicate that we are going through some sort of adolescent phase. Adolescence is the phase of life where "identity politics" basically run your life: what "crowd" are you in? How do you dress? What music do you like?  How many Twitter followers do you have? It's all about defining and exploring your identity.  

What happens if you discover an identity that is stupid?

Last week, I used the metaphor of a High School student body election: Trump is the wisecracking bully, making big promises; Hillary is the responsible lackey to the administration presenting the status quo plus some bland enticements of new and better things if we march in line the way we're supposed to.

I feel the same way about them now, as I did then: blah, blah, blah.

The only emotion either one of them inspire in me is despair, not fear, not anger, just a sinking feeling that if this is the best we can do, we really are in trouble.  Maybe this was the inevitable result of the Obama tenure. Who, as one of my regular conversation partners said, has sort of overplayed the "I'm the grown-up here" card.  Which is interesting, because that's sort of what I admire about him on an emotional level, but it certainly does play into the trap of stagnation that we are stuck in at the moment.

Right now, I'm feeling pangs of sympathy for my Republican friends.  Most of them are reasonable people (a few are not), most of them want what is best for our nation even if our ideas about what is best vary.  They deserved better than the motley band of misfits they had to pick from this year.  I am also sorry that the Democrats don't have something better than another Clinton to offer you by way of consolation.  Here's to us! A nation of emotionally stunted adolescents! Huzzah!