My extended family has recently taken to getting together on both Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. So last night I was over a sibling’s house for round one. Amazing food and drink was everywhere and everyone was talkative. Winter was evaporating and spring was in everyone’s blood. What a perfect time to talk politics.
We’re more than a year into the Trumpian Era and clear progress into a new world is evident all around. At the gathering yesterday of family and some friends a different perspective on what can be said and what was common knowledge was apparent. Those who had formerly been frightened or confused had gotten used to the new normal. Deference to the neo-con and NeverTrump “orthodoxy” had melted away. Contempt for the politically correct was loudly declared and anger at the left was sulfurous. Many were obviously overjoyed at the ability of Trump to confound his enemies and were openly scornful of the dangers of the Stormy Daniels scandal to damage the President’s agenda or presidency.
One amusing incident was a conversation in which a visiting son of the Cloud People tried to explain why White Privilege was a legitimate concept. The blowback was heated and quite entertaining. My own statement was that if someone asks me to check my white privilege my response is “Thanks, I just checked it before and it’s doing splendidly. How’s yours?” Discussions abounded on the best way for the Attorney General to arrest the Mayor of Oakland and whether treason was the correct crime to assign to a state official interfering with the duties of a federal immigration enforcement officer.
I was especially gratified that the usual suspects entirely abandoned the attempt to provide the “Narrative.” We seem to have completely shrugged off the Bush/Obama era of right-wing paralysis. We can say what we want and we don’t have to care who hears it or what they think about it.
Probably a good part of the change is actually internal to me. I’ve finally figured out which arguments and which pundits are a waste of time. I don’t even waste time talking or even thinking about them. I just deprive them of oxygen and spend my time on what I want to talk about and what I want to happen. Once in a while we’ll make fun of the neo-cons or the Bushes or Romney. But that’s strictly for laughs. We are a very irreverent group.
And I would say the most important change of all is we laughed a lot. We were happy to be living in a place where there are jobs for our grown kids and even more hope for the future. And we especially hoped to roll back some of the progressive assaults in the near future. We talked about the Supreme Court and the Draining of the Swamp. And we laughed at our insane ridiculous President who beds porn stars one week and tweaks the noses of psychopathic dictators the next. It’s as if the “Most Interesting Man in the World” were suddenly living in the White House. And the insanity that circles around him like the rings that surround Saturn are part of the gaudy, nonsensical adventure. And the roller coaster gee force is no longer frightening, just fun.