The Politics Of Complacency

As the coronavirus persists and the nominating conventions (such as they will be) approach, it's time to gather the team together for a discussion about world events: Helmut Vallidaklopf in Washington, D.C., Ramona Vallindaklopf in Genoa, Italy and Wolfgang Majoris in Bangkok, Thailand. My questions are these: how can most of the Republican party be so complacent? In other words, what gives?

Let's start with Helmut, who is holed up in his basement bunker on Connecticut Avenue in D.C.

JM: "Helmut, what causes people to abandon their principles in support of a corrupt regime? And how do they find their way back? How do you explain what's going on at the White House?"

HV: "That's quite a bit to absorb, but I'll give it a shot. As a wordsmith yourself, you know that the word 'collaborator' has a double meaning. A colleague can be described as a collaborator in a neutral or positive sense. But the other definition of collaborator, relevant with Herr Gropenfuhrer, one who is working with the enemy. In this negative sense, collaborator is closely related to another set of words: collusion, complicity and compliance, such as the Vichy government during WWII."


JM: "Of course, you mean that, at its base, the meaning of collaborator carries an implication of treason: betrayal of one's nation, of one's ideology, of one's morality, of one's values. Very much like Herr Gropenfuhrer is selling out this country and other democracies of the world, including Europe. We now turn to Ramona Vallindaklopf in Genoa for her report of European affairs as they relate to the U.S."

RV: "Well American passports are worthless right now. America is not united anymore and is barely a state. They have crashed right through failed state into a plague state, unwelcome across the world. Americans have gone from having access to most of the world to being banned from most of it. Today, Americans are only allowed in the Caribbean and the Balkans. An American passport is meaningless, Worse, it's a plague. We certainly don't want them in Italy."

JM: "In the absence of a humane government, America is now ruled by COVID-19. Welcome to the Plague States of America. The Republican senators who are willing to discuss their disgust with Herr Gropenfuhrer off the record, but voted in February for him to remain in office, all indulge in a variation of this sentiment. We now turn to Wolfgang Majoris, our correspondent in Thailand."



WM: "Clearly, China does not fear the United States. In fact, they're making their own inroads with Iran and other countries that are not sympathetic to the Americans. And, of course, Herr Gropenfuhrer is in Putin's pocket. Perhaps the only antidote is time. In due course, historians will write the story of our era and draw lessons from it."

JM "Indeed. We will see more clearly the path that led the U.S., and specially the White House, into a historic loss of international influence and economic chaos since the years leading up to the Civil War. Well, that's all for now. I'll be checking in with you all after the conventions, and we'll chat more."