CSotD: O Wad Some Pow’r

Patrick Chappatte calls the Trump election a wake-up call for Europe, which demands more analysis than a first reaction might suggest.

I invoke Robert Burns in today’s headline, the full closing lines of To A Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church being “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!”

The point being that Burns had, of course, seen a louse before, but that he was either amused or appalled — possibly both — at seeing one infesting such a prideful, upstanding lady.

Similarly, Europe has seen autocrats rise before, in Hungary and at least threatening to rise in France, Italy and elsewhere, not to mention what horrors can be found going back a few decades.

But, Chappatte and others suggest, they hadn’t expected to see it happen here.

Or perhaps, as in Burns’ poem, there’s something amusing and appalling in seeing it happen to such a prideful, upstanding target.

Morten Morland depicts Dear Leader in all his swollen pride, and there is a combination here of the ridiculous and the powerful that suggests a potentially destructive force, bestowed with power but not with judgment.

It brings to mind, of course, Christian Bloom‘s now-classic look at Trump from 2016, but, while Morland retains the sense of absurdity, it’s no longer cloaked in innocence, and the impending destruction no longer seems accidental.

Both cartoons acknowledge the power that has been put into Trump’s hands. Victor Orban may not be an enlightened leader, but he hasn’t got the capacity to be more beyond his own borders than an annoyance and occasional impediment.

Trump is clearly different in that respect.

While Orban may be a tool for Putin in disrupting European politics, Cathy Wilcox notes that Trump is a far more valuable ally because he combines great power with an appetite for flattery and a prideful lack of perspective that makes him think of himself as a partner while Putin views him simply as a pawn.

Trump talks about a “Russian Hoax” but the real hoax may be his delusion that he stands even with Vladimir Putin.

I was talking to a local official yesterday, recalling how, in my reporting days, I’d hear grand plans at the meetings of Realtors, but then go to the Home Builders Association gatherings to find out what was really happening from the people who, as the saying goes, had shovels in the dirt.

Trump has ambitious dreams, but Vladimir Putin has shovels in the dirt.

Meanwhile, Christopher Weyant says, the Democrats are trying to find what went wrong while the Little Man So Spic and Span walks away untouched by what flew from the fan.

As Weyant captions it, they’re missing the point. It’s not what this person or that person did or should have done. It’s that they completely misread the electorate.

It’s both complex and simple, but one part of it is that we have two cultures operating in this country, one of which favors weighing both sides of issues, and the other of which enjoys the certainty offered by Fox News.

But it’s far more than that. There are people who dine at tony restaurants and people who go to the church potluck. Some people shop at exclusive designer stores, some people shop at Target. Some play tennis, some play cornhole. Some watch PBS, some watch Mama June.

And many, many, many of each look down their noses from their side of the fence at the people on the other.

Snotty attitudes go both ways, and this time, those snots beat our snots.

In any case, Rod Emmerson suggests, the autocrats have the momentum now, and they know how to make lies, fear and hate seem like homespun, comforting wisdom.

As for facts and fiction, we’ve been through that. Does Trump believe tariffs can strengthen our economy? Does he believe climate change is a hoax?

What difference does it make what he believes? Does he believe cheesy gold sneakers are worth $499? Does he believe Haitians are eating pets? Does he believe schools perform surgery on children without parental consent?

Does he, as Michael Ramirez (Creators) fears, believe it’s a good idea to put an anti-science screwball in charge of our public health system?

The point is that it doesn’t matter what he believes. It’s what he can get other people to believe.

It is, to coin a phrase, “The Art of the Deal.”

He doesn’t have to believe those sneakers are worth that much money. He just has to convince other people to believe it. And ditto with the other things he claims to believe that defy logic, that defy probability, that defy physics, that defy all prior experience.

Matt Golding is holding out hope that common sense is, in fact, more dominant than the latest election returns would suggest.

But Martyn Turner notes that Irish politics can be just as absurdly counterfactual as American politics, and we don’t have a monopoly on foolish, anti-scientific denialism, though I doubt Ireland’s decisions on the matter will have the same impact as ours.

Still, if the Stupidity Virus spreads far enough, it won’t really matter where it started. And when enough people have embraced foolishness, it becomes the common wisdom we all rely upon.

And vote for.

Guy Venables suggests Britain begin worrying about migrants from here as well as from Africa and the Middle East, and I have seen reports of Americans making inquiries about moving abroad.

I’d be surprised if very many followed through, in part because there’s no place to go that’s any better in this interconnected world and in part because we’re nowhere near the point of misery that has driven people from less fortunate nations. Yet.

Brian McFadden offers a grim look at a worst case scenario, but if it does happen, it won’t be this clear and it won’t be this sudden. It will be a trickle that becomes a stream and may never have to become a flood.

Most of us will go on as if nothing were happening, because it won’t be happening to us, unless we adopt a wider definition of “us” than prevailed this past Tuesday.

But take hope: In two years, we’ll have a chance to regain Congress.

If we still want to.