Call me naïve. You wouldn’t be the first. And, I’ve definitely been called worse. My naïveté springs from the eternal hope brought to us by the Christmas season. It’s the scene in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown. It’s in the birth of a Jewish rabbi who preached tolerance and was condemned to death more than 2,000 years ago by a Roman governor. It’s in the 1966 version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" when Boris Karloff tells us that “the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of 10 Grinches – plus two!"
But such optimism is tempered by the fact that most politics, business, entertainment, religion and indeed everything in our society seems to be dominated by monsters whose hearts are “an empty hole.” Their brains are full of spiders and the three words that describe them are (and I quote) “Stink, stank, stunk!”
OK, everything revolves around money.
That brings us to the news of the week. Hate, death and destruction. Details at 11 and unending opinions offered on various corporate and social media platforms ad nauseam — as long as you respond to the clickbait.
A CEO of a health insurance company was shot in the back in Manhattan. The accused killer is being praised by some as a folk hero. The killing is complicated by accusations of malfeasance against the dead man. Forgotten, of course, is the fact that people are gunned down across the country daily; men, women and children. Their deaths barely make a splash. But the death of a wealthy CEO goes viral with fans of the killer cheering his killing and fans of law and order (not the television show — well not exclusively the television show) bemoaning the lack of law and order in our lawless society.
The Assad regime in Syria has collapsed — leaving a power vacuum that may or may not be filled by the United States — but never forget Russia still considers Syria a satellite state. Meanwhile, there are wars in the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine and various other smoldering areas of conflict across the globe as we celebrate the birth of the “Prince of Peace.”
War is over, if we want it, John Lennon sang. Apparently, we don’t want it. We are enjoying “Die Hard” as our Christmas adventure.
We are fighting about universal health care, women’s rights, child labor (excuse me — education), tariffs, deportation of the poorest and most vulnerable. Hypocritically many people who claim they are Christians and follow a man who said during the Sermon on the Mount, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” are cheering for deportations. Do unto others, and treat everyone as a brother has been forgotten.
Today, that’s too woke for some of us who preach we should hate our enemies and seek revenge against those who persecute us.
Yes, I’m talking about Donald Trump, of course. He’s not turning the other cheek. He’s slapping yours. He’s demanding, and in some cases getting, fealty in advance before he steps back into the Oval Office and wields the power that, unfortunately, it appears Joe Biden and others have already obsequiously ceded to him. Christopher Wray, in the latest move of surrender, decided Wednesday to quit rather than have Trump fire him as the head of the FBI. Of course, Trump praised the move. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, meanwhile, is donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund after previously claiming to move away from politics.
We face a major “Join or Die” moment in the world as Trump reclaims his throne — I mean, his presidency. While he continues to sell us Christmas ornaments, hats and holds raffles to see which of his lucky supporters (if any) get free tickets to his inauguration, Trump faces one of the greatest existential crises in the history of our republic. He’s vowing revenge with his Cabinet nominees while also claiming nothing will bring unity like his success.
That’s, of course, problematic, dangerous and authoritarian. But Trump doesn’t care. As much as he claims to love Christmas, it’s only because he thinks he can make a buck off of it.
The Democrats, some of whom have taken up the false cry of “rigged election” that Trump also claimed after he lost to Biden, have completely lost their way and have no hope of countering the divisiveness of the Republican Party. They don’t even know who they are, although they keep telling us (sometimes in the most pedantic terms) how bad Trump is. (Hint: Quit telling us why he sucks. Quit defining what a political party is. Tell us in plain and simple terms why you’re better and what you’ve done for us.)
In fact, as pointed out recently by Democratic activist Julie Roginsky, when the Democratic National Committee held its winter meeting recently, it broke down into terse arguments about policy. They also began speaking about “land acknowledgment.” For those who don’t understand the term, the Democrats spent time acknowledging that colonial settlers displaced Native Americans and today we live on the traditional lands of those people. Roginsky, in her Substack column this week, said the leadership of the Democratic Party have lost “their goddamn minds.”
“Do you think Native Americans today care about an acknowledgment statement?” she asked. “They care about health care, jobs and the economy — not appearances. Reality.”
Merry Christmas. The Democrats are sorry in more ways than one.
This surrender to appearance and virtue signaling is reprehensible. But it’s part of the problem of a society that features the president-elect using a picture of himself sitting near the current first lady at the reopening of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame to promote his brand of cologne. What’s the deal with all the cologne?
Don’t look for this to get any better going forward. Donald Trump’s new regime potentially includes nearly a dozen billionaires — and guess what, as George Carlin famously noted — that’s a club of which “you aren’t a part of." The billionaire club won’t be concerned about your well-being but theirs.
Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s latest “bestie” (or “beastie”) drove the point painfully home this week in criticizing those who have canonized the accused shooter of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He said that “insurance companies, like any company, have a duty to shareholders to maximize profits, no matter how ruthlessly. The radical left espousing otherwise needs to grow the hell up.” Had to be satire, right?
This statement by a billionaire shows that the Trump administration may not be able to harness the whirlwind of populism that swept him into office — and indicates how quickly he could lose control of the country.
It isn’t just those on the “radical left” who think that insurance companies shouldn’t ruthlessly be pursuing profits when it comes to healthcare. The lack of understanding or lack of care on this issue portends horrible actions against the shrinking middle class in the coming administration.
Trump himself posted on social media threats “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!”
Merry Christmas. If you can’t rock with the billionaires, you’re going to get rolled in the middle class.
In the past, we had social commentary from the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor and others who made fun of, but also entertained us with, enlightened opinions on the horrors brought to us by politicians. Today we have Joe “Bro” Rogan. We used to have reporters telling us of the perils of politicians and their agendas with vetted factual information from the likes of Walter Cronkite, Sam Donaldson, Helen Thomas and others. Today Donald Trump can go on Meet the Press and lie with impunity as we have mediocre reporters who don’t know how to hold politicians accountable by asking pointed questions.
Our popular music once included songs like “Ohio” warning us of tin soldiers and Nixon coming by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It included very Christian sentiments like “War is over if you want it,” and “Imagine all the people sharing all the world,” by John Lennon.
Today, while we’re getting rolled, we have no rock n’ roll; just angry pop stars and even angrier Hollywood actors supporting Donald Trump making fun of the “woke” Democrats. Or you have people like George Clooney on the left who claimed he’s a friend of the president, but then eviscerated him in a New York Times editorial. Both sides claim they support free speech until somebody says something that pisses them off.
Nowhere this Christmas season do I see what the season is purportedly about; Peace on Earth and goodwill to all.
But like the Whos down in Whoville, I think I’ll be singing even if I have no presents at all.
The only way through this storm is to ride it out. The only way to succeed is to continue. I don’t consider it a struggle, but I consider it life.
I do not think anyone is born with anger in their soul and heart. I’ve never looked at an innocent baby and seen the eyes of the devil or seen one screeching in a ghoulish tone about what your dead mother is doing in hell — though I’ve seen many innocent babies grow into abominations.
Somewhere along the line, they got twisted. Perhaps it was supply-side economics that did the trick. As Steve Buscemi said in "Con Air," “Define irony. Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash.” Nope. Well, yeah, but more importantly, this one; “He's a font of misplaced rage. Name your cliché; mother held him too much or not enough, last picked at kickball, late-night sneaky uncle, whatever. Now he's so angry moments of levity actually cause him pain; gives him headaches. Happiness, for that gentleman, hurts.”
That defines Trump, the MAGA movement and even some extreme leftists (mirror images of each other as it turns out). Fear, anger and defeat have turned some bitter and made others believe in a false sense of superiority to the rest of us mere mortals. The Democrats mean well with all their annoying preaching and their inability to communicate simple messages. I’m sure many Republicans, even with their anger and vitriol, think they are doing the best for society even as they risk burning it all to the ground – in fact, because they want to burn it to the ground.
And each Christmas season I remember John Lennon’s murder. I celebrate the anniversary of my marriage with my wife (our 41st this year) and because I’m a reformed altar boy who gave up Catholicism for Lent, I still celebrate Christmas. Naively, I cling to hope. Can we at least get some decent rock n’ roll this Christmas?
