Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.—Gustav Mahler

Friday, May 06, 2016

Trump: America's Scut Farkus moment



Well, certainly in the coming months we're going to hear every chapter and verse of Donald Trump's, shall we say, spirited style of rhetoric.

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," said Candidate Barack Obama.

And every other word out of Candidate Hillary's mouth is "fight."

Is Trump worse?  Yes.  But a lot of Americans just got sick of being punked by the likes of Hillary and Obama, of being called racists and sexists and bitter clingers, so Trump is the sound of them snapping.

You surely remember Scut Farkus, neighborhood bully. All lived in terror of him, trying to avoid even his notice, for if he spotted you walking by, you were doomed.



But one day, Ralphie had had just enough of being pushed around, y'know? Ralphie just snapped and took Scut Farkus out with a torrent of cussin' and cursin' and smashin' and flailin' until Scut was reduced to a bloody, sobbing mess who you knew would never ever ever menace Ralphie and the neighborhood again.

One of the finest and most cathartic scenes in American cinema history.  Voting for Trump must have felt something like that.

Like so many of us did when we were kids and you lived in perpetual torment from Johnny Rogers until that one day when you just went off on him and fortunately I had a fistful of nickels because I was chasing the ice cream truck and I just really let him have it and pummeled his mutt face over and over in what were the most gratifying moments in my life to finally be free and pay him back for all the years he made my life a living


Something like that.


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