America's Fever Dream
What if after the wolf ate the sheep we constructed a fable to blame the boy and absolve ourselves for our willful inattention to danger?
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I should have known I was going to get the flu when I went to a statewide conference of public school administrators just as infections of the flu, COVID, and RSV were peaking.
I should have known I was getting the flu the first night of the conference when I was convinced that my bedding had become sentient. It thrilled me to discover that my pillows and sheets and blankets had been embedded with sensors that created problems for me to solve simply by rolling over, replacing mild tension with automatic relief. Over and over again, my slumber was a series of successful resolutions. Before I realized that I was dreaming, I marveled at the genius design.
I should have know I was coming down with the flu the next night when I dreamed that I could reject anger and embrace peace, and in doing so my pillow felt like it was thick with glowing happiness. And then I dreamt an interlocking series of novellas in which I examined and embraced a fundamental reality of my life that had prevented me from letting go and moving on. Seriously, when I woke up I had no clue I was sick.
I should have know I was coming down with the flu the next night when I dreamed that I could reject anger and embrace peace.
But what really should have made me realize I had the flu was the night after that when I dreamed someone asked for my opinion about politics and actually listened to my answer.
This person was angry at the Democrats, you see, and laid 100% of the blame for all that is happening now at the feet of identity politics, because sometimes everyone needs a bogeyman. And thus having blamed Democrats he further blamed Democrats for not stopping what identity politics had thus caused, otherwise what good is a bogeyman.
Those are not only the wrong answers, I said, but the wrong questions, and this being a fever dream, he listened to what I said next: It is already too late.
Once upon a time, not three months ago or so, a woman who embodied but rarely invoked identity politics, gave America a choice. She stood in the Ellipse, where Union troops once mustered, to tell us that this election was a coin flip in outcomes as much as odds.
Once upon a time, not three months ago or so, a woman who embodied but rarely invoked identity politics, gave America a choice.
“This election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates. It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division,” she said.
78 million Americans chose chaos.
“He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.”
78 million Americans elected that person.
“He says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who insulted those law enforcement officers on January 6th. Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him. People he calls, quote, ‘the enemy from within.’”
He did just that.
“That is who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are.”
“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power. Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are.”
78 million Americans (plus untold Americans who chose couch over country) would like a word.
“Donald Trump’s answer to you is the same as it was the last time. Another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. And this time he will pay for it with a 20% national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported.”
78 million Americans are either bad at math or didn’t believe he was going to do the thing he said he was going to do and in fact has just done.
“We are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back.”
Apparently, we are.
Maybe there was always a wolf.
Maybe there was always a wolf. What if the boy really saw a wolf, and we just couldn’t see it until too late? What if, after the wolf ate the sheep, we constructed a fable to blame the boy and absolve ourselves for our willful inattention to the danger?
What if Trump isn’t the Democrats’ fault?
To be fair, Democrats could have made different choices and perhaps defeated Trump, and we should talk about what we can learn from that. And there should be a capital D Democratic response to what looks like a coup of our constitutional government by the techno-broligarchy.
But we had an election about all this. Democrats made their case that precisely this was going to happen, and they lost. Did Democrats not warn us well enough? I’m not sure blaming Democrats for “allowing this to happen” makes sense when Kamala Harris stood at the Ellipse and warned of this specific danger—and that 78 million Americans voted for exactly that. She began that speech, “Good evening, America.” Now it sounds like, “Good night, and good luck.”
Perhaps our energies right now are not best spent blaming the ones who have been warning about something exactly like this for more than a decade. If for no other reason, Democrats are not the ones making a mess of the place right now. Whether you count yourself as a member of the Democratic Party is immaterial at this point. If you are not a fan of the way things are going, blaming the only political party still on your side might not be the most effective course of action or the best way to understand how we ended up in the pit of despair together.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for more cough medicine, because I need a nap. After that, we need to work together to get out. Don’t worry. I’ve been here before. I know a way.
Jason Stanford is a co-author of NYT-best selling Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth. His bylines have appeared in the Washington Post, Time, and Texas Monthly, among others. Follow him on Threads at @jasonstanford, or email him at jason31170@gmail.com.
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As a Canadian, I try to remember that almost half your country did not vote for this. Then I also remember, you did this twice.
It's true that their rhetoric about Mitt Romney was a bit over the top, but Americans paid attention to it and didn't elect him. This doesn't absolve the voters ignoring the fact that Trump was very obviously different from Romney, who aside from being bad on policy would have just been a normal Republican President who didn't threaten the republic.