Under the Big Top in Manhattan, Trump’s the Ringmaster
There’s a threering circus playing in a Manhattan courthouse right now, with Donald
Trump taking the role of the hollering ringmaster leading the show.
As he juggles multiple indictments— on accusations of everything from election interference to misuse of campaign funds—he directs his trained bears in Congress to gum up the works and prevent votes from taking place on almost all legislation.
The chief bear herself, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, recently tried (and failed) to pull the rug out from under the GOP speaker of the House simply for committing the sin of trying to make the legislature do its job again. It’s the greatest show on earth. Trump’s motto is “Make America Great Again,” but I’m sick of greatness. I want sanity, and I get the feeling that I’m not alone.
In the GOP primary in Indiana recently, Nikki Haley, who hasn’t campaigned since March, got nearly a quarter of the vote. There are campaign issues, sure, but citizens of the U.S. don’t seem to be voting on them. They just want to get back to being able to relax and not worry that our president is going to start a civil war just to prove that he has enough followers on Truth Social to do it.
There’s an overwhelming national sense of exhaustion—Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and independent voters are feeling it. We want normalcy restored to our government.
That clown car in Manhattan just doesn’t fit into that normalcy.
I mean, call me nostalgic, but I remember fondly when Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart lost his political career simply for being seen spending the night with a woman who wasn’t his wife.
How quaint, I think now, for a mundane sin like adultery to be the deciding factor. We can’t even agree anymore whether criminality is a presidential dealbreaker.
The beginning of the COVID pandemic was a stressful time in our country, for many reasons but, for me, primarily due to the worry that we would never return to what we’d been. We would never take the masks off, never leave our houses, never go back to school or church or movie theaters.
And even though COVID isn’t gone, those heavy restrictions had to end for me, at least, some time ago. Because we crave, as humans, normalcy, even in abnormal times.
People never tire of threatening me with news of bizarre AI developments, the war in Gaza and the imminent environmental decay. It can be scary, if I let it be. It doesn’t have to paralyze, though.
Because there are great shifts happening in the world, yes, but let me tell you a secret:
There always have been.
The story of people is a story of action, of change, of a show. And we can get wrapped up in it. We can live in the circus. Or we can get the heck out of that tent and see that some things never change. There’s always the sun, the light, the warmth of other people.
I saw a guy with a bumper sticker recently, one that urged anyone behind him to take their “liberal BS” (though it wasn’t abbreviated BS) up north.
How mean-spirited, I thought, and how sad, to live in darkness when there’s so much light to be had.
But circuses are sad. There you are, in the dark, watching painted faces and beaten-down animals far from home. It’s all a little twisted and a little confusing.
This political circus is no different. Trump’s putting on a show, and it’s full of clowns and dancing monkeys and trapeze artists flying through the air.
There’s no doubt about it, the circus is in town. But it’s up to each of us to decide whether we’re buying a ticket.
Is it good for you, to be amazed and horrified, to marinate in the shock and weirdness, to let the falseness of the show wash over you in the dark? You choose.
As for me, I’m skipping it and taking a walk outside, where there are birds and trees and friendly people who don’t wish me any particular harm.
And if I ever get a craving for popcorn, I can always make myself some at home.
n To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.