November Surprise?

The only  thing surprising about the Democrats' triumph in the midterm elections is  that anyone could be surprised.  Trump and co. are said to be disconsolate, and the President has even gone so far as to declare that he is willing to work with the Enemy.  We have all known for some time that Mr. Trump, who once was a slick business operator, has degenerated into a self-delusional that is the hallmark of tragic heroes from Agamemnon and Oedipus to MacBeth and, to pick an example closer to Trump,  Brutus Jones., but in the past six months he has exceeded both his tragic predecessors and himself.

The reasons are not far to seek, but the lessons of yesterday's election are perhaps more elusive.  What proportion of cause should be assigned to the Iran War, rising prices, and Trump's depressing personal antics,  is a subject for the media pundits to lie about, though it might be useful to find out how high or low was the Republican turnout.

I have friends who continue to defend the decision to bomb Iran, and when I hear their arguments I have one very obvious answer:  The third criterion for a just war is winnability.  Even if the cause is just and the means employed are proportionate and humane, no unwinnable war is just.  Peace, as  ancient philosophers insisted, was the only just objective of war, and peace we do not have.  I wonder if the Iranians were clever enough to prick the vanity of the vainest man alive in order to lure him into launching a bombing raid on the eve of the election, as if to remind voters what a lunatic is in the White House.

MAGA Republicans have been saying, in response to any conservative criticism of Trump, "Well, then, you would have preferred Kamala Harris?"   First off, that is not the point.  Many people voted for Trump because he promised not to engage in a futile war in the Middle East.  But there is a more important political aspect to this question.   If we apply Just War criteria to political decisions, then we can realize this:  Policies that backfire or blow back are mistaken.  Trump has given an unbelievable boost, not just to the Democratic Party in general but to the tassels on the lunatic fringe.  Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, it is going to be a bumpy ride.

The prettiest scenario is Watergate II--impeachment, removal, a pardon from Vance--followed by the election of a Georgia politician who so disgusts the voters that they vote for a conservative Dark Horse who spends eight years betraying the people who voted for him.  I'll be gone by then.

What are the  "elusive lessons" about which I wrote a few paragraphs above?  The most important lesson is this.  Democracy in any known way shape or form does not and cannot work, and the republican self-government projected at Philadelphia in 1787 depends, as they all knew at the time, on a virtuous and responsible electorate, people who expect to pay their own bills, make their own decisions, run their own lives.  People who own self-driving cars, write articles, books, and letters with ChatGPT, "hook up" with strangers on the Web, eat at mass food outlets, read mass-market books, and work as teachers, social workers,  and corporate execs for one or another wing of the vast corporate state of government, big business, and big labor, or leech off people who work for a living--to say nothing of influencers, lifestyle coaches, and content creators--in other words, people who cannot run their own lives cannot be allowed to make any decisions, individually or collectively, to control or influence the lives of other people.

That was one long turgid and unbalanced sentence, but, since English is prose is long dead in America, it only illustrates the point.  And what is that point?  Do not be downhearted.  You have never, by voting or taking part in politics, had a drop of influence over the future of this country.  This election is only a minor symptom of the disease that has destroyed civilization and will, if you let it, destroy you.  I know that I have said this so often before that people must be sick of hearing it, but here is the truth as I see it:  If you mind your own business, pay attention to the things you can control or at least influence, act with charity and kindness, and cultivate your mind as well as your garden, you will be able to say with Robinson Jeffers:

That public men publish falsehoods
Is nothing new. That America must accept
Like the historical republics corruption and empire
Has been known for years.

Be angry at the sun for setting
If these things anger you. Watch the wheel slope and turn,
They are all bound on the wheel, these people, those warriors.
This republic, Europe, Asia.

Observe them gesticulating,
Observe them going down. The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack.

You are not Catullus, you know,
To lampoon these crude sketches of Caesar. You are far
From Dante's feet, but even farther from his dirty
Political hatreds.

Let boys want pleasure, and men
Struggle for power, and women perhaps for fame,
And the servile to serve a Leader and the dupes to be duped.
Yours is not theirs.