Seriously, America?

We find out tomorrow.

Greetings from the land of cheese and cognac.

I trust I haven’t missed much, although a cursory glance at the news cycle suggests that in the days leading up to the most consequential election in modern history, the most powerful nation on earth was tangled up in debates about the word “garbage,” and whether the demos think that it’s hilarious to suggest that political foes be shot in the face.

Actually, if I’m reading all of this correctly, that was the most sober and serious part of what has become the most imbecilic (and dangerous) closing argument… ever.

Tomorrow, we get to find out whether any of this matters. Happy Monday.

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Seriously?

I regret to tell you that right now, America does not look like a serious country. But this is what you get when you treat history as an elective.

The madness of mobs is not a new thing. Nations that fall into hysteria or in thrall to demented trolls are not innovations in human history. But, somehow, tens of millions of Americans seem to have forgotten that they are not immune to the manias that have destroyed republics throughout history.

Demagogues can be entertaining. Zealots can inspire. Con men can make you believe. Men on white horses can promise big things.

Indeed, revolutions are all seashells and balloons until they wheel out the guillotines.

Did I mention that I’ve been in France for a bit?

Me in Bordeaux.

As I wrote the other day, I remain “nauseously optimistic” about tomorrow’s election. But I also want to remind you that you are NOT the crazy ones if you think it’s insane that this thing is even close.

And I’m just talking about the last few days. Late last month, I wrote that Trump was deploying the Craziest (and Most Dangerous) Closing Argument in History. But, compared with the last week, it was an oasis of sobriety.

In the final week of the campaign (in no particular order), Trump:

• Headlined a rally at Madison Square Garden where Puerto Rico was described as a “floating island of garbage,: and Kamala Harris was described as “the Antichrist.”

• Mused about having guns trained on Liz Cheney’s face, (followed by days of pedantry about whether he was fantasizing about having her shot in the face by a firing squad, or merely fantasizing about having her shot in the face in other ways).

• Simulated oral sex with a microphone.

• And since this is completely normal behavior for an American politician these days, Trump evidently went for the shock effect of making it clear that he also intended to fuq over our NATO allies.

• Suggested that he “shouldn't have left" the White House after losing in 2020.

• Declared that he "doesn't mind" if somebody shot members of the media covering him.

• And, faced with an historic gender gap, “Trump welcomed rallygoer’s insult of Harris as a prostitute.”

  “It’s terrible when Kamala says that she worked at McDonald’s,” Trump said. He added: “It’s so simple, she’s a liar, a real liar, not a good liar, but she’s a significant liar, and when you lie about something so simple. So she never worked there —”

  “She worked on a corner!” a member of the crowd shouted out.

  Trump let out a short laugh, briefly paused and pointed his finger to the crowd.

  “This place is amazing,” he said. 

• Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the ugliness was not a one-off. It was the beating heart of the closing argument Trump was making to America. Susan Glasser attended the MSG rally. A “total lovefest” it was not.

  What was sickening about being there in person was watching the Trump fans around me and realizing that there was nothing shocking about it to them.

  The hate was the thing that they were there to cheer for; the nastier the nickname, the cruder the slur, the bigger the roar.

  The people around me were not threatening or particularly angry, but they were all in, it appeared, on the worst aspects of Trumpism—the cult of personality, the calculated hurling of vicious insults, the demonization of entire groups of people. “Tampon Tim” and Harris’s “pimp handlers” were not regrettable aspects of the rally, as the Trump apologists, in what remains of the Republican Party’s old establishment, still pretend. (See: Haley, Nikki.)

  They were the attraction.

But seriously, it got even worse.

Vaccines, stock market crashes, and rotten teeth

Trump’s leading billionaire fanboy Elon Musk took a break from enshittifying social media to predict “‘hardship,’ economic turmoil and a stock-market crash if Trump wins.”

The word “bombshell” has been so grossly overused for so long that it is guaranteed to make anyone’s eyes roll. But what other word fits?

With just a week until the presidential election, Donald Trump’s close ally and major economic adviser Elon Musk is warning supporters to expect economic chaos, a crashing stock market and financial “hardship” — albeit “temporary” — if Trump wins.

**

Hold my brain worms, retorted RFK, Jr., who declared that he would be the czar of all federal health care and that he would target flouridation on Day One of the Trump Restoration.

So it came to pass that in the final days of the 2024 campaign, instead of talking about the economy, health care, education, or which ethnic groups we should loath and fear, the former president was peddling notions from the fringe. Via the NYT:

Trump Says He May Move Against Some Vaccinations and Fluoride in Water

Former President Donald J. Trump expressed openness to proposals set forth by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic he has said would be allowed to “go wild on health.”

WTAF?

Mr. Kennedy asserted on Saturday that a second Trump administration would move swiftly to stop the fluoridation of drinking water. He is also a prominent critic of vaccines, particularly the childhood vaccination schedule, and has frequently claimed that some vaccines are linked to autism and other health issues, despite years of studies showing no such connection.

Mr. Trump’s remarks on Sunday about vaccines came in response to a question about whether “banning certain vaccines might be on the table,” given Mr. Kennedy’s opinions on the subject. Mr. Trump responded: “Well, I’m going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views.”

**

Then there was this deranged rant from Trump’s trusted homunculus, Stephen Miller. “Even Soviet propaganda knew to include some believable elements,” remarked Garry Kasparov. “Everything after ‘This isn’t complicated’ is a lie, and each more deranged than the last.”

**

Suffice it to say that Kamala Harris’s message has been very, very different: Harris' closing argument: 'Turn the page and start writing the next chapter'

**

Does any of this make a difference? Is Trump giving Americans what they want? Has he tapped into the national id? Are we really this deeply unserious?

Maybe not.

The latest NYT poll that gave Democrats their weekly dose of agita had this tidbit:

But there are signs that late deciders are breaking for Ms. Harris: Among the 8 percent of voters who said they had only recently decided on their vote, she wins the group by 55 percent to 44 percent. (With Election Day nearing, 11 percent of voters remained undecided or persuadable, down from 16 percent about a month ago.)

A final note to Republicans

David Frum in The Atlantic:

Trump is opposed by almost every member of his first-term national-security team, and by his own former vice president; he has the support of the anti-vax crank Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the propagandist for Russian imperialism Tulsi Gabbard. Something revolutionary has happened inside the Republican Party:

If you placed your faith and loyalty in Reagan and Bush’s party of freedom, you need to accept that the party of Trump and Vance has rejected your ideals, discarded your heroes, defiled your most cherished political memories. This GOP is something new and different and ugly, and you owe it nothing.

Yes, we have dogs here in France.

Zok and I have been taking daily walks in Angouleme.

**

And, whatever happens in tomorrow’s election, I still have friends I can rely on.