Coverage of the inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC, whether mediated or immediate, presented a strange compulsion—maybe the aching yearning of the thin crowds that lined segments of the route from the Capitol to the White House who wanted this spectacle to be presidential and dignified—to frame it in such a way, in the tradition of apologists, that the breach and breaking is somehow normal and acceptable. This stunt was none of those things and disturbing to the core on all counts. It wasn’t enough to eviscerate the Affordable Health Care Act as the first order of business, but to do so without a clear path forward despite having been salivating over this moment for six years makes it even worse.
It was not enough that the ideological tenor of the White House underwent radical changes instantly, white-washing talk of global-warming and climate change (however long or short this reign of terror runs and no matter what other geopolitical blunders are made, the failure to save the environment will be its enduring legacy), emphasising respect for authority over community cohesion and getting rid of its little gay corner, endowments for the arts,
public broadcasting, and all mention of civil rights, those messages were replaced with
Dear Leader touting his own merchandise. Of course, things are not looking good for education and the sciences either, which are long-term economic-indicators as much as they are there to inspire and uplift. Repeated mentions of the peaceful transition of power does not make it so and certainly does not dispel the darkness. There are
one-thousand four hundred sixty-one days left in this term, and while that segment of his inaugural speech was sadly not plagiarised (
though other examples abound) perhaps like that inexplicable editing of that movie about those cartoon bees where they
sped up the film every time some character said “bee,” we can accelerate through this with every “great” and “bigly.”
