… And so the most powerful country in the world has handed over all its affairs—the prosperity of its entire economy; the security of its 300 million citizens; the purity of its water, the viability of its air, the safety of its food; the future of its vast system of education; the soundness of its national highways, airways, and railways; the apocalyptic potential of its nuclear arsenal—to a carnival barker who introduced the phrase grab ’em by the pussy into the national lexicon. It is as if the white tribe united in demonstration to say, “If a black man can be president, then any white man—no matter how fallen—can be president.” And in that perverse way, the democratic dreams of Jefferson and Jackson were fulfilled.
The attacks on Barack and Michelle Obama went far lower and cruder than anything I’d ever witnessed before, and centered on them not being white. The Preseidency (in capital letters) thus being fouled by racist banter as the establishment had never allowed before dovetailed neatly into the long game of neoliberals to cut down or pulp The State. Once sullied, it was plausible to hand over The Nation to someone whose ilk used to could never move past the state government.
