Why do we continue to elect politicians who choose profits over people?
Normally, I write pithy plays filled with stichomythic dialogue and biting undertones meant to illuminate differing perspectives. I don’t believe in public displays of emotion, artificial forms of socializing problematically deemed “social media” — problematic because there is no media just marketing, promoting, and publicizing camouflaged as news. I mean, if Fox actually believed its own propaganda about the “Chinese Virus,” why did they take precautionary measures for their own staff? Problematic also because we no longer value veracity, intelligence, or expertise. In a world where Tweet first think later has become the new normal, the formula for occupying the White House, nuance and contemplation have become obsolete. So, right now, I’m not interested in camouflaging my opinions or tempering my rage about a moment that’s so painfully unprecedented and predictable. “Crooked Hillary” warned us, but she was just a woman who didn’t know her place. So, why heed her warning?
The “radical left” was flabbergasted when the electoral college bestowed the last presidential election on a well-known charlatan, bigot, sexist, and thief and so many people were suddenly outraged — an outrage we’ve been criticized for for years. Donald Trump isn’t an anomaly. He’s the inevitable evolution of a nation too indifferent or uninformed to vote for their own interests never mind that of the greater good. Does the notion of the greater good even exist anymore? Its obsolescence seems likely since people continued to pack bars, restaurants, and other public spaces until formally banned from doing so and still struggle with the notion of social distancing. We may make it out of this alive, but we won’t survive. That could be a good thing, but it won’t be.
We could use this moment as an opportunity to work towards righting some of our many social ills, but we won’t. That’s because the most contagious and deadly disease confronting us isn’t on that metal or plastic surface or hands you’ve failed to scrub for 20–30 seconds, it’s in our minds — magical thinking that allows a nation to collectively ignore climate change, the legacy of slavery, systematic oppression of women that seems to pre-date time, economic injustice…
