George Graham

In a Phantasmagoria

Dave Granlund /


What are we to think when “evangelicals” find common ground with America’s libertine president?

How are we to make sense of a world in which the self-righteous Southern Baptists rally behind a blackguard like Trump?

I can vividly recall the Baptists of my youth. Cards and dice are the Devil’s device, they preached. They abjured such evils as dancing, and scolded women who wore “short” skirts,and “defiled”  their faces with lipstick and rouge.

How can these same people link arms with a groper, a serial adulterer, a gambler, a liar and a hustler – in sum a shameless and unrepentant prodigal.

Of course I know that politics makes strange bedfellows.But, even so, the Age of Trump leaves me scratching my head.

I am dismayed, for example,when “libertarians” Rand Paul and Mike Lee cozy up to this autocrat who is transparently campaigning to be America’s dictator.

I am confused as “tax hawks” apparently approve his giveaways to the rich.  I am bemused as “deficit hawks” silently accept his soaring trillion-dollar deficit.

And I conclude that words no longer mean anything, that labels are merely cosmetic, that everything I see and hear is part of a dazzling pantomime, designed to mystify and mislead.

So what does “democracy” mean in the Age of Trump? Or “liberty” ? Or “justice”?

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazed! Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth!

Or could this really be a freak show?

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