i think, perhaps, that we have come to such a crisis point on so many fronts that things 
are simply too overwhelming for most people to process, much less deal with, in any 
realistic way. 

some strange combination of fatalism and magical thinking seems to have taken hold of large swathes of the electorate.

in the face of all this, many people long to embrace some figure or another who promises us a return to the "status quo”: either some mythologized post-war era when america was “great,” or just back to the obomba years, when things were “normal.” 

what matters that he is a fresh screen where our most unworthy fears and unrealistic hopes can be projected, for a time; where we can forget, for a time, the massive disasters that are looming ahead and pretend that things can somehow go back to “normal.”

of course, this can only be done by ignoring that it was the previous “normality” that brought us here in the first place – and by ignoring the fact that big changes and upheavals are coming no matter who is elected.   
we can’t escape it. the only question is: do we want to try to manage these big changes for the greater common good – or will we just allow them to ravage our lives in the worst way possible while we pine for a status quo of peace and quiet that never was, and thus can never return?


chris floyd
blowing in the whirlwind