America the Dystopian?

Recognize this? Look like any part of the United States?

Yesterday, I got something in the mail I'd been anxiously awaiting. It was my new passport. In the 35 years since I got my first one, this passport is my 5th, maybe 6th. I burned through a couple of them during my most frequent travel years. My passports have allowed me to see the world and gain an appreciation for the physical beauty of this world as well as the goodness that is at the root of people, regardless of skin color, how or whom they worship, or their bank balances. It's also allowed me to appreciate what is to be an American citizen and to live in this country.

Apparently though, I, no all of us really, have been fooled. Unbeknownst to me, America has become a dystopian nightmare where violent crime, lawlessness, and general mayhem abounds. Apparently, to leave your house is to subject yourself to assault at any moment by illegal immigrants. Apparently, to leave your house is to subject yourself to terrorist attacks that are rampant and occurring every waking moment of every waking day. All of this because an African American man (clearly he did not know his place) had the testicular fortitude to be elected President and now it will only grow worse because a woman (A WOMAN!!!) is a candidate for the highest elected office in the nation.

This dystopian nightmare was brought front and center last night by the Republican Party's freshly nominated Presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. What he pitched last night in his petulant scare tactic speech was a vision of an America that simply does not exist. Fact check his speech, as hundreds of sources already have, and you'll know it doesn't. Look around your neighborhoods and tell me you are living in a nightmare of lawless mayhem. You are not and you know you are not. He bloviated that he is my voice and the voice of Americans everywhere. No, no he is not. Here's just a few reasons why:

I am not a bully. I am not a philanderer.
I am not a misogynist. I am not a bigot.
I am not a liar. I am not getting my news from the National Enquirer.
I am not capable of bankrupting multiple businesses, multiple times, including a casino. A casino! People literally throw money at you in casinos. How do you bankrupt a casino?
I am not capable of engendering hate on a scale that will literally destroy a venerated American political party.
I am not endorsed by the current and former leaders of the KKK.
I am not so reviled that the only people I can get to vouch for me are my children, who just happen to be on my payroll too.

So, no, he is not my voice. But his voice is scary, stupefyingly so. Consider his performance last night and then let this gem sink in:

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Hermann Goring, a Nazi (A NAZI!!!), said that. Goring helped Hitler assume power in Germany and was Hitler's number two man, until like any one of Trump's former wives (and for Melania, don't think for a second that the Michelle Obama cockup in her speech won't be included in the list of reasons that she'll be joining that "Ex"club), he no longer had use for him. Is anyone else utterly horrified that this quote seemed to be the central theme of the "Law and Order" candidate?

The Trump candidacy at first seemed like a bizarre little side show for a bombastic egomaniac. It's not funny anymore. It hasn't been funny for quite some time. With absolutely zero regard for international policy or for things like, oh I don't know, NATO, the specter of a nuclear armed Trump is beyond the pale. From his ghostwriter in a recent New Yorker article, "I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead the end of civilization."

Yikes. Just yikes. But, remember, it's America the Beautiful, not America the Dystopian.