Did You Really Think All That Much Would Change?

Calm down, everybody. Think about it a minute.

Did you really think it would have made that much of a difference?

Did you really think that, had Bob Woodward released the tapes of his 18 conversations with 45, he could have sufficiently alarmed a huge majority of the public?

Did you think that those who objected to mask-wearing or distance-respecting would have changed their minds?

Did you think that 45 would have taken the helm of responsibility and not directed the state governments that they were on their own to deal with the overflowing hospitals and shortages of equipment, the second wave of which may very well take place within weeks?

Really? Then you're giving him a whole lot more credit than I can. You're making a mistake. You're continuing to think normally, that this ridiculous excuse for a human being would care enough to respond in a way that would directly save lives.

You're continuing to think that he wouldn't hide behind a curtain of ambivalence, so that none of those incredible tragedy could possibly be traced to him. It's beyond that now.

Remember, his first and probably only thought was that maybe Woodward would try to write a positive book about him. He thought a positive book would include portraying him as someone who avoided panic with what he told the public--not by specific actions he could possibly have taken, like shutting down the country for a month, providing a conduit for supplies, or a plan for testing.

We should have known by now. We should have known he would resort to this. He knows, deep inside, that he should have done something. But it's the same mentality that has allowed him to somehow stay afloat while going bankrupt six times--make failure someone else's problem--that gives him a chance to sail through.

Except this time we get a chance to say something about it. And the latest polling shows that his exaggerations, his lies, his innuendoes can't quite cover for him. They're sowing that while some people who left his flock are returning, but there aren't enough of them.

There is still time left, of course. It is still possible for him to pull off an even bigger upset--re-election despite four years of utter selfishness and incompetence, demonstrated in real time. And it's revealing that enough people don't think that what he's already done isn't sufficient to cause enough concern. (The country is too big for that many people to be personally affected.)

He managed to buffalo enough of us with his lies four years ago. He's trusting enough of us--maybe 45 or 45 percent of us, because that's what he still needs, appropriately and neatly distributed--to slide by once again. Enough people desperately cling to changes in policy, so they hold their noses and go along.

That's what he 's ways done, of course--slide by to bluster again, as if he always comes out on top. But bottom feeders stay near the bottom--near, but never quite settling there. THat's his magic, at least to this point: How to sink without being sunk.

That's all he needs. That's what he calls "winning," because in his mind, he's never lost. His rape case will go to the Justice Department, inappropriately, where it will get tied in knots with legal maneuverings. His affairs have been paid into silence. His various gropings have either failed or expired legally. His suspicious financial excursions are waiting to collapse, but not without extending the recently acquired prestige of the presidency to extend and/or complete them.

See? He's got it all over us. We just don't know it yet. Neither does he, but he lives in possibility and endless ability to do others horrible damage while getting out from under.

Bob Woodward can't stop that. Only we can. He needs to go to jail, and we can send him there by denying him the position he's least qualified for. 

Woodward's details are only icing on the cake. We have turned into the wrong kind of country. Only we can stop that trend. If you don't know that by now, you incredibly haven't been paying attention or don't think that governing involves anything more than policy.

Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark