It's Just Like Watchin' the Detectives (Don't Get Cute)

 I like cop shows. Everybody likes cop shows. They are the staples of American cinema and television. You have your good cops, bad cops, funny cops and sexy girl cops with arresting personalities. Cops in fast cars and cops in beat-up old Peugeots. You got dicks, public and private. Fat country sheriffs and wizened lawmen as well. Cops come from the general population, and it truly takes all kinds. 

Politics is the same way. Politicians come from the general population as well. They haven't yet begun to manufacture them in the laboratory, even though it may seem like it. More often than not they are derivations of the same, tried and true, themes.

I've had friends over the years who didn't share my interest in politics. They would shrug and say things like, "They're all crooks!" 

Well, I'll be damned if they weren't right! But they were right for all the wrong reasons, in that broken clock sort of way. 

For the last damn-near 250 years of this country we have basically had two parties- democrats and republicans. The dems get things done- for the people- and the repub's undo those things, for the people who have money and an insatiable need for more. 

But hasn't it always seemed that both parties were working with each other rather than against? It's like a good cop/bad cop episode. In this cop show formula, one cop is the suspect's buddy while the other is a rough, fire-breathing asshole. The latter comes in hard and fast at the suspect first and is quickly followed by the good cop who comes in bearing coffee and a pack of smokes. He's your buddy. You want to deal with him, so you never have to see that asshole again. This works in real life even if the suspect has seen it play out dozens of times on TV. People don't necessarily see things when they are happening to them. That's human nature. That's politics too. 

Politics has been called "Hollywood for ugly people". It is. It is performing. President, senator, congressional house member, governor or village board member are usually all roles to be played according to which party you belong to. If you don't get that at orientation, you figure it out after a while on the job. The real checks and balances come from within the party. I'll refer you to the great film, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" as a good starting point. It's from 1939 but it might as well be today. I'm sure people still get into politics with pollyannish ideals of doing good, but again, they learn- or they get primaried. 

Please don't think for a moment that Donald Trump is where he's at in the GOP because he's some sort of brilliant political player. He's not. He's every bit the idiot that you and I know him to be. The billionaires behind him know this too. They are assholes, but they are not stupid. Trump was perfectly cast as a populist, but only because it turned out that way. The powers that be had nothing to lose by casting him. 

I heard the other day that back in 1980 Trump was telling people he'd run for, and become, President of the United States one day. We're supposed to now believe this motherfucker was prescient, driven and a bold strategist? No. He was bankrupting his businesses and raping kids at that time. That is not a gameplan. Don't try these stunts at home. This was a one shot- make that two shot- play at taking over the country. It doesn't get to the starting gate with a Bush or a Romney or any other republican. Trump was their perfectly imperfect choice. Their only choice. The only idiotic asshole that could pull this coup off. 

I'm not saying republicans and democrats have some secret star chamber where they meet and plot out the goings on for America. The billionaires probably do but having now said that I rather doubt they are that clever or disciplined. This coup is as ramshackle as it looks. They have the plotline of Project 2025 to work off of, but you can't tell me these fucks aren't winging it each day. It's just that for so long the politicians in D.C. have been doing the good cop/bad cop, that maybe the plot twist somehow surprised the democrats. They maybe got caught up in how wonderful the Trump storyline was for them that they couldn't see how serious the republicans were. The guy is a great character. A unique adversary, but so over-the-top ridiculous that they needn't take him that seriously! Right? They knew the routine. Fix it when he's gone. That's good for everybody. That's the American way. 

Not anymore. The good cop is out of the room. He's walking a beat now and soon will be off the force. The bad cop is in charge. The gloves are off and the suspect- the citizen- is being brutalized. Who is coming to the rescue? Maybe we'll see a heroic public defender come on scene, but don't hold your breath. We make think we know the script, but we still aren't writing it.