I have some questions. I know they probably don’t have answers, at least for now. Perhaps some of them are not answerable at all. But I think they need to be asked.
I’m compelled to write this by a dream I had last night. One of those bad, visceral dreams that wakes you up in the middle of the night, in a sweat, with heavy breathing and a sense of dread.
In the dream, I sensed I was in some sort of a park, in a large open area with trees and rolling terrain and the occasional building. In the dream, I had the feeling that we were preparing for something, for some kind of altercation, and we were moving from area to area, building to building, reviewing the preparations.
And as I moved in this arena, in this dream, reviewing these preparations, everyone in the dream had their attention drawn to a distant, open area. In the open area I saw one group of armed people charge headlong into an opposing group of armed people, like some kind of Civil War reenactment, and I got the feeling that “This is on.”
I sensed that the charge was repelled, but then I had the feeling that I was behind enemy lines. Members of the charging group were streaming back to the building I was in, and they noticed me, and they tried to kill me while I was moving to some other place in this dream.
One of them charged at me with a pitchfork, intent on stabbing me. I managed to wrestle it from him, turned it on him, and pushed it through his midsection, pinning him to the wooden door frame he had come through. That’s when I woke. In a sweat. With a sense of dread. I had just killed someone in a dream, and I was deeply impacted. And I had these questions.
What happens if Roy Moore loses the Alabama special election? And, what happens if Trump’s legislative agenda (is it really his agenda?) is totally stymied? And, what happens if the Mueller investigation results in the conviction and imprisonment of Donald Trump before the end of his term? And, what happens if Steve Bannon and Fox News are allowed to continue to incite to violence the 30% of the population that has created its own reality? What happens if all these things come to pass in a short period of time? Is my dream what will happen?
I know many would say that if all these things came to pass tomorrow, that would be a day too late. But consider this.
Fox News, and those that are aiding and abetting them, are literally screaming “Fire!” in the crowded movie theater right now. It doesn’t help that MSNBC is prodding them all day, every day, but it’s still Fox and their ilk that are inciting the riot. Fox and Bannon and company know that their core audience is easily swayed, to the point of violence, by emotional rhetoric, unspoken insinuations, and dog whistle memes that are well within free speech protections. Yet they continue to foment revolution by proxy with their language.
Is my dream what will happen? I hope not. I’m probably overreacting because of the dream. But I think the questions still need to be asked.
OK, I’m coming in from the ledge now.