Did you have yourself a malicious little Christmas?

 While we were in the season for celebrating peace on earth and good will to all people, some of our political leaders demonstrated what grotesque, malevolent assholes humankind can be.  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) led the exercise in Christmas spirit when he put about 130 migrants who crossed the border from Mexico on a bus with instructions to dump them off at Vice President Kamala Harris' house in Washington, D.C., in 18-degree (F.) weather.   Fortunately, some groups who had learned of the matter met them and provided food and shelter and assistance in resolving their plight. Groups that believe in the humane, respectful treatment of fellow humans are being put to the test on many fronts in this age of Trump.  A current White House spokesman called the incident  “a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”  It marks the basis on which America has become divided.  On one hand,  there are people who maintain some moral rectitude in their relationship with others; on the other, there are those who measure their sense of a successful life in terms of how  many people they disdain and humiliate.

 Our politics is no longer defined by love of country, but by who we hate.  Our country's leadership changed two years ago, but the antics of Donald Trump still dominate the news.   His recent events of note included having dinner with a notorious anti-semite and calling a New York Magazine reporter  “a shaky and unattractive wack job”. He casts a dark shadow of malicious dementia over a country struggling to find its moral and intellectual bearings.  Trump is the voice of intellectual and moral ignorance which is the state in which a significant portion of the American population lives.  Although he left office, the press tracks his words and actions.  He gives voice to the anti-democratic citizens who prefer an autocracy to government that operates with the permission and direction of the citizens.  In the latest Republican fiasco of trying to find Congressional leadership, the GOP extended its routine of bumbling and denigrating large segments of the human population.  The GOP has abandoned any pretense of advocating for good will and peace for all humankind.  It has devolved into an incredibly unintelligent quest for power and status.  Its actions resemble those of grade school bullies fighting over who will be the meanest presence on the playground.

The MAGA age is devoted to the cultivation of pettiness and meanness as the preferred human behavior.   MAGAs think they comprise an elite.  However, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, was sent to prison for five months for tax fraud.   Trump was caught mishandling classified documents, and now questions have been raised about some classified materials uncovered in offices once used by Joe Biden.  People will use these incidents as the basis for the perpetual piddling duels that make up much of American political discourse.  During the holiday season, it was difficult to avoid the petty meanness that so many Americans have adopted as their standard demeanor.  After four years of Trump, they seem to assume that they have been given permission to be the assholes they really want to be.

And so, we are at the beginning of a new year which already promises to be one of resentment and recrimination.  It has shown the absence of good will and the presence of malignity.  In America people have the freedom to express stupidity and malice, and some are exercising that freedom to its fullest extent.  

Happy New Year.