A FAIRY TALE
Remember the centuries old story?
A loner-kind-of-guy roams Europe traveling from one small town to another attracting attention by playing a flute – kind of instrument so well that he could earn a small living.
On one such outing he arrives in Hamelin, a small town in western Germany. At that moment the townspeople were in a panic; their community had become overrun by rats, they were everywhere, in every home and store, running in the streets.
The piper observed this calamity in silence. Then one day began playing his pipe. He walked calmly through the streets of the town, and as he played the rats came from all over, following him through the town and then out into the countryside, and then into the hills which surrounded the town.
And then were gone…they simply disappeared…never to be seen again.
The townspeople were stunned at first and then they rejoiced.
When the piper returned to the town little was said. Instead of a joyous welcome certainly befitting his accomplishment, the piper found silence.
He thought at first that the people didn’t really believe their luck and that in a day or so, or a week or so, they would come to him and honor his success.
But they didn’t.
The piper, at first upset, became annoyed and as the days past in silence, angry.
He had made such a success of his action and the townspeople didn’t care.
The piper said nothing but one day he began walking the streets of Hamelin playing his pipe. This time the children of the town heard him and began to follow him- all of the children – throughout the town and then out into the surrounding countryside and then into the hills.
Then they disappeared. All of the children in that little town gone…never to be seen or heard from, again.
TODAY ANOTHER STORY
Our modern Pied Piper began playing his song at the very first televised debate between the seventeen Republicans, almost all holding significant public offices, who had entered the Presidential primaries in 2016.
Standing tall in their midst, this lone wolf, non-politician, successful real estate developer and TV reality host for 15 years ‘played’ this very critical song: See these people on either side of me, they couldn’t care less about you…all they care about is themselves, about being reelected. They don’t give a damn about you.
It was an outrageous tune and yet not one person on the stage challenged him.
And one by one he got rid of these ‘political rats.’ Continuing to go unchallenged as the debates dragged on for weeks, they were all simply following him to their doom. His song became stronger. He picked on one after the other. They disappeared, some never to be heard from again.
As America goes through another election cycle the big question is whether this President’s actions and policies and continued Congressional inaction will give the Democratic opposition fuel to retake the House of Representatives. It is now classic that the opposition to a sitting President usually makes waves and gains seats in Congress especially in the first mid-term elections.
In 1994 Bill Clinton took a pasting when he raised taxes. In 2010 Barack Obama watched a massive change in Congressional power helping the Republicans sit on everything he proposed (including a Justice candidate for the Supreme Court.)
Polls show that an enormous number of Americans …not just Christian white men of a determined socio-economic class who think they are losing their domain to immigrants on one hand and college elites on the other, and white woman (53% of them) who seemingly ignore the non-Presidential language and not because they hate Hillary Clinton – still support him.
The country seems prosperous. Business people, with more money and control than ever, are enthusiastic. Yet corporate control limits pay increases for the middle and working classes…who have been the recipients of a successful capitalist system. There is no longer a middle class.
We know this Piper by his deeds. He is said to be a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and an impossible human being. His ideas are clear: get rid of Planned Parenthood, abolish abortion rights, get rid of Obamacare, reduce emission standard and regulations wherever they exist and get rid of international treaties.
But that is not his siren song.
Every single day for years now, in a variety of different ways, the Pied Piper has signaled his siren song: his total disrespect for government, what it means and what it does and that it is unnecessary and limits us and that the people in it – elected or hired – are worthless only concerned about themselves.
And it is that siren song and that alone – which keeps those millions of Americans who agree with him marching in line.
Will there be the beginning of a counter melody in November which will change our direction or doesn’t it really matter? The purpose of political support behind the Pied Piper was to lure the country into accepting a legal and political conservative operative onto the Supreme Court. By so doing this Pied Piper will have brought an end to the liberal New Deal and the years of Lyndon Johnson. What Reagan started, the Pied Piper will finish.
His tune will soon become the new law of the land. Even before the mid-term elections the existence of a new Supreme Court Judge threatens to make the siren song lyrics our national anthem.
Let’s see how America deals with that.
Although the criticism of Trump is not inaccurate, the Pied Piper analogy is a rhetorical reach too far.