I don’t know what the left-wing equivalent of Donald Trump would look like. I imagine Rick James running for president on a lark and somehow winning. Then he spends four years holed up in the White House and seedy motels having crack orgies and accusing everyone of lying about him.
Yet, because he mostly hews to a liberal line and lets a Democratic Senate appoint a gazillion liberal judges, the Democratic establishment is begrudgingly supportive. And, because James insults conservatives on social media at every opportunity, the Democratic base is highly entertained by his act and grateful for someone who doesn’t pull any punches.
Meanwhile, most of the country has a normal response to a president who does no work, does nothing but trash-talk, and sets a terrible example for our children. They vote James out of office only to discover that 45 percent of the country is now totally okay with crack orgies. They don’t even care that approaching a half a million people suffered avoidable deaths due to James’s inattention and bad advice about a health pandemic. Many of them don’t accept the results of the election, which forces Establishment Democrats to abandon support for democracy and endorse a permanent dictatorship led by Rick James.
Of course, this would never happen, and not only because Rick James is dead. The left isn’t a mirror of the right, and we have a totally different set of faults that don’t include the tenets and style of Trumpism.
Still, I think this example helps point out how absurd our current spectacle has become. After all, Trump’s presidency has been far worse than how I’ve portrayed the James presidency, and more degrading for the country and its institutions.
I thought you were busy!
It just weirded me out, realizing that we have lost the two main narrators of that set of Chappelle skits. I don’t think I could ever accept Rick James as a party leader. But Charlie Murphy is just so down to earth in these skits, I might be manipulated into thinking he would turn out ok (if he were alive).