I met a man from Mar-a-Lago, who believes Democracy is an extraneous distraction, as easily misunderstood or ignored as Neo-con, Fascist or Autocrat titles invented by the Eastern elite, who went to school and learned how to read.

History can be pilfered and modified in order to tell a receptive audience what they want to hear, to make them feel good about themselves, or superior, in fact.

It’s hard to argue with superiority, or to offer a second opinion. Second opinions are seen as useful only in healthcare, if you are dying.

Believe it or not, our most prolific national product is prideful unawareness, which seems successful in selling itself.

The second most sought after state is “grievance,” steeped in ignorance, which generates conspiratorial hatred of anything different. “Those other people are destroying my life, threatening my freedoms, skimming my profits.” Self-deception can be reassuring.

In the candidate’s own words: “I would be a dictator for one day,” allowing adequate time to declare himself king.

Churchill may have said, early in the war, “Americans will always do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”

It’s a warm winter. Democracy might be resting on thin ice.

Alec Lyall 

Middlebury