Is the Ship Sinking? Yes.

Are We Drowning? No.

We Know How to Swim. They Don't.

Mural detail, Sunset pavilion, Asbury Park.

There was that moment, when Emmanuel Macron put his hand on Donald Trump's arm, that I knew the United States had lost its status as the leader of the free world.

I felt a twinge of regret. But of course Trump had already vacated that space.

I think I'm okay with us being just another large, bumbling player on a field largely controlled by smaller, more agile players - a soccer field, if you will, rather than a football gridiron. But now that the game has changed, we may need to make some adjustments to our comfortable old ways of doing things.

Meanwhile, Tesla is crashing and burning. On the road, the fascist trucks have been recalled because of defective design, and on Wall Street the stock is cratering. Even the combined efforts of Fox News and the White House seem unable to turn things around.

Will Elon Musk do any better running the country than he has done with Tesla? I doubt it.

The Rs are once again driving the country into a ditch, as they have done so many times in the past. Will the Ds be able to save us, as FDR did, or as Obama did?

Frankly, I doubt it. I think much of the damage will prove to be unfixable. We will emerge a smaller, poorer, very divided country, a country that has lost its cloak of moral authority, both abroad and at home. The cloak protected us from many of the consequences of our mistakes and sins. 

I do find it curious that the Rs, having spent most of my lifetime attacking the government, are shocked to discover that the cloak of moral authority is no longer there, and that people are very willing to say mean things about them or, if given the chance, to them.

How do I feel about all this? I think I'm okay. I lived through the Vietnam war, and I know there's a downside to being an imperial power.

And the imperial presidency brought us Watergate.

Maybe we should work a bit on humility.

Paintbrush on sidewalk, Asbury Park.

See also The Face of Fascism, Unleashing the Oligarchs, On the Art Museum Steps, Is It Shock and Awe, or Is It a Flash in the Pan? Little Karl, A World in Ruins.