CBS’s timing for the third revival of its other-worldly series The Twilight Zone could not have been more impeccable. As we approach the precipice of a presidential election campaign, we are, indeed, about to enter another dimension. With apologies to the late Rod Serling, here is the introductory narrative:
Imagine if you will, a score or more of ambitious politicians, a horde of men and women of various shades of liberalness, all seeking their party’s nomination. It is, by and large, an honorable constellation of star candidates. Except for one thing. Each of them possesses a flaw. Although neither felonious nor disqualifying, these foibles haunt the presidential aspirants like a Dickensian ghost. Meanwhile, the other party has but one candidate, the incumbent president, an utterly immoral, soulless, bloviating shell of a man who routinely performs at least a dozen despicable acts before breakfast. What does it mean, you might ask, that a good candidate, even with a minor peccadillo, would not be a shoo-in when pitted against a deplorable bastion of evil? It means that we are now in the Twilight Zone.
And we’d better get used to it. Between now and November of next year, this country’s quest to elect a president will be subsumed in a bizarre and preternatural odyssey unlike anything we have experienced. The campaign will be void of symmetry, packed with irrationality and mired in a Byzantine battle of facts versus alternative facts.
For the Democratic candidates, the focus will be on benign blemishes, things like having a faux American Indian identity, bullying staff members, being too close to Wall Street, dating a much older political figure decades ago, or having a rope line reputation for pressing the flesh a tad too much.
On the Republican side is Donald Trump, a rapidly growing malignant goiter on the body politic. So far in 2019, he has clocked in at an average of 22 lies a day. He took migrant children away from their parents and caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. He said some neo-Nazis and Klan members are “very fine people”, and complained that Nigerians won’t “go back to their huts” and that Haitians “all have AIDS”. He shared highly classified data with top Russian officials, and has sided with Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies.
In just the past few days, Trump has outdone himself when it comes to unraveling. He threatened to close the country’s southern border, and then backed off and said he’d use tariffs to force his will on Mexico. Then he urged border patrol agents to force asylum-seeking immigrants to turn around and go home because there is no room for them, completely contrary to facts and law. He promised a top Homeland Security official a presidential pardon if he ignored the legal rights of migrants. His record is so bad on this issue that there have been at least 25 federal court rulings that have blocked nearly every move Trump has made on immigration.
Clearly, no American president has stood for reelection with a record as odious as Trump’s. Yet, it is very possible that he will win a second term in 2020. He remains revered by his base as the Great White Hope in a country that has grown far too diverse for his supporters’ tastes. And he remains acceptable to many mainstream Republicans who may hold their noses privately while publicly applauding his tax cuts for the rich and appointment of conservative judges. Besides, his acts of atrocity are so numerous and frequent, they have a way of fading into the ether to make room for their successors. That leaves us with this bizarre, irrational and asymmetrical environment in which the quotidian flaws of Democratic candidates have a staying power that outlasts the cumulative horror that has been Trump’s presidency. Not only that, the challengers’ flaws pale in comparison to Trumpian foibles in the same category.
For example:
AMY KLOBUCHAR has been accused of bullying staff members. Trump routinely insults, demeans and verbally abuses not only staff but cabinet members, congressional leaders and foreign dignitaries.
ELIZABETH WARREN has been unable to shake the criticism that she incorrectly claimed to be an American Indian. As of March 17, Trump told 9,179 lies since taking office. One of them was that his father was born in Germany.
KAMALA HARRIS is constantly bombarded with reports that, as a young political apprentice, she dated – more than 20 years ago – a much older Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco. This barely even qualifies as a flaw but she has been getting flack on it. Harris was single at the time, although Brown was technically married but estranged from his wife. Trump’s alleged flings with a porn star and a Playboy Playmate, along with hush money paid to both, don’t even make the top ten list of his aberrant behaviors.
CORY BOOKER has been on the carpet for having close ties to Wall Street. From day one of his presidency, Trump has catered to the moneyed class, filling his cabinet with Goldman Sachs alumni, rolling back regulations for the financial sector and cutting taxes on the mega rich.
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND has acquired the “flip flop” label as a result of becoming more liberal after she moved from a moderate House district to her current New York Senate seat. Trump has not only spent his life flip-flopping (abortion, gun control, LGBTQ rights), but lately, as noted above, he has been reversing himself on an almost hourly basis (border closing, health insurance, Special Olympics funding). A creative entrepreneur has had great success in selling “Presidential Flip-Flops”, sandals that carry Trump’s contradictory tweets on the straps of the footwear.
JOE BIDEN has run into problems with his habit of expressing affection with hugs, kisses and caresses that sometimes make people feel uncomfortable. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 23 women and boasted on the Access Hollywood tape of grabbing them by their genitals.
The good news in all of this is that any of the Democratic candidates would be head and shoulders above Trump. The bad news is that it does not assure electoral victory. That will come the way it always has, through good messaging and the hard work of voter registration and turnout. It’s either that or four more years in the Twilight Zone.