“Hear me! I am your new president. From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish.”
So utters the newly-minted revolutionary president in Woody Allen’s 1971 movie, “Bananas,” a comedy about a mad man who takes the reins of government in a fictional banana republic.
The bearded young leader continues as his devoted but increasingly confused band of gun-carrying supporters stops cheering to listen.
“In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check.”
He finishes: “Furthermore, all children under 16 years old, are now 16 years old.”
The new president in the 1971 film “Bananas”
The crowd now begins to look like, uh-oh, what have we done.
Forty six years later, the madness and incoherence has come to that banana republic known as the United States.
The mad man is not bearded wearing a military field cap. He is carefully coiffed, wearing a red baseball hat with a meaningless motto intended to take the place of thoughtfulness, a quality this dictator is not capable of demonstrating.
He doesn’t change to official language to Swedish (yet), but he insists anyone entering the country speak its language when their feet hit the shore.
He hasn’t (yet) demanded that we check everyone’s underwear every half hour, but he does demand loyalty and anyone – anyone – who disagrees with him about anything from his policies to his self-proclaimed greatness to his demonstrable lies about everything from his college record to receiving phone calls from phantom sources who never called him, will soon find themselves abandoned, ostracized and doomed.
And while he hasn’t declared that all children under 16 years old are now 16 years old, it isn’t hard to imagine this loose-lipped, feeble-brained tin pot dictator soon giving Woody Allen’s fictitious creation a run for his money.
While the crowd of armed thugs in the 1971 movie seem to get a bit worried when their new president goes off his rocker before their eyes, our all-too-real president proves every day the truth of his early campaign boast that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.
I’d be careful walking down Fifth Avenue…
Many people are talking about the new reality Trump has imposed on the world. There is constant talk about “normalizing” versus not normalizing his behavior. Those in the not normalizing camp worry, justifiably, that it is frightening to accept behavior that would have gotten anyone else fired, if not involuntarily committed to an institution.
Yet the temptation to normalize is strong. It isn’t easy or pleasant to be blasted daily by irrational behavior from a friend, a spouse…or a president, so the urge is to say, it’s not so bad. We can live with it. It may change.
But nine months after the election, he still talks about his win, still talks about how he would have won the popular vote had not millions of people voted illegally, still talks about the enormous crowd only he could see at his inauguration, still talks about his great accomplishments – again, that only he can see – tells us he will be, or already is, the greatest president since Abe Lincoln, bad mouths members of his own cabinet, hires a foul-mouthed, arrogant communications director.
Normalizing this is the understandable instinct. Like living in a tortured marriage, withstanding daily assaults on reality is incredibly unpleasant. But at least in a bad marriage, it is possible to leave.
Three hundred thirty million Americans can’t leave this other-worldly “reality” created by Trump and abetted by his minions.
So, like the crowd in “Bananas,” we stand there, bewildered by the insanity. And make no mistake, it is insanity.
Donald Trump is a mad man, clinically and in every way.
It is cold comfort for those of us who warned against him to say we told you so, or well, he didn’t win the popular vote.
So what? He is president, lying every day, trying to increase his power and limit ours. Telling us things we know aren’t true about himself.
It is a world turned upside down. Sometimes I think it is just a matter of time until he tells us, “All children under 16 years old, are now 16 years old.”
Better start learning Swedish.