Waiting For Trumpot

Many years ago I attended a production of “Waiting For Godot,” an example of the “theater of the absurd.” While waiting for Godot to show up, two guys strike up a conversation. They talk about the futility of life and our search for “meaning” that Godot somehow embodies. The fact they keep hoping he’ll show, when he obviously isn’t going to, is supposed to represent the power of faith and hope to elevate life into something meaningful in the face of its ultimate futility.

I’d like to say I drew some deep life changing conclusions from it, but all I recall, and recall vividly, is that it seemed as though, like Godot, the end of the play would never arrive.

Watching recent events unfold, I feel like I am back in that theater watching that play, retitled “Waiting for Trumpot.”

In our real life drama two Americas strut the boards. On one side are those who do not eagerly wait for Trumpot to appear, but rather for his disappearance. They believe they know the meaning of life, that it is to seek truth, justice, peace, harmony and equality for all. The absurdity of this quest is that not only are we no closer to such a world than we have ever been, but to achieve it would create a utopian existence devoid of challenges and without injustices to overcome. How tedious such a life would be.

The human animal was not designed to occupy such a world.

On the other side are Trumpot supporters, bigoted, self-righteous and uneducated, who find purpose in opposing all social and scientific progress. They are unaware of the fact they are pawns of Trumpot’s peers, scoundrels who know exactly what their own purpose is; to flatter, scam and entertain the ignorant in order to fill their money bags. The absurdity of their quest is…

Well, is it absurd? Or is it actually the life for which we were designed?

With each new headline, the drama unfolds. Another dead body, Trumpot standing over it smoking gun in hand, is discovered on 5th avenue. If ever there was justification for summarily tossing someone in the hoosegow and throwing away the key, this is it. But, you see, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Even those repeatedly caught red handed.

Never mind that the Founders never expected someone so vile would ever have gained such high office and assumed if such a one somehow did, honorable legislators would surely remove him from it. Now even some (relatively) honorable leaders are entertaining the absurd notion that if you were once a president or you are running for president, even though no one is above the law, perhaps you are above it after all.

Even if you’re not above it, for the “good of the country” the fact you were president means we have to be extra careful and ——-take———–our———-time——- indicting—–—you.

Once we do, even with the gravity of the offenses and all the damning evidence already well established, do we send you straight into a courtroom and get on with it? No. We have to wait and wait before holding a trial. Let’s not even think about the appeals. And if by some chance you are convicted, maybe you should, also for the country’s “good,” be pardoned.

Like those two poor slobs in the play, we wait and we wait .

In fact it may take so long to prove what has already been proven beyond doubt, that neither Trumpot nor we might live to see him convicted. Meanwhile, he may be elected president again and be immune from prosecution before the spinning wheels of justice gain any traction.

At the moment at least, it seems to be as futile to expect Trumpot will ever get his comeuppance as it was for those two guys to expect Godot to show up. Maybe more futile.

If he doesn’t (absurdity of absurdities, even if he does) he could be returned to the Oval Office and from there would surely go on to become dictator.

And if justice does prevail? Thanks to the plethora of mini-Trumpots he has spawned and the huge number of supporters to whom he gave permission to proudly wave the flags of bigotry, ignorance, and backward thinking, the arc of history may well continue in the direction upon which he set it.

Absurd? Yes. But let’s look at the bright side. The best part of this situation is that we, the audience of this real-life theater of the absurd, are not bored. Far from it.

Without such a fine amusement, we, like the characters in the play, would likely be spending our humdrum days seeking meaning in a world where, according to some gloomy philosophers, there is none. When all is said and done, say these cynics, life consists pretty much of just passing time waiting for our own personal dramas to end.

Sometimes I’m inclined to think they are right, but, while we wait, isn’t it comforting and distracting to be so well entertained?