RHAPSODY IN BLUE(S).

With every day that passes, the enormity of the new situation in the US becomes clearer. The class of Secretary Clinton (who won the popular vote ) grows in the minds of all, when compared with the crass of the president-elect's entourage.

Yesterday, President Obama received Trump in the White House. The meeting went as such ritually-scripted events do, well. We will never know what was going on in the minds of both parties (Trump was nervous).  It remains ironic that the "unfit one" had to sit next to the person he had accused, for years, of not being born American.  Now, the "losers" have to confront the shallowness of the future president. The "winners" have to come to terms with the obnoxious paradoxes of this accidental  narcissistic avatar in their midst. 

The fear is real. The"used" (mostly) men around and with Trump have a vindictive, reactionary agenda.  His campaign manager is to women what a Nazi is to the Jews. The lack of culture and grace, the absence of real empathy with the "white blue-collar forgotten men in the rust belt" are almost farcical. Given that many achievements of President Obama might be shelved, voters will feel cheated and will have their day of reckoning.  One should feel frightened, imagining President Trump dealing with world leaders of whom he is not aware and regarding issues of which he is not at all cognizant.  This tabula rasa is an open invitation to allow miscalculation, improvisation and impulsive behavior to rule. His Twitter "persona" is already back with a vengeance.

How did it come to this?  Secretary Clinton's "high road" was obviously too principled and abstract for some. American voters do seldom go for philosophical argument. The frustration of many in the US and in Europe is real and raw.  Brexit is not a local phenomenon, it is a structural trans-border wave of discontent for reasons both real or imagined. This situation is an open door which lets in the manipulative mindset of a cynical few. The Far Right was able to play on the hurt feelings of the "deplorables" in the gun, pro-life, often bigoted segments of society. This tactic was widely used in the '30s-Germany, and today in countries as diverse as Russia, Poland, Turkey and China.

Trump risks having a zero honeymoon.  He even might become the victim of his backroom cronies as soon as he is made to believe that no one but him is taking over the commands. It will be ironic that the great demagogue might perish from the same cause--being manipulated--as the one he inflicted on his voters. 

There is grief in the land, there is disbelief.  When seen in time and space, the Trump phenomenon will be viewed as a costly, traumatic mistake.  Democracy can be tricky but in the end, it always recovers!   The hangover remains painful, nevertheless.