The Invaders

Beyond the merely clueless are those who find Trump and the US response to the crisis inspiring. Where I see terrible breakdowns and injustice and hypocrisy, these others see American exceptionalism. This divide is so incredibly wide it goes far beyond mere partisanship, it actually makes me wonder whether we inhabit the same universe, the same reality. And here I am talking about my immediate neighbors, my little community where I know I would find 80% approval for the way the government is responding and the same percentage just waiting for things to return to the exact same state as before the virus.

I am reminded of a tv show our family watched when I was growing up called The Invaders. The premise was that aliens from outer space had landed on earth but they looked and acted ALMOST exactly like earthlings. The only tell-tale was the way they held their fingers. Episode after episode the hero would try to fight the invaders but inevitably he would ally with someone, put his trust in them and inevitably glance down and notice their alien fingers.

I walk/drive around my community and look at people knowing most of them are totally alien. Our beliefs would be so opposed, our perceptions and realities so different, that it is impossible to say we share any identity. They come from a different planet, speak a different language, see a whole different world than I do. And their reality rules the world.I am the alien.

Meanwhile our local politicians run around with signs saying "Stop Big Government"- as government spending saves their bacon. Everything they learned about political economy they got from Sean Hannity or Glen Beck. Not sure if this is clueless or alien or both.