Unlike Comrade Trump, sometimes you have to admit you made a mistake.  After spending so much time creating MacTrump, this morning I realized a better parody might have been the Wizard of Oz.  This admission was triggered by an article in today’s Los Angeles Times which chronicled a somewhat innocuous promotion by His Orangeness of a Fox News show  which aired last night.

According to the LA Times, the program had been promoted throughout the day as “reveal(ing) ‘stunning new details’ about Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones, according to a tweet from Business Insider’s Oliver Darcy.” (LA Times, March 26, 2017)

In a classic bait and switch, host Jeanine Pirro opened the show as follows.

Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the house. The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his healthcare bill, the one trumpeted to repeal and replace Obamacare, the one that he had seven years to work on, the one he had under lock and key in the basement of Congress, the one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass.

Forget Vietnam or, when face to face with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump could have demanded our southern neighbor pay for his wall.  I can just hear Comrade Trump’s explanation now.  “I didn’t know she was going to attack the Speaker.  I thought it was going to be about ‘wire tapping’ Trump Tower. That’s what they said. How was I to know she was going to call for Ryan to step down?” Just one more example of Nance’s law, “Coincidence takes a lot of planning.”

We know Comrade Trump lies.  Now he once again demonstrates he is a coward.  Less than 24 hours earlier, the cowardly liar had praised the Speaker for his efforts.  In his personal call to Washington Post reporter Bob Costa, Trump said, “I don’t blame Paul.  He worked very hard on this.  I don’t blame Paul at all.” (Washington Post, March 24, 2017)  Instead, Trump and the White House propaganda machine uses a a former county court judge, to do their dirty work.

If only Pirro had stopped there.  Trump would have been cast in Bert Lahr’s role as the cowardly lion.  But later, Pirro added:

I want to be clear, this is not on President Trump. No one expected a business man to completely understand the nuances, the complicated ins and outs of Washington and its legislative process. How would he know which individuals upon which he would be able to rely?

Now I’m really confused.  Not only does Trump not have the nerve, Pirro confirms he doesn’t have a brain either.  The good news is, much like Ray Bolger in the original Wizard of Oz, it is now clear the GOP crows are not intimidated by this scarecrow’s presence in the political cornfield.

I’ll save his many qualifications for playing a tin man without a heart for later.  Let’s just leave it at this.  The yellow brick road is going to be a little less crowded with one, instead of three insecure individuals, accompanying Dorothy to the Emerald City.  Speaking of Dorothy, that part will be played by Melania Trump who reminds us all she wants is to return to her own bedroom in her own home.  So far, she’s the only one who seems to have been granted her wish.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

Act III: The Transition

Scene I: Castle Penthouse

MacTrump (Donald J. Trump)

With victory in hand, tis’ time to pivot.  Or have I in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were so tedious as go o’er.

Lady MacBeth (Steve Bannon)

A shift in manner may come later, as there remains still those who doubt your legitimate ascension to the throne–enemies of the people and deep-state saboteurs.  We’ve scorched the snake, not killed it.  Things bad begun make themselves strong by ill.

Banquo (Kellyanne Conway)

Be calm, my lord. Thou hast it now: king, commander-in-chief, head of party, all.  As the weird women predicted.

MacTrump

Then why hath sleep and peace become a stranger to me.  Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends, I have a strange infirmity which is nothing to those that know me.

Lady MacTrump

Worry not, the blood of your battles are on the hands of others and shall remain so.  To bed, my lord.  I shall assure everything be alt-right. (Aside:  Doth I repeat myself?  Hath the bard run short of clever paraphrases to express such sentiments?)

Scene II: Royal Bedchamber (the following night)

Ghost of Banquo

My lord’s body sleeps but not his soul.  Otherwise, he would not have exiled me to the land of Fox.  Does he not honor my loyalty?  Does he fear I will reveal all I have witnessed and been part of?  Did he conclude I am the traitor of whom the witches spoke?

MacTrump

What spirit invades my dreams?  Ah, Banquo.  Returned so soon?

Ghost of Banquo

Not yet, my lord.  I come to seek thy forgiveness.  My slips of tongue were unfortunate and unintentional.  It is not I you should fear.  MacDuff, Thane of Scottsdale (John McCain), as if some holy angel, hath flown to the court of Merkel to unfold his message.

He claims the castle is in disarray. He challenges your 140 character missives.

Did not the witches warn of one insulted?  I fear he will become more than a minor ‘hanoi-ance.”  [Vanishes]

Lady MacTrump

My lord, your ashen complexion doth betray you.

MacTrump

Twas’ Banquo, though I know it could not be.  My fate is cast.  Come, we’ll to sleep.  My strange and self-abuse is the initiate fear that wants hard use.  We are yet young in deed.

Lady MacTrump

(Aside: The force is strong with this one.  And now his training is complete.  If he only knew the power of the dark side.)

[Author’s Note:  I know, I know.  Lady MacTrump’s last words may be outside the time/space continuum, but certainly not out of character.  Stay tuned for the next episode, MacTrump/Act IV: A New Hope.]

Act II: The Primary Campaign

Scene I: Mar-a-Elsinore

MacTrump (Donald J. Trump):

[Aside] Alas, back home at the Winter Castle where my beloved and I may once again consummate our confederation of spirit and purpose.  As sayeth the sages, the third time is truly the charm.  Yes, I did first choose Lady Lewandowski.  And then Lady Manafort.  Picking the best wives is more complicated than anyone hast imagined.  Behold, here cometh Lady MacTrump (Steve Bannon).

Lady MacTrump

Welcome home, my lord.  I eagerly awaited your return for I have good tidings.  Although there be no new wars and the economy is on the mend, there is a restlessness among the peasants.  And rumors swirl the throne shall be an open seat soon.  This is our destiny, oops, I mean your destiny, my lord.

MacTrump

My lady, you are mistaken.  Donalbain of Tallahassee, the second son of King Duncan is next in line.

Lady MacTrump

Agreed. But while thou was away, I frequented the local taverns and joined the forgotten patrons.  Many were inebriated yet questioned Donalbain’s commitment to rid the land of the others.  After all, does he not have a wife whose veins flow with foreign blood.? That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold.  What hath quench’d them hath given me fire.

MacTrump

Tis’ true.  Already, many thanes and fifes have expressed an interest in challenging the anointed one.

Lady MacBeth

No, my lord.  You are the anointed one.  Were you not handed the silver spoon at birth?  Did you not, at a young age, learn to be a warrior at the military academy in the Land of York? I ‘can-see-no’ way thou would fail to vanquish them all.  Bankrupt thou shall never be. Be off, my lord, there is work to do.

Scene II: Lady MacTrump’s Anteroom

MacTrump

Is this a tabloid I see before me?  A dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?  What have I done?  Surely, I shall be discovered and punished for my sins.

Lady MacTrump

Rest your conscience, my Lord.  Your tiny hands are clean.  It is your servants Breitbart and Ailes who will pay the price for their indiscretions.  You are the king.  The law no longer applies. Retire we to our chamber, a little water clears us of this deed.  And please, my lord, stop calling me Shirley.

MacTrump

Then why am I so robbed of sleep?  Arising before the cock crows, my head filled with thoughts I wish to share if only there were a way to do so. Where did you put my tablet and stylus?

Lady MacTrump

Worry not, my lord.  Everything will turn out alt-right.

[Playwright’s Note:  Students of Shakespeare will receive extra credit for identifying actual quotes from Act II of Macbeth.]

Damn!!  On most days, I blog in hopes of raising questions and encouraging others to look under the rocks, read between the lines or examine the white space where they might discover the deeper meaning behind the news or societal behavior.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is something I enjoy doing.  But it is not always pleasurable. Yesterday,  I was actually having fun writing this blog.  And I hoped to have four more days of relatively minor chaos in Washington in order to complete Acts II-V of the MacTrump parody.  No such luck.

Let me explain.  The title of this post is not due to any on-going concern that a thin-skinned, narcissist might fumble the “nuclear football.”  In fact, today the target isn’t even Donald Trump.  The trigger for today’s post was introduction of the American Health Care Act aka RyanCare, the proposed replacement for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aka ObamaCare.

I know.  I know.  As I’m writing these words, I can imagine one of my former students interrupting.  “Come on, Professor.  Aren’t you exaggerating just a bit?  Do you really believe we’re all going to die because of one congressional bill?” No, I don’t.  This is not about the physical demise of civilization.  It is about the philosophy embodied in the Republican health care proposal which turns its back on a major tenet of community life which has existed since the earliest days of mankind.

While I was still on the faculty at Miami University, I team taught a course in ethics.  On the first day of class my  colleague, a professor of business legal studies, would describe the origins of what one might call the “moral code” which governs society.  Before our primitive ancestors began to live collectively, it was the law of the jungle.  Everyone for themselves.  But as they created communities, they recognized the need for shared responsibility.  Even a cave person, observing an older member of the tribe in pain, inherently knew some day they too might suffer the same fate.   From which developed a pattern of behavior, not out of altruism, but necessity.  Jean-Jacques Rousseau described this ethical standard as “the social contract.”

Sadly, the RyanCare proposal does just the opposite.  Consider this one provision, the elimination of the individual mandate.  ObamaCare required all financially able Americans to contribute to the nation’s collective health.  They could do this by making sure they personally were covered or pay a penalty.  The penalty was actually a tax, the primary purpose of which was to teach individuals who did not think they needed insurance (i.e. the young and healthy) what the earliest homo sapiens understood eons ago.  Youth and good health are temporary conditions.

According to every analysis of the Republican plan, without the mandate, health care expenditures will increase for the most vulnerable (low income and the elderly).  While other provisions, such as elimination of the tax on passive income (capital gains, dividends and interest) for families with an income of $250,000 or more (i.e. the 0.1 percent), represents a major tax break for the wealthy.  Just what America needs.  Trickle-down health care.

I must admit, you have to appreciate the irony. The political party made up of individuals of whom 49 percent do not believe in evolution (Source: Public Policy Polling, February 2015) is promoting health care legislation based on the Darwinian principle of “survival of the fittest.”  They might as well have called the proposal, “The Jungle Health Care Act.”

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP