(With apologies to Ian Dury & the Blockheads.)

My resolution to stay away from the news didn’t last long. When I don’t know what’s going on I tend to imagine the worst; and in truth, there’s something about the current news cycle that I’m finding weirdly encouraging. Let me spillane.

First let’s back up a little bit. Everyone on our side of the aisle has their pet theories about what went wrong in the election; I’ve shared some of mine in previous posts. But I think we’ve all underestimated the role played by sheer stupidity.

I know we‘re trying not to be elitist; supposedly that’s one of the things that makes people vote MAGA. But wanting a manifestly evil and incompetent person to be president is either passively stupid or actively malicious. When you get down to brass tacks, stupidity is the kindest interpretation.

The thing is, That Fucking Guy is himself a stupid person who has a supernatural gift for convincing other stupid people that he’s smart. He’s also got a monstrous ego and doesn’t like to be around people smarter than him. In his first term he allowed himself to be convinced that you need a few smart people around to keep the government running; he resented them deeply and one by one weeded them out over the course of his term.

This time it’s dumbshits all the way down, right from the beginning. (Which leads me to believe that neither Elon nor Bobby Jr. is actually all that bright. That picture of Bobby on Trump Force One, contemplating the McDonalds burger that’s been foisted on him with the most anguished smile you’ll ever see, is truly one for the ages.)

Assuming we survive the next few years — which is not a given; civil or nuclear war, Great Depression II, and liberal reeducation camps are all on the table — it’s possible that this team of the worst and the dimmest will shit the bed so horrifically that no one will ever vote Republican again.

This is assuming, again, that there will be elections. For the next two years at least, the bad guys will have control of all the branches of government, including a rubber-stamp Supreme Court. Certainly they will do everything they can to establish a permanent Reich. The hope is that enough of the old, ornery America persists to keep them from doing it.

I’d say that’s at least 50.1% likely. Those are the odds I’m giving today, anyway. Ask me again next week.