“Do you want to visit a lavender farm?” my wife asked. The honest answer would be: “God no — why would I do that?”
But we were in Northern Michigan, with a few hours to kill before the weekend’s wedding festivities began. I’m a blind blunderer, but my wife has this superpower; she investigates where we’re going and discovers what there is to do. So her suggestion is an endorsement, practically a command. In that light, why yes, by all means, let’s go. If I didn’t take my wife’s lead, I’d still be a single guy living in a one-bedroom apartment in Oak Park, and not the father of a groom.
“Sure,” I said. Shortly thereafter we were gawping at the purple wonderland of Lavender Hill Farms.
This is such a beautiful country. The rural regions hold their own against the national parks or coastal waters or even the gorgeous skyline of a city like Chicago. Driving almost anywhere reminds me of that.
I know. Democrats are supposed to be twisting in agony right now. Between Old Joe Biden tightening his grip on the steering wheel as the Democratic Party races toward a cliff, and Donald Trump escaping death (by the direct intervention of the Lord God Almighty, as he says, or by the same persistent dumb luck that had him born to a real estate millionaire in 1946), doom is nigh.
But honestly, I don’t feel it. Given how either man won’t be around much longer, I’m already looking past them, to what each represents. Biden’s biggest achievements so far were repairing America’s crumbling infrastructure — bridges and roads like the ones we were gliding across — and mobilizing Europe to stand behind Ukraine. Plus standing for decency and honesty — his claims to spryness notwithstanding.
Trump represents an America not only sprawling before dictators, but imitating them. On that note: enjoying the Republican convention? I didn’t watch a second. News reports convey policy notions that are pure folly. Like those “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but companies can’t staff as it is. Were the United States to actually do what they’re suggesting — deport millions of immigrants whom we didn’t allow to become legal — besides being an epic human rights disaster, it would crater our economy.
As would the tariffs Trump loves, whether imposed by him or J.D. Vance. Chicago should be especially sensitive to this. Remember candy companies? Remember Brach’s on the West Side, running 24 hours a day? Swept away by daft sugar tariffs propping up beet farms in Louisiana. It was estimated that three candy company jobs vanished for every sugar industry job saved.
There’s more. One reason Christian fundamentalists line up behind a thrice-married, porn star canoodling, serial liar like Trump is that he appointed Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe, leaving us with a patchwork of state restrictions and bans that might yet turn into a nationwide prohibition. Reproductive choice has already been snatched away from one-third of the women in the country and they’re coming for the other two-thirds. The goofball they just nominated for vice president has said he’d like women to register their menstrual cycles with the government, so it will know if they have an abortion. Call me a pants-wetting liberal, but that seems to me a greater intrusion on our civil liberties than banning .50-caliber bullets. I don’t want to live in that country, do you?
So why am I optimistic? Forget personalities. Forget Joe Biden quivering like the last leaf on the tree in a November gale. Bottom line: people generally don’t want to be slaves. Particularly Americans, because we have a legacy of freedom. Democracy flared up in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, then vanished, because Russians are used to being serfs, and are unhappy making decisions for themselves.
While many Americans have a tragic fondness for telling others what to do, we tend to chafe at being ordered around. That will manifest itself. Hopefully by November, but certainly afterward. Every time yanking away abortion rights is on a ballot, it has lost, and will continue to do so. A difficult moral choice isn’t made any easier by having some gimlet-eyed minister make it for you.
The fever is going to break. America is a blessed, beautiful, bountiful land, with only one enemy who can destroy us: ourselves. I refuse to believe that we’re going to plunge our country into a totalitarian nightmare just so we don’t have to risk hearing Spanish spoken at Walmart. The fear junkies, committed to continual panic, continually inventing shadows to flinch away from, will not prevail. That can’t be our future. I don’t believe it.