Many years ago, before reality sufficiently overcame sentimentality, before I realized that Town Meeting was a farcical play in which half the cast follows stage directions from a bygone era while the other half dramatizes a powerless version of local democracy as though it could change the world, way back then, I stood up and read some lines of Robert Frost’s poetry at Town Meeting. The topic was zoning and I read from The Mending Wall, which, despite its title, encourages you to think before putting up walls between yourself and your neighbors. Anyway, only one fellow citizen, a man locally regarded as quite crazy, rose in public support of my opinion.

Several weeks later I recounted this experience to a friend visiting from North Carolina, who, perhaps owing to his southern origins and unfamiliarity with Town Meeting, may have somewhat misinterpreted the nuance in my story.  “When the only one who agrees with you is the village idiot, you know you must be right,” said my friend. I would not and had not described my lone supporter as the village idiot, not only because we shared a perspective on the issue but also because he was notably shrewd in his own somewhat eccentric fashion. 

Alas, both my lone supporter and my southern friend have passed on to a realm which is, I hope, more kind to our sense of reason than the world of politics.  His comment remains with me, however, a reminder to pay attention when someone seems crazy. 

Which brings me to Donald Trump. Someday, in addition to all the other good fortune showered on this country, it could be possible for us to look back at Donald Trump and count him as one of the blessings along with spacious skies and waving grains. He could be the inoculation that saves us from a real authoritarian. 

In 2008, in the depths of the financial crisis, as a country we overcame racial prejudice and reached for Hope and Change only to be given More of the Same. Eight years later, as the injustice of the bank bailouts lingered in people’s minds, as their own paychecks barely increased while the bankers grew fat and rich again, a true demagogue could have emerged, an authoritarian tuned to the anger of the masses, a character willing to abandon not only the norms of public service but also rule of law, a person ruthless and calculating who understood the power of the presidency.

Instead we got Donald Trump, a pretender, a man whose skin color even  appears to be fake. He is, in a sense, an immunization against an actual authoritarian, an impotent version of the real thing. He’s not really tanned, he’s not really tough. He’s too much of a wimp to actually fire people himself or lead the crowd in an insurrection.  He’s definitely not competent at running the government. But, like every great salesman, he has a compelling message.

And now, as he lingers on the edge of power like a court jester amusing his audience with old routines and no doubt working on new material, we should take him seriously. It’s a theatrical performance.  He’s not the threat. Ignoring the message he brings is the risk. Whether by shrewd cunning or fate of character, the jester never speaks his truth directly. You always need to read between the lines. Just as the covid vaccine gives your immune system an early look at the plan for a viral attack, Don the Jester is telling us what’s coming so we can prepare.

Putin made sure Russians had bread when they were hungry. After the Korean War the Kims of North Korea oversaw two decades of economic growth that outstripped South Korea,  Saddam Hussein rested the boot of his tyranny on the warring factions to bring a kind of stability to Iraq. This is what authoritarians do. They make things work in a time of need and in return people surrender their freedom, sometimes forever.

People want leaders who will fix things. In our country the list is long with the injustices of our current economic system right on top. But neither political party has been able to deliver improvements. As Republicans mistake the man for the message and make fools of themselves trying to imitate Trump, the Democrats take his words at face value and treat him like a buffoon,  and they are all missing the point. 

Democracy by definition implies a system with a degree of fairness. But where do you see fairness in our system today? In food and gas prices, in housing or medical care, perhaps in the stock market???

All the world’s a stage and Don the Jester delivered his message brilliantly.  The real threat to democracy isn’t a fake authoritarian, it’s democratically elected representatives who can’t make things work for the people who voted for them.