Where the Mockery Falls

It’s a stinging photo-illustration of Trump as the Capitol rioter dressed up as a horned Davey Crockett whose picture has been everywhere.

At the same time, please mind the double meaning in the title. The Europeans have regarded Trump as poison all along–visually and otherwise. In contrast, it’s like the violent attack on the Capitol in Trump’s final days in office–with all the normalizing of this insane and hateful man as president of the United States–has finally woken America up.

The title refers to Trump’s mocking of democracy. We in the States, in contrast, have largely confused that problem with the trashing of Trump himself. It takes us back to a truism that is still not clearly established as we face Trump’s second impeachment. That is, that Trump isn’t the disease as much as he’s the symptom of one. For that reason, the first thing that went through my head when I saw this was: we have seen the enemy, and it is us.

–Michael Shaw
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Photo-illustration: The New European