We’re Finally Off ‘The Crazy Train’

Was I prepared for this moment in time, when I realised Ozzy Osbourne absolutely nailed it? As in, he eloquently summarised a significant proportion of the worlds thoughts and feelings in 2020, but with great prescience way back in 1987? Hell no. But when I said to myself last Saturday, “OMG, Biden’s won. I feel like we all just got off the crazy train.”, it could not have been more true.

Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it’s not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate

Mental wounds not healing
Life’s a bitter shame
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train I’m going off the rails on a crazy train

Lets Go

I’ve listened to preachers
I’ve listened to fools
I’ve watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The media sells it, and you live the role

Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: O. Osbourne / R. Daisley / R. Rhodes Crazy Train lyrics © Blizzard Music Ltd.

Honestly? When I went to look at the lyrics sometime later, it all neatly fit in to what I wanted to say on a ‘political post’. Even though my point of view may not gel with some readers, and that’s okay, I had to write something about the last 5 years in American politics. There was so much I felt I wanted to say, but so much had already been written about Trump I didn’t think I could bring anything new to the conversation that hasn’t been hashed out and dissected in detail already.

I’m not some fancy journalist in Vanity Fair or the New York Times. I’ve read some really fantastic and engaging articles about Trump and his myriad of issues, the polarising impact he and the GOP have had on all facets of the political spectrum during his tenure. QAnon? Conspiracy theories? Fake News? The Kung Flu, support of white supremacists, dictatorial and autocratic behaviours pushing us all to our limits? How every single thing his office has ever done has been ‘The greatest in the history of the world that has ever been seen?” Name-calling, bullying, disparaging and berating others as the norm, dog whistling his base, and copious amounts of daily (orange) bald-faced lies? This post is never going to compete, not that it’s meant to. I could try to rehash all the superlatives that have already been put to paper and screen, but you’ve all heard it before. This was sadly what became our new normal, never mind COVID-19 entering the picture.

I read the book by Mary Trump back in the summer in one day and every single chapter of it made complete sense, gave me a sense of clarity about who this man was brought up to be, and just how mentally unfit for the job he is. He’s doing what he has been enabled to do his entire life with zero consequence and a narcissistic sense of entitlement that beggars belief. His own spawn are all on the exact same course now. I say spawn in this case because I still think he looks like a sunburnt bullfrog, and frogs spawn as such.

My favourite description was bestowed upon him by Graydon Carter in Spy magazine. Donald Trump has been called many things, but Short-Fingered Vulgarian is hands down the winner for me.

[ If you would like to read more on the origins of this excellent description, see the article here: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/how-donald-trump-became-the-short-fingered-vulgarian .]

There was certainly a collective sigh of relief once they finally called Pennsylvania, and thus the election, without the worry of a Georgia recount for state. Nobody wants to have Georgia ‘on their mind’ more than it already will be with the Senate run-off elections already set to be a national preoccupation until mid January.

What worries everyone now is getting that SFV out of the Oval Office. You’re fired Donald. Go back to the bunker you enjoy the most –on your golf courses– from whence you came. Throw your tantrums all you want, but its happening, and pretty soon we won’t need to see them on the daily news. Oh, he’ll be providing us with a lot more Late Night Talk Show content until he’s actually gone (and probably beyond for far too long), but I long for the day when I don’t need to hear about his implausible and irresponsible Tweets. When I won’t have to worry about the planet going to hell in a hand basket because he spews lies about climate change and the virus that, “It’s like magic. It will magically disappear. We’re rounding the corner…”. Yeah, you’re rounding the corner all right, on a road to nowhere at this point in time.

I know Joe Biden and Kamala Harris aren’t perfect. No politicians are. Heck, none of us are. And they have a a gargantuan mess to try and clean up from a man who cared nothing for his citizens and only about himself and his financial interests. Who labelled states good or bad based on the previous elections and if they were red or blue. A leader should represent all of his country and not try to punish certain populations for what he feels is dissent against his party. The Republicans have a lot of thinking to do as a party too, because right now they are the ones who have a lot of soul searching to do after being too afraid to say ‘NO’ to the Commander in Chief who was in desperate need of reprimand I would argue on an almost daily basis.

I leave with the parting thought that 2020 may yet end with some light and hope. The news that Pfizer has a 90% effective vaccine after human trials is yet another step in the right direction after the highs of the election result.

And I also leave you with the parting shot: