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Spencer Tracy, Harry Morgan and Frederic March in “Inherit the Wind” (1960), based on the play inspired by the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial that also put Darwinism in the hot seat. Courtesy MGM.

Inherit the (whirl)wind -- Trump on trial

February 11, 2021

We’re in the “Inherit the Wind” phase of the Donald J. Trump post-presidency, which will play out mainly in the courts even as it continues to play out in the court of public opinion. New York is following the money, while Georgia focuses on the former president’s alleged muscling of officials to “find” votes for him in a state he lost. Then there are all those women and their sexual harassment charges.

All of this, however, is taking a backseat to the “trial of the century” — every important trial is always the trial of the century — in which House Managers, having impeached Trump, are attempting to convince Senate jurors that the former president is guilty of the sole count of the indictment, incitement of insurrection.

The Senate Republicans — led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, he of the closed-mouth smile — could rid themselves of former President Donald J. Trump, at his second impeachment trial. They won’t do it. Photograph courtesy United States Senate.

The Republicans and fear itself

February 7, 2021

Seven years ago when the Greenleaf Book Group was preparing to publish my novel “Water Music,” about the personal relationships and professional rivalries of four gay athletes, one of their estimable editors sent me a question that I think about to this day.

One of the story arcs that is ultimately woven into the other three concerns an Iraqi boy, Alí Iskandar, who is taken under the wing of an American contractor during the height of the Iraq War with the promise of mentorship in the United States. Instead the contractor abuses him, enabled by the man’s family. My editor wanted to know why the boy doesn’t at this point run away, call the police, try to get back to his family. By way of answer I told him the story of one of my boss’ West Highland terriers, all rescues. This particular little fellow was kept in a cage all his life. Often in the office, he sits under her desk or, in moments of high energy, retreats to a corner. Once in a space it is hard to coax him out of it. He’s free and yet he’s still in the cage of his mind.

I often think about this when I think about the Republicans. Of all the many questions raised by the last four years, few are more confounding than these two: Why has former President Donald J. Trump attracted such a cult following and why do the Republicans stick with him?

J.W. Waterhouse’s “Echo and Narcissus” (1903), oil on canvas. The myth of Narcissus, the youth who fell in love with his own reflection, lent its name to the narcissism we’re seeing today.

Klete Keller and America's narcissistic identity

January 25, 2021

In 2004, the United States and Australia — then swimming’s two powerhouses — faced off at the Summer Olympics in Athens. Four years earlier in Sydney, the American men had lost to the Australian men on their home field in one of the sport’s marquee events, the 4-x-200-meter freestyle relay, a race that the Australians, anchored by the legendary Ian Thorpe, had dominated for seven years.

In Athens, where the American men’s basketball Dream Team played to stunning mediocrity, the message to Team USA’s male swimmers was clear — shut down the Aussies and take back pride of place. The relay team would be led by Michael Phelps — on his way to six gold medals but not yet the supernova Phelps of the Beijing Games four years later — and his friendly rival, Ryan Lochte, who has the second most Olympic swimming medals of any man but at that time was even less of a known quantity. They were joined by Peter Vanderkaay and, swimming the last leg against Thorpe, Klete Keller.

Standing in for flag-waving attendees, flags unfurl on the National Mall before the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. Photograph by Brian Soward/U.S. Border and Customs Protection.

Sunrise in America

January 22, 2021

Something dies, and something is born, and the sunset begets the sunrise.

What died in the last two weeks — hell, in the last four years — was the idea of the American empire as the Trump Administration’s “America First” policy, which was really the “Donald J. Trump First” policy, absented America from the world stage even as the president himself assumed imperialistic trappings of Caligula- and Nero-like proportions.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) sends Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) a look Jan. 6 that encapsulates everything we feel about those who hold — wrongly — that the recent presidential election was fraudulent.

Say anything: The fantasy of 'free speech'

January 10, 2021

Among the many delusions that have characterized the last four years of the Trump Administration — culminating in the shocking Capitol siege whose continuing fallout includes the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick — none has been more pernicious than our misunderstanding of the First Amendment and its guarantees of free speech.

The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. Photograph by Tyler Merbler. — The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. *Photograph by Tyler Merbler.*

Barbarians at the gates -- the events of 1/6/21

January 8, 2021

The late comedian Red Skelton had a humble way with an audience but a wicked sense of humor about the rich and powerful. When tyrannical Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn — the man who turned Margarita Carmen Cansino into Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Novak into Kim Novak — passed away, his funeral was well-attended, to which Skelton remarked, “It just goes to show you: Give the people what they want and they’ll turn out for it.”

Jan. 5, the people of Georgia turned out to send two Democrats — Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock — to the United States Senate, giving the Dems a one-vote majority in that body.

Jan. 6, President Donald J. Trump’s cult followers turned out, too, taking four years of disproportionate white, working-class grievance to the Capitol, where they acted like thugs — disrupting the Electoral College vote counting that would once again certify Joe Biden as president-elect; running through hallways, banging on doors, stealing mail and podiums, breaking windows and furniture; and generally disrespecting the place and the people who work there as their actions led to four deaths and countless injuries. Of all the terrible images, the one I can’t get out of my head is of one of the MAGAts posing with his red MAGA hat on a statue. If someone did that in my house, I would say, “Hats are for closets. Yours will be handed back to you as soon as you leave.”

The original Karen? In the Gospel According to St. Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow, who receives a judgment against her adversary from an unjust judge simply so he can be rid of her. One person’s nagging is another’s tenacity. … — The original Karen? In the Gospel According to St. Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow, who receives a judgment against her adversary from an unjust judge simply so he can be rid of her. One person’s nagging is another’s tenacity. Image from “Christ’s Object Lessons” by Helen Gould Harmon White (Pacific Press Publishing Co., 1900).

On Karens and angry white men

December 31, 2020

The latest edition of what I call “the literature of rejection “— the disproportionate rage at some insult by life, as evinced by the antiheroes of such fictional works as “The Iliad,” “Paradise Lost” and “Wuthering Heights” and in real life by mass murderers, assassins and terrorists that have included John Wilkes Booth, Adolf Hitler, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden — is the case of the Nashville bomber, Anthony Quinn Warner.

He fits the profile of the literature of rejection — angry, generally white and always male. What was Warner angry at exactly? AT &T? 5G? His father, who had worked for AT&T? Life? Himself? Unlike many of these monsters, he had a girlfriend — or ex-girlfriend — and that’s where things get really interesting.