CARLTON FLETCHER: Scenes from an American tragedy

“I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes. You’d know what a drag it is to see you.”

— Bob Dylan

I couldn’t help but think of Don McLean’s “American Pie” … aka “the day the music died” … as I watched the surreal events of the last few days. Here, then, some scenes from a strange time in the history of America:

— There’s absolutely no way two incumbent Republican Senators in a very red state could both have lost elections to a) a first-time African-American candidate who is a preacher and b) a heretofore unsuccessful candidate who is younger than anyone else in the Senate and is Jewish. (I mention those latter two candidates’ — Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively — heritage because they are the first of each subgroup to win such an election in Georgia.) But it happened. And, no, true believers, it’s not because of voter fraud, lost ballots, dead people voting or anything like that. In fact, it’s because David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler could print a primer on how to lose such a winnable election:

1) Even after he’d just lost an election by 7 million votes, “remain loyal to Donald Trump” and used his scorched-earth campaign tactics of accuse, accuse, accuse … never mind what you plan to do, just sling dirt at your opponent;

2) Turn your back on your own state and support another state’s (Texas) attempt to subvert your state’s authority in an attempt to curry favor with a man who would, in essence, turn his back on you when you needed him most;

3) With a pandemic raging, refute commonsense safety measures because, again, your leader did so;

4) Continue to rally behind failed policies because, it’s the party way.

♦ Even a night before the Georgia runoff elections that would decide the base of political power in the Senate, the man in the White House came to Georgia and spent maybe 15 seconds talking about the candidates who still had a chance to win — and hold on to a majority in the Senate — and an hour or so talking about the 7 million-vote “fraud” that gave him the boot. True support from the president would most likely have given the incumbents what they needed to win; instead, it was all about ego and the cult of personality.

♦ Two a$$-clowns — Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri (we’d mention Jody Hice from Georgia in that category, but he’s not worth the ink it takes to print his name) who had political aspirations that, in retrospect, were all but demolished — used what they thought would be a prime opportunity to try and suck up some of Trump’s juju with the far-right fringe by challenging the certification of the Electoral College had it blow up in their faces by a comedy of tragic errors that actually convinced Loeffler (bless her heart) to change her mind and, for once — too much, too little, too late — let her words come from her own heart and mouth and not Trump’s. The eloquence of that moment showed what kind of candidate she might have been had she not caught Trump fever.

♦ Spurred on by the actual President of the United States, a bunch of thugs breached the Capitol and had their 30 minutes of “fame,” while their leader who was supposed to “walk the streets with you” hid and watched, no doubt with glee. The end result was four dead, most significantly a police officer, and a short-lived blast of ego that will have all the rioting thugs — this is America in 2021, there are cameras everywhere, dummies — in jail while their fearless leader sails off into obscurity.

♦ The once indomitable Republican party crumble into shambles as the flag-bearer for the GOP placed his ego ahead of all else and led them to infamy.

♦ A rash of resignations as stunned high-level officials in the Trump administration — who’d seemingly had blinders on for pretty much the last four years — chose to resign in protest of the chosen one’s antics.

♦ A government up for grabs by a Democratic party that’s now clamoring for left-leaning rather than centrist policies and who’ve been emboldened by the utter failure of an administration that months ago seemed insurmountable.

Bye bye, Miss American Pie.