Stream of Conscienceless: Stream of Consciousness Essays on Trump's America

The Beginning of the End of the Great American Experiment

Transcript From Mother America's Exit Interview With Her Son:

Son: "Lady Liberty meant so many

Things to so many people...

Or was it, in reality, there were so many

People to whom so few things meant?"

Mother: "Ah, son, I can sense your ire

But you needn't be so sad.

It was always going to end this way;

You shouldn't feel this bad.

After having these ages in sparkling limelight,

With remarkable death-defying heights in might,

Can't you see this is all I care about now?

So, come son, worship with me at this golden cow

.

You'll inevitably give in when I say run to war.

So what if I'm an over-moneyed propagandist whore?

You WILL take my marching orders to the Corps

Save for later wondering what it all was for."

Son: "But the shining city on a hill..."*

Mother: "'Bastion of Freedom, Beacon of Hope?' Mere euphony.

She's really a rusted cage hidden under a golden shawl.

That ubiquitous dollar, son.

That's what inevitably rules us all.

You've grown fat and complacent

Under my greed disguised as bounty

You know it's true; you know you can see.

So it seems fitting you adhere to my philosophy."

Son: "Mother, why didn't you tell us this before?"

Mother: "Honestly, I thought you knew this whole time

That America's an experiment soaked in brine.

The salt would preserve Her for quite some time

But now she just stinks of lost paradigm."

Son: "I just can't accept this; it just can't be..."

Mother: "Come now son, I've been honest with you.

Can't you do the same if it's true?

Power is full of stunning red delights

Let's milk what's left and flee into the night.

Ideologies don't come cheap; take it from me

Instead I chose to reap, and I have yet to sow

I'm not worried about legacies to keep

The cheapest crop is humans; it's the only way to go."

Son: "Why will you not, FOR ME, relinquish this poisonous crown?"

Mother: "Oh, son, because it seems so sound.

It fits so well upon my shiny head...

Maybe I'll just get rid of you instead."

A republic, if we can keep it. -- Benjamin Franklin

*from a speech of Ronald Reagan's