Remember how Dorothy’s puppy, Toto, pulled back the screen and revealed that behind his power, flames, and smoke, the Wizard of Oz was a hoax. He could reward the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion, before floating away from accountability in a hot-air balloon and abandoning Dorothy’s wise, bold, teamwork to reunite her family.
Like the Wizard, Trump uses flames of anger and smoke of misinformation to influence us to believe that he is all-powerful, brilliant, capable of solving any problem quickly, and the only solution to a fictional world he depicts as failing (fictions comparable to his staged “reality TV” show, photo-ops, talk shows and social media). He plans to rule authoritatively, to use a monkey militia against “enemies within,” and to complain about witch-hunts.
Like Dorothy, Harris knows there is “no place like home” with its Constitution and Bill of Rights, family, neighbors, and hope for the future.
Mark Rains
Vienna
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