Voting, For Something

 TWENTY FIVE PERCENT of all the people who vote in this election will be sixty five or older, which may reflect the fact that a rather high percentage of older people vote, and a rather low percentage of young people vote. More than fifty percent of eligible Americans, uncharacteristically, will vote in this angry election, but fewer than seventy five percent. Angry, but not furious. It is essential that we remain convinced that voting is of the utmost importance,, after all, it is among the few means of popular expression available to us. Regardless of election results, the hard truth the United States shall remain forever utterly under the control of our corporate masters, as Gore Vidal called them. Vidal also made the cynical remark that the that half of eligible American voters who who don't bother to vote are the people who understand that their vote means nothing, that corporate control will adhere no matter what. The obvious truth of Vidal's cynical comment, methinks, must never quench our cigar's glow, as Bertolt Brecht said, nor move us to stray from our naive but comforting illusion that we live in a democracy, not a plutocratic corporate oligarchy, as is actually the case. In my early years of senior citizenship I have learned that advanced age does not translate to advanced wisdom. The elderly demographic comprises Donald Trump's strongest base of support, and the young his weakest. Clearly, in America, old people are idiots and young people have brains.I know people approximately my age (65) who firmly believe, or who firmly pretend to believe that there exists a secret conspiracy, consisting of something called the "deep state", among others, to remove Donald Trump from office. I'm talking about allegedly intelligent people, not "Q-Anon" nutcases. the people who believe or pretend to believe this are demonstrably idiots, because they can't seem to see that the conspiracy to remove Trump a loose, informal, and huge, loud, boisterous, and self promotional, entirely visible, obvious, right out in the open,  doing everything in its power to attract attention, and includes between one hundred and two hundred million Americans, including children. To not notice this one must either be blind, oblivious to reality, or plain old idiotic. There is nothing secret about opposition to Trump in America. I know a sixty three year old woman, ostensibly reasonably intelligent, who believes or pretends to believe that Michelle Obama is a man. there are many more like her out there, walking the streets, who shouldn't be.In america, the thin line between idiocy and sheer insanity often blurs.