Hoofbeats

I was listening to the BBC in the car yesterday. One of their reporters had penetrated the depths of Yahoo land to talk to American citizens about the election. "Of course I'm voting," one said. "I'm terrified of the violence." I was so relieved. "The Democrats are just out of control," he continued. "Yelling at politicians in restaurants." The BBC guy was as taken aback as I was. "But what about the pipe bombs sent to Democrats, the shootings in Kentucky and Pittsburgh?" "Oh, Trump has nothing to do with any of that. How could he? But I am terrified of this caravan. They're breaking our laws. It's an invasion, and Trump is calling out the military to stop it."I keep thinking that we're all being gas lighted--that the news media is so afraid of being caught flatfooted like they were two years ago that they're leaning all the way in the opposite direction. Trump isn't the moronic would-be fascist racist that he seems; Tuesday will erase the worst of the last two years. But of course we're not and he is and it won't, no matter how well it goes.When I was little, my mother used to tell me how her mother listened in terror for the hoof beats of the Cossacks' horses at night. It sounded like a fairy tale to me.