Sending Out (and In) the Clowns

Exotic animals and costumes, and death defying acrobatics. Just add this to the list of disappearing American norms as we usher in the new abnormal.

The latest casualty of modern merchandising and the Internet era, the circus, is folding up its tents after almost 150 years. Citing numerous reasons, the CEO attributed the demise of The Greatest Show on Earth primarily to time. It just doesn’t make economic sense to keep taking the show on the road.

Exotic animals and costumes, and death defying acrobatics. Fear not, America, the circus is alive and well in Washington, with two of the three rings — the White House and the Capitol — already in full swing. TBD on the Supremes.

To quote a clown, Sad. Especially since we are now well aware that, with a little bit of cunning and ruthlessness, a whole lot of ego, and an astounding butchery of the English language and common decency, it’s quite possible to take a circus on the road on a shoestring budget (relatively speaking) and still keep audiences enthralled. And the clown-in-chief and kiss-my-ringmaster-to-be and a supporting cast of shameless elephants can out-contort the most bendy Karamazov brother. The acrobatics may not quite be death defying, but they sure are scary (in a strangely entertaining sort of way).

The new circus was in rare form the other day, in what was called a “press conference” but was really more like a medieval bear-baiting. I wondered why, after the “to-be” repeatedly shut down and insulted a CNN reporter, the next bear didn’t step up and band together with the wounded colleague and ask his question. I found out later that the next bear was a Breitbart bear. The difference between the out-going circus and the incoming circus is this: with the former, we always knew what was real and what was fake, and we knew how to distinguish between the exceptions and the rules. The lines are fast becoming irreparably blurred.

We are on the precipice, about to hand over the reins of our beloved country to a caricature of a man, a circus character who stands ready to reward those who kiss his ring and let the rest of us fly without a net. I am truly afraid; this is not your average elephant in the room.