There is a song by the great tunesmith David Byrne titled “Once in a Lifetime”; it’s a critique of the classic “Leave It to Beaver” middle-class lifestyle known as the American dream. He writes:

“And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile.

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife.

And you may ask yourself, Well, how did I get here?

Into the blue again, after the money’s gone.

Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself, How do I work this?

And you may ask yourself, Where is that large automobile?

And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house.

And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful wife.”

And that’s the issue I’m keenly interested in because American culture is in serious trouble. So many of us get married (the chief “lifetime commitment”) on a whim and then promptly get divorced on an even flimsier whim. Here today, gone tomorrow, ever searching for that elusive (because it doesn’t exist) American dream that’s my expected and rightful embodiment of everything my precious little consumerist heart desires. Self-indulgent greed is bad enough, but the absolutely awful taste of this dish comes from its toxic ingredients: premeditated anger and glorified stupidity.

Sorry for being the “Downer Danny” but look around and tell me I’m wrong. Most of us no longer exist in anything once attributed to as consensually agreed upon factual, moral normality. We’ve got a convicted, vindictive thug of a felon who is president — again — who can only speak at the intellectual capability of an eighth grader. I mean, really, schoolyard name calling? “Meatball?” “Newscum?” “Sleepy?” Do you ever hear any other “adult” talk like this?

A corrupt Supreme Court who rules if this president shoots a detractor dead on 5th Street in Manhattan while in office is above the law? And an even more venal Congress? And seriously, these cabinet picks? Are you kidding? And a suicidal veteran whose final will and testament is to round up all “liberal Democrats” and expel them, jail or even shoot them dead if necessary? I wonder how 1932 Germans were articulating democratic “government of the people, for the people, by the people?”

It was reported by the liberal scum, Stephen Colbert, that a group of people are taking online betting stakes in how long it will take to control the horrific fires in Los Angeles. Wow. Will we ever see the bottom of the barrel in this insanity? “USA! USA! USA!” — the rallying cry of Fox-fueled anger and hatred, where a sucker is born every broadcast who will believe anything from the Zuckerberg “no more fact checking” empire of lunacy (a recent charge is “elites starting those fires so they can buy the land cheap”). So many who claim they can’t stand the man but give him their vote anyway. I’ve never voted for a President who I wouldn’t have a beer with.

Well, how did we get here? Continual attacks at getting an education? Glorifying the dumbing-down of American culture? Giving our children anything they want just to keep them out of our hair? I figure all I can do is shout to the wind there is no “American Dream.” The emperor has no clothes. Walter Cronkite, where are you?