I'm taking a break from illusion to tell a TRUE story. Sixth grade. 1962. P.S. 117. Queens (I note the location only to point out it was the same borough Donald Trump comes from).
During the campaign for student body president one of the candidates stood at the podium and promised the school a coke machine in the cafeteria. This met with a cheer bordering on hysteria. As one of the hundreds of students sitting in the musty auditorium (it was an old school even in 1962). I wondered how the hell this crummy sixth grader was going to get a soda machine into the lunchroom. And I couldn't believe the student body wasn't skeptical. Not even his opponent asked for details.
He won in a landslide.
A few weeks later I met him in the cafeteria. This was our conversation:
Me: So, where's the coke machine?
Newly elected President: I asked the principal if we could have one.
Me: What did he say?
Newly elected President: He said, no.
During last year's presidential campaign, that story kept running through my head. When Trump promised to make the country great again, I thought yep, and we'll get a coke machine in the cafeteria, too.
When Trump promised to build a wall that the Mexicans would pay for, I thought yep, and we'll get a coke machine in the cafeteria, too.
When he said he'd bring back jobs for the coal miners, I thought yep, and we'll get a coke machine in the cafeteria, too.
When he said I'm going to overturn Obamacare, I thought yep, and we'll get a coke machine in the cafeteria, too.
I didn't want those things (but I really did want a coke machine in the cafeteria) but enough people did want them, that it got him elected.
So now the conversation could be:
Me-Why didn't you overturn Obamacare
Newly elected President-I went to congress and asked them to do it.
Me-What did they say?
Newly elected President-They said, no.
As P.T. Barnum was supposed to have said, but didn't, "There's a sucker born every minute."
But most of us already knew that, right?
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