Forgive me, if you will, for shuffling swiftly past all the glitter and diversions and obsequious fawning, and for instead electing to focus on such anachronistic and prosaic questions as “why?” and “what?” But I would be forever indebted if a single quasi-literate person in this country could explain to me what the hell was the point in Donald Trump’s relentless and often vehement insistence that Canada ought to become the 51st state.
“It was funny” won’t suffice, I’m afraid. I am told as a matter of unlovely routine that Trump’s ongoing presence in our national life is necessary because the alternatives are feckless and weak and incapable of conserving anything, and so, with that in mind, I must sedulously press the point: What did Trump get out of this ploy? What did America gain? What did Republican voters achieve? What was improved for conservatism, or nationalism, or MAGA, or whatever other Trump-coded movements are the supposed beneficiaries of his maneuvers? Where, as the old advertisement liked to inquire, is the beef?
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