Putting The Country In Time Out

Man-o-man...yesterday was crazy. Around mid-afternoon, American social media...and every other kind of media...became engulfed in a firestorm frenzy over the Jussie Smollett sweetheart deal with Chicago prosecutor stand-in, Joseph Magats, the hand picked replacement of Kim Fox, who had recused herself from the case. Not only did the Prosecutor’s office go against the grand jury’s findings in the case, they pulled off a sealing of the records, making the inside scoop impossible to discover. Even famed Obama fixer and current mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel appeared blindsided by the deal. Emanuel, ordinarily someone who would celebrate a fellow liberal beating the rap, was positively angry in his hastily assembled press conference on the subject, although I refuse to believe the man capable of any real, honest emotion. Instead, I consider his presser performance evidence that he is, in fact, the superior actor to Mr. Smollett.

Most everyone I know on the right of the political baracades were positively apoplectic at the injustice of it all. You know, that feeling you get when you are absolutely convinced of someone’s overwhelming guilt and then the devastation which comes when that person 
gets suddenly exonerated. Hmmm...now maybe people on my side have a glimpse of what the other side felt like when the Mueller report came down.

On the other hand, people who dearly wanted to believe Mr. Smollett’s bizarre tale of  victimization, now have been given the fig leaf of permission to gloat which this deal has bestowed upon them. Now, perhaps they understand the gleeful delight felt by Trump supporters when after two years of hearing liberals predicting that the President would end up in prison for treason. Maybe now they have a sense of what having your core faiths vindicated feels like.

But, in order for either side to be able to understand what the other is feeling would require a willingness to do so. After yesterday, that willingness seems further away, less attainable than ever. The only thing that the events of yesterday afternoon have done is level the playing field of resentment. Now, literally everyone in the country is pissed off.

My offered solution goes back to my days as a parent of toddlers. When all heck was breaking out between the two of them, I would place them both in time out. Is it possible to place our entire country in time out? Just for a couple of days...