I was walking barefoot across our sunroom holding a cup of coffee in my right hand and a laptop in my left, headed to my favorite chair to peruse the daily dose of madness we now call “news.” Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in the arch of my right foot. Yeow!
I lost some of my coffee and almost dropped my laptop, but managed to recover my equilibrium before too much damage was done. But damn, it hurt.
The culprit was an ATV — shiny and silver with sharp, pointy airfoils — about two inches long. One of my 6-year-old grand-twins had left it in the middle of the floor.
It was not a big deal — except to my instep. Kids do that sort of thing all the time. The idea that leaving one of their toys on the floor could have consequences for someone else never enters their mind. They’re always in the moment, making motor noises, pretending to drive their little metal four-wheeler across a shaggy carpet or rolling it down a ramp. When they tire of it, they move on to the next shiny thing that strikes their fancy.
Like, say, commissioning a bizarre $400 million ballroom addition to the White House with steps that don’t lead to an entrance. Like destroying vital federal agencies and firing thousands of people who work to cure and prevent disease, inspect our food, guide the nation’s air traffic, protect our natural resources, and monitor our air and water quality. Like killing all federal investment in clean, renewable energy and pouring that money into dirty and expensive oil. Like putting your name on public buildings, including the Kennedy Center, then tearing it down on a whim.
Like impulsively attacking a foreign country and kidnapping its leader and his wife. Like using the U.S. military to execute civilians in small boats in international waters while offering no proof of their alleged crimes. Like issuing off-the-cuff tariff declarations against nations all around the globe and being surprised when they laugh at you and move on to make trade deals with each other. Like appointing unqualified hacks and toadies to cabinet positions and then firing them when they inevitably screw up, or when you deem them inadequately toady-ish. Like sending armed, masked agents into American cities to seize people off the streets without warrants or due process. Like starting a war in the Middle East without input from your allies, then defaming and threatening them and demanding that they clean up the mess you made.
And like issuing the following message [verbatim] on Truth Social at 8 a.m. Easter Sunday: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
Nobody asked for any of this. Nobody with any brains wanted an unprovoked war in the Middle East and the collapsing economy that ensued from the predictable oil crisis — or a president of the United States with the impulse control of a 6-year-old. Yet, here we are with President Id.
In case you’ve forgotten, according to Freud, the id is the personality we all have at birth. It seeks the immediate satisfaction of urges and desires, such as hunger, thirst, and pleasure. It operates “without logic, reason, or judgment, making no distinction between good and evil.” It is described as a “cauldron full of seething excitation” — acting impulsively without considering consequences.
Fortunately, most human beings grow out of the id stage by the end of puberty. They learn to be aware of the needs and desires of others, and to consider the possible consequences of their actions. This is obviously not the case with the current president, who’s operating without logic, reason, or judgment, and making no distinction between good and evil. He’s left his toys scattered all around the world and here at home, and it’s time for the adults to step up and intervene. We’re going to be cleaning up this orange toddler’s mess — and watching our step — for years to come.