Blowguns

On the day of his inauguration, when he spoke on the Washington Mall for his “deplorables,” Donald Trump, announced that he would “drain the swamp.” He was referring to a marshy ecosystem represented by the parasitic elite and the Washington lobbies that held a patrimonial notion of power, and viewed Trump as a UFO on the radar, an upstart. Putting aside how reminiscent this was of the ‘caste’ which Podemos railed against to build its reputation in the early days, the image of the swamp was a great idea.* It allowed “deplorable” America to imagine the place that Trump was going to go into and fumigate at great risk, given all the experts in the use of blowguns hiding in the undergrowth.

The problem with the swamp is that, since then, it’s done nothing but provide Trump with confirmation that it exists. The dynastic structures and Washington rabble professionals accepted the declaration of war. After the early weeks of showing off a cultivated hostility that forced Trump to remain stuck inside the White House — in contrast with Barack Obama, who went out for hamburgers to the delight of passers-by — they started carrying out their ploys, such as taking advantage of porn stars. These maneuvers have led to the establishment of a group of infiltrated heroes, acting within enemy lines and taking cover, to use one of the most photogenic words coined by the 20th century, as the “Resistance.” They’re playing La Marseillaise for Trump in Rick’s Café, just as in the scene from “Casablanca.”

One can dislike Trump and still say that he’s an elected president, and those who consider his victory an anomaly that needs to be corrected are trying to overthrow him by other means. These people also believe that we can make exceptions to the rules of democracy when the person to whom we don’t want them to apply has been duly portrayed as an eccentric monster. “Here’s the swamp,” Trump is saying to his deplorables.

* Editor’s note: Podemos is a populist left-wing party that emerged out of Spain’s 15M movement, a precursor to Occupy Wall Street. Caste refers to the political elite.