Scenes From a Marriage

The base and the rest of the country should go into marriage counseling. The level of passion exuded by what Hillary Clinton once described as “the deplorables” is so high that it can’t be discountenanced even if you think Trump is breaking all sorts of laws. Isn’t the divided country like one of those fighting couples who glare at each other in therapy, showing no sign that either side will relent? Remember that intellectuals have historically provided the ideas by which revolution is justified, but the desire to revolt, as is the case with Trump’s lumpenproletariat base, comes first. Ideation is post facto.Therefore you’re not talking to an enraged Retrumplican about their ideas. It’s their feelings that have to be addressed. What the MAGAs are doing is typical of an unhappy partner. Fani Willis claims the Trump tried to rig the election. No replies Trump on Truth Social, it’s just the reverse. What does the marriage counselor do? He or she can say “I hear you.” The idea is to always give credence since you can’t doubt “the truth” of an emotion. French deconstructionists would argue that all statements about reality are culturally bound meaning that there’s no absolute truth. It's Trump’s right to call Fani Willis “a racist” under the theory, one would suppose, that he's white amongst other things. In marriage counseling as well as politics, there's only an absolute truth, a Kantian categorical imperative—if both parties agree to it. Don't most marriages break up because a couple sees things differently?

read the latest review of The Kafka Studies Department by Francis Levy in Booklife

and read the Kirkus review of The Kafka Studies Department by Francis Levy