I know it's not at the top of the news, but on the day that the MAGA bomber was arrested, President Trump attended at the White House an event for young black conservatives and, for the hundredth time since hosting Kanye West in the oval office, declared the musician and policy wonk to be "an interesting guy" albeit "a little different." Every time this gets reported I think, however incongruously, of my mom, who on one day of her life was watching with me the local TV news, a piece about a Prince concert somewhere that night or the night before, and there was footage of him prancing and gyrating on stage, the lyric coming through but I hoped for mom's sensibilities only if you already knew it. We watched in silence. When it ended, I thought it had been enough of an eye- and earful as to require comment, and while I was formulating in my mind some anodyne speech act my mom said, "That Prince fellow, he's a little different."
So there you have a connection between the president I hate and my beloved mom: the same expression bestowed upon inscrutable young black guys. But the president would do better to emulate some of her other ways. Like, I'm pretty sure she stopped reflexively voting Republican about the time they made it necessary for churches to put signs on the door announcing no guns allowed inside. She'd be generally sympathetic toward Jews who negligently fail to pack heat while attending their religious services. Also, no shagging porn stars while momma's home with a new baby! Dad knew her rules.
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