think but this

Puck is a trickster. Remember that. He turns men to asses and makes women fall in love with them. He declares “those things do best please me that befal preposterously.” And observes to Oberon, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream ends with his apologia, direct to the audience. “If we shadows have offended,” he pleads,

Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend …

From Puck to George H.W. Bush: “A campaign is a disagreement, and disagreements divide,” he said, claiming victory over Michael Dukakis. Bush had spent months, you may recall, running on the racist trope of Willie Horton.(1) “But an election is a decision,” he continued, “and decisions clear the way for harmony and peace.” Think but this and all is mended.

So mended are things that Donald Trump hauled Horton back out of prison — in spirit anyway — to try to aid him in the recent elections.

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I guess Horton’s name has lost some of its juice, although it may also have helped the Democrats’ cause that fewer of them were filmed riding around in tanks.

You know all about what happened, of course, and nobody really needs my take on it, but I will say this: Plenty of people are going around saying what needs to happen next, and some of them may be right, but I’m exceptionally wary of anyone claiming it’s time to move on, or focus on people’s pocketbooks or kitchen tables or whatever other metonyms may roll unthinkingly off their tongue.

If you go to a bad production of Shakespeare — well, I guess you don’t have to boo them off the stage, but don’t make yourself feel better by telling yourself you enjoyed it. Somewhat more meaningfully, the president, and the people who tell him what policies to sign his name to, have spent the past two years doing evil. And if anyone tries to tell you we have more important things to focus on, you should consider their motives, and remember that Puck is a trickster.

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Notes

(1) Part of the racism was calling him “Willie,” a name he never used in his life.