So What?

“So What” is an iconic tune on the album “Kind of Blue,” a Miles Davis jazz recording that many consider the greatest jazz album of all time. It has a call-and-response structure. The bass speaks the first sentence (an 8 note phrase) and then there is a response (in the form of chords) that suggest the saying “So what? If you haven’t heard it, it is really worth a listen-even if you are not a fan of jazz.

For me, that shoulder shrug phrase has always been indelibly attached to that Miles Davis tune. Any time I hear someone say “So what?” the tune pops up as if someone had just dropped a coin in a juke box and suddenly I find myself snapping my fingers and humming the tune. Sadly, this musical connection to the phrase has now been tainted forever. 

Before January 6th, The Don made numerous attempts to persuade Mike Pence that he had the authority to reject the electors or accept alternative ones from states he had lost. Luckily, after four years of playing the abject sycophant, Pence found his moral footing and told The Don that that his ask was a bridge too far. Prior to January 6th, The Don’s cajoling and bullying was relentless. It was just revealed in the new documents presented by Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, that after another argument on January 1, 2021, The Don told Pence that “hundreds of thousands of people are going to hate your guts,” “people are gonna think you’re stupid,” and, finally, “You’re too honest.” To most people honesty is a good thing; for The Don it’s a crying shame!

The Don was so angry at Pence for refusing to do his bidding that he went to plan B: He encouraged his followers to march to The Capitol building to take matters in to their own hands, in an attempt to block the counting of the electoral votes. While we watched in disbelief and horror, The Don sat in the small dining room off the Oval Office watching the Fox News Channel and scrolling through Twitter as the crowd broke into the Capitol. At 2:24, Trump tweeted that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands truth.” A rioter read the tweet through a bullhorn for the crowd. Suddenly, the chant of “Hang Mike Pence” rang out. A minute later, the Secret Service had to evacuate Pence to a secure location. When an aide told The Don about the danger Pence was in, The Don retorted “So what?”

It seems nearly half the country is poised vote for a man who not only fomented an insurrection to stay in power, but who, for nearly three hours watched it unfold on TV, while members of his own family and other prominent Republicans pleaded with him to stop. This cruelty and disregard for human life is depraved. Not only did he not care about the safety of those under attack but he enjoyed every minute of it. And almost as bad or maybe wrose, is that leaders in his party, like Mitch McConnell and Kevin Mccarty, who railed about the heinousness of what unfolded, and his responsibility for it, are now supporting him. Which brings to mind the saying that “absolute power corrupts absolutely,’ even if the end result is destroying the very democracy they were elected to defend.

The Don’s willful, and frankly sadistic, refusal to intervene is perhaps the gravest and most damning evidence of his depravity. We already knew this about him, but something about him flippantly responding to Pence’s danger brought me to another level of despair. It calls forth Hannah Arendt’s brilliant book “The Banality of Evil, ” where she describes the matter of factness of Hitler and many of the German people in the execution of millions of Jews. Killing people because you find them wanting or threatening is possible because they have been dehumanized; because of this, their erasure is necessary or at least within the realm of reason. If “those” people are “poisoning the blood “of your country and are a threat to your goals, then eliminating them is for the greater good. That was Hitler’s take on the Jews and that was The Don’s take and mindset when he responded “So what?” In a second, Pence went from loyal partner to a worthless ingrate whose demise was just.

For those supporters who feel The Don talks a big game but won’t really do anything that bad, do you realize that if the crowd had found Pence and hanged him that The Don would have probably s said “He got what he deserved’.” Folks, that is who is running for president. Are you going to just shrug your shoulders and say “So what”?

The bottom line is that all you ever need to know about The Don are those two words.

If Miles Davis put words to his song that reflected who The Don is he might have written what you’ll find below.

I inspired them to hang Mike Pence…So what?.

I’m a serial sexual predator…”So what?.”

I will be a dictator for at least one day…So what?

Let’s undo the constitution…So what?

Poor White people are idiots…”So what?

I lie all the time…So what?

We will round up millions and out them in detention centers…So what?

I’m racist…So what?

I’m anti-semitic…So what?

I am going to punish anyone who disagrees with me…So what?

Women will die because they don’t get proper care during pregnancy…So What?

Doctors can be imprisoned for administering abortions… So what?

If I win there will never be another election again…So what?

So what?…So what?…So what?…