Thanks to a tweet by Michael Cohen (speechboy columnist, not the lawyer for Trump), I started to think about what it would mean if this were the Upside Down. But to discuss that, I need to invoke the Spoilers break since I have seen Stranger Things 2 and you might not have:
Ok, given what we now know about the Upside Down, the Mindflayer, and Demogorgons, who is who in today's American politics? Trump is not the Mindflayer or Shadowmonster. First, he does not live in the shadows. Second, Trump would never be referred to as the Brain of anything. Until yesterday, Mrs. Spew would have argued that Robert Mercer was the Mindflayer as he seemed to have all kinds of demodogs and demogorgons working for him, creating fear, destroying knowledge and expanding the Upside Down--to conquer our world after conquering other planes of existence (the Republican Party). But now Mercer has said he is not happy with Milo and Bannon and other forces of darkness that he helped to foster. Much doubt about his sincerity on the web. Also, he gave his ownership shares to his daughters, so unless he hates his kids, this might be just another move by the Shadowmonster to retreat into the shadows while still breeding the agents of fear and hate. So, let's stick with Mercer as the Shadowmonster. He seems to have replaced the previous shadowmonsters (the Koch bros).
So, what role is Trump in all of this? He certainty is not the Matthew Modine character from the first season since, well, that guy was curious to a fault. Trump? Most incurious person I have ever heard of. The aforementioned Michael Cohen suggested Billy probably due to Billy's blustering, bullying but ultimately empty life. Billy does seem to rise quickly to the top of the high school hierarchy via bluster and, um, being shirtless? But Trump doesn't look like Rob Lowe... Ok, never mind, we like it that a girl takes down Billy, so let's keep Trump as Billy for now.
Bannon? A demogorgon. Ugly, spews out gross stuff, makes a tremendous mess but ultimately expendable.
Sessions? Another demogorgon. Perhaps he is Dart. Sure, he is awful, eats the mother's cat, but, in a key moment, does the right thing. In the show, Dart refuses to eat the kids and Steve (!), lettiung them pass in the final episode to safety. In DC, Sessions has recused himself, refusing to fire Mueller as Mueller does his work. So, yeah, we don't feel safe around either Dark or Sessions, as they do heaps of damage, but they each have one not so awful moment.
Mattis? He's the Paul Reiser character: Dr. Owens He's stuck in a corrupt situation, and, when pushed, tries to make it less bad.
Kelly? He's the Matthew Modine character. The father figure who turns out to be truly awful, doing heaps of damage along the way.
Who's Bob, the Superhero? Who sacrificed himself after using his nerdy knowledge to save everyone else? Right now, I think it might be the guy who spent his last day at twitter deleting Trump's account. It might be Comey, who was thought to be a bad guy, but ended up sacrificing himself so that Trump could be investigated for obstruction. Of course, there is still that letter... so maybe not. Bob didn't do anything so dumb or destructive before becoming the hero we needed.
Aside from Bob, I am not comfy figuring out who are Steve, Jonathan, Nancy, Eleven, Max or the boys. After this week's DNC squabbles, I just have a hard time figuring out who are the good guys who are going to save us from the Shadowmonster and the demodogs. I will take any suggestions.
What do you think?
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