The Great American Stampede

This Week and Next: November 3rd-9th

There’s a particular quality to chaos that only those who’ve spent time around horses truly understand. I should know—I’ve ridden horses my entire life, be fox hunts, horse shows, hunter paces or just “hacking out”: I can tell you that when one horse spooks, and the rider does nothing, the entire field follows. Not because they see the danger, mind you, but because panic is the most contagious disease in nature. Which brings us, naturally, to Donald Trump’s Washington.

The horses are beginning to bolt.

Consider the spectacle (seems like every week is) of this past week. While America was collectively deciding whether 42 million hungry citizens deserved food—the Supreme Court mulling it over like a wine selection at Le Bernardin—we were treated to the news that Dick Cheney had shuffled off this mortal coil at 84, his borrowed heart finally giving out after thirteen bonus years. The man who once wielded power like a medieval mace, who sent thousands to die for phantom weapons, who left of…