Goodbye To James Howard Kunstler

I used to look up to James Howard Kunstler.  The former Rolling Stone writer and urban-planning critic wrote many a readable and entertaining treatise on autocentric suburban development - malls, tract houses, multilane highways - and their corrosive effect on the political, social, financial and cultural lifeblood of the United States.  But Kunstler has long since gone to the dark side, forsaking his expertise on urbanism and focusing instead on Donald Trump and how courageous he has been against the "resistance" of liberals, progressives, and Democratic Party establishmentarians who have worked  to stop him.  And now - get this - Kunstler turns out to be one of those who believe that the election was indeed stolen and that Joe Biden is a puppet for the "Deep State" and the Progressive Thought Police.  Consider this excerpt of his blog post "Fog and Noise," published on January 8, two days after the Capitol insurrection:

Let's also just step back for a moment and ask: why did so many flag-waving MAGAs turn out Wednesday on the Mall in Washington, D.C.? Answer: Because they have been served one shit sandwich after another for four years by the Democratic Party and their captive news media, and the latest one featured vote tabulations getting erased in real time at ten-plus thousand vote increments right before their eyes on the flat-screen in the wee hours of November 4. And after that, and other balloting monkeyshines, the response from their government was a mere yawn. Total institutional failure. The ballot fraud that so many witnessed was never aired or adjudicated in a proper legal forum, and they were good and goddamn pissed about it.

And here's an excerpt commentary from his blog post "Insurrection Versus Insurrection," from January 11: 

There is a lot of chatter on the lowdown that the current President - that would be Mr. Trump, for those out there who are confused - is about to act to take down the scurvy party that enabled and condoned six months of rioting, arson, and looting in at least a dozen cities - cadres of whom may have actually instigated that incursion into the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. The President appears to understand his duty to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He had plenty of opportunity to be a quitter from 2017 to 2021 and he hung in there, against every cockamamie operation the Deep State threw at him. Odds are he’s not quitting now.

He's essentially blaming the Democrats for inciting riots after George Floyd's death.

And finally, an excerpt from his blog post "Signs and Wonder," from yesterday, January 15:

In case you don’t know what condition our condition is in, the name for it is a crisis of legitimacy. Four years of seditious harassment by a "Resistance" within-and-without the U.S. Government culminates in the janky election of a mentally incapable grifter . . . run by whom? Does anyone seek to know who, exactly, is pulling Joe Biden's strings? My guess would be . . . duh . . . Barack Obama and his posse. When will he be outed? Maybe today . . . or next week at the latest. Heads will explode to see liberalism’s bowling trophy fall off the national mantelpiece. If you think Nancy Pelosi is running around in a hebephrenic fugue state now, just wait . . ..

Did you catch Joe Biden on TV last night? Did his appearance fill you with the sweet, warm unction of reassurance? Or did you get the impression that I got: of a near-mummy in a state of panicky confusion, sent from his hidey-hole out to a podium to give an impersonation of someone in authority? I didn't believe the performance for a minute. The poor schlemiel is headed straight into history's discontinued-merchandise bin. He will probably wonder what awful vanity propelled him down the memory hole as he descends into the darkness . . . but his memory preceded him down the memory hole and he will have forgotten how the whole thing started. His exit will be a merciful one compared to the people who trussed him up and shoved him onstage to flesh out their lame narrative.

Enough.

I don't know what pushed Kunstler over to the QAnon/MAGA/White Lives Matter crowd, but I do know that he's not coming back to the side of reason, where he once praised Howard Dean and took defensible stands on center-right positions such as toning down political correctness in addition to bashing oversized theme parks and godawful skyscraper architecture.  He doesn't do much of that these days, as he's too busy going after "elitists" like Barack Obama, a man he once championed. 

As far as I am concerned, the James Howard Kunstler I once admired doesn't exist anymore.  He's been taken over by a pod person.  And as such, I will no longer read his commentary or buy his books. Maybe I'll give my copies of Kunstler's books to a free-library box, as they were written in his saner period and I don't need to read them again. Did I happen to mention that I was one of his Facebook friends?  No more - I "unfriended" him.  I have no use for him anymore.

As to who will lead the cause for saner urban development and a revival of public transit when the pandemic is over?  Well . . . as Bob Dylan would say, we're gonna miss our best friend now.  We're gonna have to find ourselves another best friend somehow.