(I wrote this during the first Trump Presidency. I found it today in my little archives of editorials while looking for something else…I am even more disheartened by our fellow citizens who are still betrothed to this disgusting fool. Are you?)
Every day, I am dumbfounded by the insistence of Trump supporters in vehement defense of a man so callous, so dismissive of the thousands people suffering every day that he barely registers as human.
It has been recounted by many who know him that Donald Trump ran for President as a joke. It was a play to his ego to see how far he could get, while each day campaigning meant a bigger spotlight, a bigger rally, a bigger rush. He would have the last laugh, he assumed, when he dropped out of the race at the last minute in a splash of free publicity and marketing. He figured he could cash in on being a former Presidential candidate. But then he won.
He didn’t want the job. His wife didn’t want the job. But like it or not, understand it or not, he got the job. And it became his JOB to learn how to be President, to be big enough to learn the rules, to be smart enough to listen to experts, to be humble enough to know that he is the President and not a king, to be mature enough speak kindly and respect all of the citizens in his care. He has failed in every one of those very simple tasks.
In the same condescending dismissal of those very simple tasks, he also disregarded the larger, more important ones. He ignored the warnings he received about a looming pandemic, pretending there was no danger and lying about its severity. It was his JOB have seen the COVID-19 pandemic coming, and to have acknowledged it, prepared for it, estblished a plan for how to deal with it, and warned the nation of its arrival. It was his JOB to provide guidance, assistance, equipment and personnel to stop its growth. Instead, he repeatedly claimed it was just another “Democrat hoax,” cooked up to hurt his reelection chances, while he acknowledged the serious nature of the virus in private conversations. To this day, he pretends to believe that he has succcessfuly and single handedly defeated the virus in the U.S.
“Magical thinking” is nothing new during political campaigns. But when magical thinking is actually found to be unremittant lying to the public, to the media, to the Congress, to
I know, the newest woman claiming to have heard Trump talk about his supporters as disgusting has been dismissed by the White House as a “disgruntled employee” with an ax to grind. Does that make it easier for his people to believe that she is merely lying, rather than having to acknowledge that this is simply one more time Donald Trump has said or done something crude and disgraceful.? Remember, this is a man who, long beforeefore he was ever involved in actual politics, he wanted to reinstate the death penalty for the “Central Park 5”, kids convicted of a brutal rape and beating but later found innocent when the real rapist was found. His response was to say they should have had the death penalty anyway, suggesting that it would only be a matter of time before they would be in prison again. He promoted the lie that President Obama was born in a different country and was ineligible to be President- and he STILL refers to that at times. While he was running for the Presidency, he called his supporters “stupid people”, saying that as long as there were stupid people around he had a chance to win election. (Don’t remember that one? Go ahead, look it up)
A theory I heard recently for the reasoning behind the rabid defense of a man like him is that his followers don’t really support Trump! Well, they don’t like/trust/believe him, but they hate “the left” so much that they will continue to vote for Trump simply out of spite. They know he is a bad man, an awful barely-human being, but their anger & resentment for those they believe have made them feel small or insignificant in the past encourages them to get their “revenge” by being part of the Trump bandwagon. Making the Left acknowledge the power they have to make those “elites” suffer under this prez for another four years is all they are looking for. Sadly, even though they understand that the policies enacted by this bunch are harmful to them, also, it doesn’t matter, because this rich, white, spoiled, dumb, egocentric frat boy is their “man of the people” and we liberals are just going to have to deal with it.
I hope to god that isn’t the reasoning behind their support; I’m really afraid that may be a large part of it.
Another theory behind his support is that his faithful followers are trapped in some sort of Stockholm Syndrome. They are unable to free themselves because he has so totally convinced them, the way any abuser does, that he is their only salvation, as long as they do as they are told.
This has to be it, right?
I’ve been listening to his faithful for years now, trying to understand the appeal, but I don’t. I hear so many of them repeat, almost word-for-word, the lies Trump has spewed during a rally or press conference, or that his spin docs have put out as talking points:
*”Joe Biden is a socialist”.
Uhhh…no. This particular voter (me) wishes it were so, but he is not.
Biden is a decent man, with good values and a mostly calm disposition, who happens to believe in equality and health care for all, is a right, that multi-billion dollar “corporate welfare” payments are sinful, and that good manners and humble leadership are positive attributes, not weakness.
He knows there are real, live people who are barely surviving without a place to live or enough food for their families.
He believes that the job of President is to protect our liberty; that a leader must step up and actually DO something about the environmental wreckage we all witness every day as our entire West coast burns to the ground and our Gulf states drown.
Has he caused those disasters? No. But his cronies in the fossil fuel industry who continue to rape Mother Earth with their destructive practices are a huge part of it. His repeal of environmental protections and disregard for scientific evidence that says we are almost past the “tipping point” of being able to save our planet AND OUR SPECIES is disgraceful and dangerous. Then we wonder why he would act so cavalierly ? He lives here, too, right? He has children & grandchildren who will be affected for decades by our environment.
Unfortunately, he does not think about the effect his policies have on our environment-even with his kids and grandkids as a part of the picture. Because from where he sits, on his gold “throne” in NYC, or his resort in Florida, or his golf course in Ireland, none of those disasters will affect him at all. By the time any real consequence happens, he will have successfully depleted every resource and pocketed his silver, assured his status as a REAL billionaire, and made a name for himself in the history books. Besides, he will never have to worry about food shortages, paying rent, or dangers posed by fire or flood. So, he doesn’t give a damn.
But that’s not what his acolytes hear or see. He has them convinced that he is “one of them”, picked on and slighted by those smart people who don’t like him, or embarrassed by an eloquent and intelligent black man at a party in front of millions. You know how that feels, right? We’ve all been embarrassed or left out at some point in our lives- now is the time for revenge! And he has poked that sense of disillusionment enough times that it has become a mantra for his masses. He has picked at that scab enough that his wounding is their wounding-even when it’s him that draws their blood.
The final theory I’ve surmised about his appeal is that for many, politics is not something they think about or have paid attention to since Civics class in high school, except every four years when there is a Presidential election. They are busy living their lives, working (if they are lucky), paying rent, feeding their families, trying to keep them all safe and healthy. There isn’t enough time or energy in a day to pay attention to Washington politics. And besides, politicians are all crooked and want to tax them until they are broke, or take away their guns, or tell them what to do. They don’t see government as having ever done anything good for them, because after all, they are still having to struggle to make a better life, and Washington doesn’t come by to help them– why should they care about politics?
And that’s when DJT steps forward and tells them that although he’s never had to work a day in his life, and although he has created a giant real estate empire by starting out with an inheritance of over 400 million dollars, a father willing to “rescue” him from his business failures, and declaring bankruptcy 4 times, that he is a true “man of the people”. He is the only one who understands their struggle and their distrust of politicians and he will get rid of all the crooked, lazy politicians taking their tax money and doing god knows what with it. He alone can “clear the swamp”, because, you’ll remember, he is rich and doesn’t need their tax money. He’s a billionaire outsider who can go in an set things right.
And if you are a CEO of a major corporation, you probably think he has set things right. He’s taken the leaders of industry and placed them squarely in the positions of government designed to preserve the agencies they now lead and protect those agencies from the private plunder of corporate America. The problem is, those folks don’t have a single day of public service experience, and have no concept of what that means. They manage or own very profitable private corporations and have worked to make sure those profits go up every year in order to satisfy the stockholders. It’s an inherently transactional relationship- stockholders are folks who “believe” in and have invested money in the company- and earn a dividend reward for that investment. In a corporation, that’s how things work.
Government is not a corporation. Government is essentially a non-profit organization, it’s goods available and distributed to everyone, not just for those who offer support or accolades, but for those who find themselves in the “disgusting” circumstance of needing help. The money the government takes in taxes is spread like grass seed among the states- growing infrastructure, stopping disasters, helping those in need. Those values are built into the Constitution; it’s what has made our nation one of the greatest on earth.
But DJT doesn’t actually believe that. He has spoken of “those” people, “the Democrat party”, the “radical socialists” so often that he has created and fomented more fear and division among the citizens of our nation than he has contributed anything positive. He has pocketed money from government payments to his hotels, he has turned a blind eye to the abuses of power by dictators around the world, allowing unthinkable atrocities to take place while he sends those dictators “love letters” or spends a few minutes on the phone with them. And he has done NOTHING to curb gun violence, racism at every level of society, poverty, hunger, homelessness, environmental ruin, or our most imediate threat, protecting his citizens from an internationally proven and deadly pandemic.
So what, I wonder, is the real story behind the blind trust Trump’s apostles have in him? Of three possible theories of my attempts to try to understand it, I still dont get it. I’ve tried to find reasons that good people follow such a shallow, selfish dullard and allow him to possess the “football” with the nuclear codes? I’ve given the benefit of the doubt over and over, expecting to find someone who can explain-rationally-the devotion the man demands, believing that Americans wouldn’t follow him if they had all the facts about what he does. Or maybe they felt sorry for him, knowing that he likes and cares for no one, and therefore has to “buy” himself friendships because no one really likes him, either.
And that was the answer.
I have tried for years to find an explanation for what keeps otherwise decent, proud people so devoted to this flabby, foul-mouthed messiah. Evidence of his cruel nature is exposed in bits and pieces every day. But maybe I cant figure it out because I’m trying to find a logical, rational explanation for something that is neither rational or understandable. The American people are involved in an abusive relationship with the President of the United States. Anyone who has ever known or experienced being a woman or child in an abusive relationship easily recognizes that kind of cruelty.
Maybe I’m not finding any “better angels” here because there are none.
Maybe that’s no surprise from someone who considers dead soldiers “losers” and finds military service such a loathsome career choice that he would disown his own children if they chose to serve. No surprise, either, from a man who lied to avoid compulsory military service, denied payment to contractors who worked for him, refused to rent to people of color looking for a place to live, who has made a mockery of the rules of law, order, decorum, and tradition as President. Not a real stretch to believe such a man could refer to his devoted supporters as “disgusting people”
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