The Great Mess
Last year at this time, we were battling the virus in its original iteration. Delta, Gamma, etc. had not come on the scene yet. It was scary times indeed.
Laughing with glee like a Batman villain as the globe came to its knees was something—someone—far more terrifying.
President Trump.
I try my hardest to steer clear of this … subject, but for the Scary Daddies series, our former president checks all the boxes for fathers who are frightening.
Let’s start with his children. You don’t need a degree in psychology to see that Donald Trump’s children have inherited all of his most reprehensible characteristics: greed, entitlement, delusion, bluster, and megalomania.
Each of them embody one of their father’s many faces and they mirror those faces to an uncanny degree. Whether it’s Eric’s penchant for spreading lies, Jr’s skills with exaggeration, or Ivanka’s flair for fakery, they are their father’s children.
It’s true that children take on aspects of their parents’ personality traits and mannerisms. In the Trump family, however, his children’s commandeering of his tics appear to be exacerbated by a blend of competitive tough love and favoritism, all stemming from Daddy’s narcissism.
The result: Eric became the black sheep, Ivanka the mini-me, and Jr. the troubled child. Those classic psychological archetypes are hard to break, especially when you live in a Tower.
But we don’t have to think about him nor his children much these days. We cleared that hurdle last year on Election Day. Or Election Week, as it were.
While there is the looming threat of him running again for president in 2024, and his children either doing the same or weaseling their way into Congress, his other children are the ones who are the most frightening.
I’m talking about his toadies in local, state, and federal government, who have pledged fealty to him no matter what, and the voter base they continue to stoke.
Like his biological children, these individuals love their father, but they have been coached and coaxed to keep their hearts, minds, and—more importantly—their wallets open to their father.
This from-the-ground-up loyalty is a dangerous mix, and it’s what turns democracies into authoritarian states faster than you can say Make America Great Again.
So, this year, when you’re out Trick-or-Treating, thinking we’re turning a corner from The Great Mess, look again and watch out for beady eyes staring over at you, trying to steal your candy.
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