Remember the time, several years ago, when establishment Republicans and many Democrats were confident that the Trump/MAGA ‘fever’ would break soon? What a ridiculous, quaint notion that turned out to be!
Not only has the Trump/MAGA ‘fever’ NOT broken, but now Trump’s popularity seems to be growing — even as he’s in the midst of his first criminal trial.
Trump has more and far worse negative baggage than the last ten GOP presidential candidates combined, yet (weirdly) he continues to confound expectations and continues to edge out Biden in most polls.
This is truly a major WTF moment in American history and politics.
Widespread craziness and amnesia have taken hold
Just today I saw an ‘Analysis’ article on CNN.com titled “Biden’s growing challenge: Voters are warming to Trump’s presidency.” OK, let’s get this straight: here and now, we’ve got a multiply-indicted, seditious, Putin-loving, paranoid, bullying, and super-vengeful pathological liar running for president, who is apparently more popular than Joe Biden — and may well become our next president.
Again — WTF?! Sure, Biden has some baggage of his own: he’s over 80 years old, has occasional memory lapses (like anyone his age), is presiding over an inflation-riddled economy, and is bogged down in his unpopular, heavily pro-Israel stance and policies.
But let’s get real: next to Trump, Biden is a veritable saint/ Churchill/Lincoln — that is, an actual good person, effective legislator, and (mainly) competent leader.
Biden is a live-action patriot and truly cares about our nation and its people — while the famously narcissistic Trump cares about one thing only, and that’s Donald Trump. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Trump doesn’t have an altruistic or patriotic bone in his body.
Yet Trump remains just as popular as ever; his presidential campaign is going strong; and his loud sycophantic megaphones in right-wing media are still blaring out their pro-Trump, anti-Biden, anti-democracy propaganda… er, programming.
Meanwhile, as the CNN article states (unbelievably), “The 55% in the recent CNN poll who termed Trump’s presidency a success far exceeded the 39% who gave the same positive verdict to Biden’s time [in office].”
Wait, what? Trump’s presidency was a rousing… ‘success’? What the hell is going on here? Doesn’t anyone remember what Trump’s presidency was really like? WHY has this widespread craziness and amnesia taken hold in ‘the land of the free,’ and why is it persisting and even growing?
Let us eat of the fruit of the tree of forgetfulness, said the demon — and thus it was.
Sickness, fever, and diminished moral functioning
The ‘fever’ analogy is actually a very good one — because a large segment of our American citizenry appears to be quite sick, and is experiencing mounting fury and ethnic hatred, alongside diminished mental and moral functioning.
How else to explain the continued, mounting support for a totally amoral, vicious, lying, and vengeful scoundrel who belongs in prison, not the White House — someone who, as prominent Trump critic Liz Cheney put it, “should never get anywhere near the Oval Office, ever again”!
. . .
But just saying that a large percentage of Americans is ‘sick’ and stuck in an irrational ‘fever’ state isn’t especially helpful. So, let’s take a minute and investigate exactly how they’re sick, and why.
First off, I’m struck by the inescapable fact that Trump’s meteoric rise, back in 2015–16, came right on the heels of Obama’s presidency: the first and only time the U.S. had a Black president.
Clearly, having a Black president — for two terms, yet! — infuriated the White racist minority, and ‘prepped’ them for Trump and his Make America Great Again movement. In Trump, they saw and heard a near-perfect reflection of their darkest biases and hatreds — and they loved him for it.
As I’ve written before, Trump gave Americans direct, leering permission — further, he often gave them implicit (or explicit) encouragement — to be their worst, most hateful, most judgmental selves. He — our president, for heaven’s sake! — actually encouraged all our worst, basest instincts and beliefs.
He opened Pandora’s box wide — and nothing has been the same ever since.
Making America Awful Again
Rather than ‘Making America Great Again,’ Trump:
· Made racism OK again.
· Made ethnic hatred and oppression OK again.
· Made constant lying acceptable and even preferable — IF it gets the desired result.
· Convinced many of us that the real news is all ‘fake news.’
· Made our nation a laughingstock around the world.
· Made us much more misogynistic, again.
· Turned many of us against our own justice system and our election systems and processes.
· Re-made our American reality ‘in his own (cruel) image.’
In other words: he totally screwed us and our venerable Constitution, and, together with his faithful MAGA minions, effectively undermined and reversed five decades of progress.
What a fabulous record to run on! If all these ass-backward ‘accomplishments’ illustrate being ‘great again,’ I’d hate to see what abject failure looks like!
Trump and MAGA are not going away anytime soon
The problem, though, is that many Americans ARE proud of his record, and DO think he accomplished great things.
And unfortunately, no evidence to the contrary will change their minds. Many venerate him ‘as is’ — and some even believe Trump is our infallible ‘savior,’ sent by God to ‘save America.’
I mean… WOW. Just — wow. How delusional and ‘off’ can you get? In my opinion, our current ‘reality’ in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to mass mental illness.
As I said at the start of this essay, many Americans today are profoundly, deeply sick… and their inner sickness persists, and keeps promoting and re-creating the crazed Trumpian ‘fever’ that has gripped America for the past nine years.
And scarily, it’s become abundantly clear that the Trump/ MAGA ‘fever’ is NOT abating or fading away. Our national illness is not in remission, and our national psyche is not somehow ‘healing itself.’
Every political and societal sign points to the exact opposite: Trump, MAGA, and his awful influence have now embedded themselves in our social and political matrix, and will not be easy to counteract or dislodge.
Very sadly — for the U.S. and the entire world — Trump and MAGA are here to stay for the next decade… or even longer.
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This post was previously published on Bouncin’ and Behavin’ Blogs.
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“{President Biden is} over 80 years old, has occasional memory lapses (like anyone his age), is presiding over an inflation-riddled economy, and is bogged down in his unpopular, heavily pro-Israel stance and policies.” Maybe stop apologizing all of the time; as though President Biden should be excusing himself for his candidacy, like he was Oliver Twist asking for more gruel. There is a time to acknowledge proficiency and realities: The pandemic-induced inflation has been steadily heading down, and still is. Israel isn’t going anywhere. And Biden’s age is his age. I remember, not that long ago, when ‘ageism’ was the… Read more »