MAGA- A Confederacy of Dunces
The willing suspension of disbelief has created a cult of proud morons
Before I get started, please allow me to get something off my chest:
TRUMP LOST, LOL!!! AND Y’ALL ARE PART OF A CULT!!!!
There, and thanks! I feel better now.
I don’t know about you, gentle reader, but I can’t think of two words that would have a more immediate effect on my gag reflex than “Donald Trump.” Though Orange Jesus has been out of office for almost two years, the mainstream media remains obsessed with him. You almost wouldn’t know that Joe Biden is the legitimately-elected President of these here Yew-nited States of AmeriKKKa, wouldja?
Talk about “not sending their best,” eh? Millions of red-hatted AmeriKKKans are still addicted to the Cult of Trump, and they’ve still not accepted that the 2020 Presidential was fair, legitimate, and definitely NOT stolen. The conspiracy theorists and idjits of various flavors are still monetizing their lunacy at the expense of the even more gullible Joe and Ethel Sixpacks suspended in the amber of their Fox News-generated reality.
Sometimes America in 2022 feels like what Germany must have felt like in 1933. The only thing missing is the goose-stepping hordes in brown shirts and Sam Browne belts.
Cults of personality have never been an American thing…until Donald Trump came along and made “Make America Great Again” a rallying cry for those who couldn’t tell us when America STOPPED being great. Still, they knew that an allegedly fabulously wealthy man known for stiffing contractors, sleeping around on his wives, and cheating/stealing his way to “success” was something akin to a deity. Evangelical Christians LOVED him, though he was a Christian like Wilt Chamberlain was celibate.
Somehow, he managed to convince millions of angry, White, Conservative, Christian heterosexuals that he would create an America where their interests would be primary. He promised them the sun, the moon, and the stars- and they fell at his feet and worshipped him. The idolatry was as gross and shockingly unwarranted as it was dangerously inappropriate. The man’s as dumb as apost turtle and incapable of leading a pack of hungry Cub Scouts to a Dairy Queen.
The cultists were heaping adulation upon a demagogue with no policies and programs save for his self-aggrandizement and enrichment. Trump was all about Trump, and he made no effort to hide his attempts at self-dealing. During the 2016 campaign, he clarified his intentions, and his supporters loved him even more.
Of course, the fact that the Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was easy to demonize (HER EMAILS!!!) didn’t hurt Trump’s cause. He somehow managed to win the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote by three million (something that remained a sore point throughout his Reign of Error).
His four years in office were nothing if not four years of a string of incalculable massive f**k-ups. Trump, who refused to read daily briefs and wouldn’t consider anything longer than one page, reduced his aides to presenting issues almost in comic book form.
When COVID-19 decimated America, the Trump Administration was utterly unprepared- unsurprising, considering that his strategy was to ignore it until it went away. And guess what? It didn’t; more than three-quarters of a million Americans died on his watch because he was too careless and incautious to take the necessary steps to protect Americans. Instead, he allowed the pandemic to become so politicized that many refused to take even the most basic protective measures…“to own the Libs.” Yeah, that didn’t work out so well for multiple thousands of mindless cultists, did it?
The midterms, thankfully, may have shown that Trump’s effect on the GOP may be waning and that what impact remains is deleterious. But, of course, Orange Jesus being who he is, he’s not about to listen to others when his ego’s in play. So he’s scheduled a rally/news conference/human sacrifice on November 15th and promised a big announcement.
While almost everyone in the GOP is asking him to hold off on announcing that he’s running for President in 2024, Donald Trump only listens to one person: Donald Trump. And Donald Trump does what Donald Trump wants; anyone and everyone else be damned, because no one else matters.
If Trump has to burn down the GOP entirely to win the Presidency in 2024, he’ll do that. He cares nothing for collateral damage or anything that doesn’t grease his path to power.
Sure, you could call the man a sociopath, a psychopath, or you could say he believes his press clippings. Or you could say all of the above is true, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Nevertheless, Donald Trump is the single worst human being to inflict himself upon American public life in this country’s history. He’s done more damage to our social fabric, political system, and way of life than a platoon of Newt Gingrich-like Autobots could’ve dreamed of doing.
Despite this, millions of Americans worship Trump. They take in Orange Jesus’ every utterance and gaze upon him in almost god-like reverence. But, of course, there’s no rational or logical explanation for this sort of behavior other than to say that millions of my compatriots have taken complete leave of their senses. They’ve foresworn every value, moral stricture, and rule they ever learned to worship a man wholly unworthy of that devotion.
Donald Trump, whose primary rule of doing business was “Screw them before they screw you,” has somehow inexplicably won the adoration of millions. For someone with no positive human qualities and no socially redeeming values, it’s difficult for someone who prides himself on understanding human motivation to grasp how that’s possible. The man’s an immature, emotionally stunted, 24-karat, Grade A, top-shelf, first-class, USDA Prime asshole- who’s somehow built a cult of personality around himself.
Then again, Adolf Hitler wasn’t exactly Ryan Reynolds, was he?
It helps that Trump hates (or at least pretends to) the same people his White Conservative Christian heterosexual base does- everyone not like them. Hatred, racism, and bigotry are integral to Trump’s appeal, and as long as he keeps the crowds at his rallies/hatefests happy, he’s in good shape.
Ah, yes, there’s nothing quite as cleansing and satisfying as a good Two Minute Hate.
The problem is that he’s fundamentally changed political discourse in this country. Not that these problems didn’t exist before 2015, but he excised the boils and allowed the putrefaction to air itself out. Now the horror is out in the open, and there’s no forcing it back into the boundaries of its sores.
America is now a textbook episode of “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” Can a nation divided and riven by anger, hatred, ignorance, and bigotry be brought back together? I don’t have an quick and easy answer to that. It will take a leader of surpassing skill and personality to find the path back to unity- if that’s even possible at this late date.
It’s possible that our best days are behind us and that we may be witnessing the decline of Pax Americana. That’s not the worst thing in the world, of course. The decline and fall of an empire is part of a historical cycle- it happened to Greece, Rome, England, the Ottomans, and the Soviets. We’d be naive/stupid to think America is immune to the forces of history.
If that’s where we’re heading, it’s sad to think that it would be Donald f*****g Trump dragging us down that path.
I was hoping for something better- like an invasion or a world war, not a sociopath/megalomaniac with an ego the size of Kazakhstan.
