We get precisely the quality of leadership we deserve, but seriously...Donald Trump??
Are we now a country of self-absorbed assholes and dangerously cruel sociopaths (and Christians!) who care only that The Others don't get what we already have?
Anyone who knows me understands I’m an introvert, skilled at the fine art of the Irish goodbye, and loathe to be the center of attention in just about any situation. I’ve never really wanted to be the one sitting on the throne, but I have no problem with being the power behind it.
So it’s difficult for me to understand what motivates and drives a sociopath and attention whore like Donald Trump, who must be the center of attention in any room he’s in. Also, how does someone who demands the spotlight in any situation possess such thin skin? How is it that he can’t ignore any perceived disrespect, no matter how slight and insignificant it might seem?
I suspect we’re all familiar with the clip of Trump indelicately pushing his way past the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Duško Marković, at a NATO photo opp in 2017. It’s so typically Trumpian that it would be funny if it weren’t so desperately indicative of what a complete dick he is. The man has no- none, zip, zero, nada- socially redeeming value, and he displayed it for the world to see.
Trump wanted to position himself at the front of the group, closer to NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg, and his boorish behavior raised eyebrows in a diplomatic community that operates by very staid and well-established rules of etiquette. Of course, rules of etiquette are lost on Mango Mussolini.
One doesn’t appeal to Donald Trump’s better angels. Those angels don’t exist. Most, if not all, of his relationships are purely transactional, and the idea that he would ever make anything resembling a positive moral choice is delusional. Trump doesn’t traffic in “positive” or “negative” moral decisions. As is true for any sociopath, there are only decisions.
And, as is true for any sociopath, Donald Trump only deals with what is best for himself.
discusses how the mainstream media is, after all these years, selling a fantasy version of Dolt45.Nikki Haley spent the dying days of her presidential campaign reminding anyone who’d listen that Donald Trump is unhinged and unfit. But when she ended her candidacy last week after Super Tuesday, she suggested it was possible Trump could still win her endorsement.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” she said. “And I hope he does that. At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.”
Of course, it’s impossible that Trump, who regularly called Haley “birdbrain,” will make anything resembling a positive moral choice. He does not build willing coalitions. He only attempts to dominate through violence and intimidation. We know this about him because our birth certificates are not dated “Yesterday.”
But if Haley is overly optimistic about Trump, perhaps it’s because she uncritically consumes mainstream media, which seemingly can’t help but default to covering Trump as if he’s a normal candidate — even after his attempted coup and multiple criminal indictments.
The biggest mistake Haley, the mainstream media, or anyone else makes lies in assuming that Trump makes a moral choice. His modus operandi is violence, intimidation, and engendering fear in anyone in his orbit. The reason that Republicans in the Senate declined to vote to convict him during his two impeachment trials? They were terrified of what might happen to themselves or their families.
Many have said that if Senators had been able to cast their votes anonymously, Trump would’ve been convicted overwhelmingly, but because they had to declare their votes publicly, they had no choice but to cave to fear. Republican Senators know what Trump’s rabid supporters are capable of, and they weren’t willing to risk the safety of their loved ones.
Yes, major news outlets, including the New York Times, are now more likely to acknowledge that Trump outright lies than simply makes “false” statements, but the press still resists definitively calling him out for the terrible and dangerous person he is. Because their baseline assumption is that Trump is erratic and malevolent, it’s not generally regarded as big news when Trump does awful things, such as mocking Biden’s speech impediment during a speech over the weekend. (Watch the footage below, though it should be mentioned that the NYT published an article noting that Trump mocked Biden’s stutter.)
The problem isn’t that Trump is an awful person, though that’s undoubtedly true, but that the mainstream press has accepted his sociopathic nature as the baseline.
When Trump does awful things, it barely registers because everyone in the mainstream media knows that’s who he is.
Yawn…just Donald Trump being an asshole. No big deal. Nothing to see here, people. Sociopaths gonna sociopath. Might as well go home….
So, Trump can mock a disabled reporter like Serge Kovaleski or mock Joe Biden’s stutter, and hardly anyone raises an eyebrow. The bar for Trump’s behavior has been set that low. Everyone knows he’s an asshole and a sociopath…so tell us something new, whydon’tcha?
If he showed up at a children’s hospital to spend a day with kids suffering from cancer, it would be front-page news…because the assembled media would assume, correctly, that Trump must have had a personality transplant.
But if Joe Biden mocked someone for anything, he’d be pilloried for his boorish behavior—and he’d deserved it.
Double standard? Youbetcha. Fair? Nowhere near. Media laziness and sloth? That would be tough to argue against.
But, as a very wise man once said, we get precisely the leadership we deserve, which, if I’m reading that correctly, means we may be on the verge of being a nation of self-absorbed racist, misogynist, homophobic, asshole sociopaths.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Donald Trump is destroying America, and America is standing by with its collective thumb up its backside because a significant number of our fellow citizens believe God ordained Orange Jesus to lead America.
Daddy died in August of 2017…it was a terrible and painful death and he was only 61 years old. His last words to me were absolutely unfathomable and embarrassing: He begged for forgiveness for his behavior and his Facebook posts, since 2015. The MAGA mentality he had displayed since Trump came down that escalator. The point of contention in our formerly close relationship—the reason we had barely spoken in two years.
He was dying and he talked about Betsy DeVos.
Years before his death, daddy had sent me several messages through Facebook messenger about “ripping the teeth” out of education departments across the country and I was shocked. I am sick writing those words. I write them because I know I am not alone. I know many of us lost parents and siblings and grandparents and friends to Trumpism. It’s a sad state of affairs and we may as well talk about it, because even though Trump has been out of office for three years, he’s never gone away. We still suffer the loss of our relationships.
Daddy. He was a Navy Seabee. A carpenter. A guitar player. A fast car collector. A good guy. A man who tried to raise two little girls on his own and did it to the best of his ability. A hippie in his pot-smoking, hard-rock youth and a MAGA in his death.
It made no sense. He was never hateful, until he was. He was always caring, until he wasn’t. He was proud of me—the first to graduate with a BA, much less an MA in Education, until he decided the Education Department was a part of a conspiracy. He was always the man who I could count on when I called, but he died a man I didn’t recognize.
The story
relays about her late father is tragic, in part because it can be multiplied by a factor of several million from coast to coast. It’s easy to wonder what happened to what may have been previously kind, generous, loving, and compassionate people.When (and how) did they lose their way? How were so many (along with the mainstream media) fooled into believing that Donald Trump was so much more than just another Presidential candidate…and not a self-dealing sociopath who wishes to destroy America as we know it?
It made no sense. He was never hateful, until he was. He was always caring, until he wasn’t. He was proud of me—the first to graduate with a BA, much less an MA in Education, until he decided the Education Department was a part of a conspiracy. He was always the man who I could count on when I called, but he died a man I didn’t recognize.
What happened?
Well, a lot, and it didn’t start with Trump, but it was cemented and drug to the forefront with his candidacy and election. Daddy was immediately a Trump fan and I thought it odd at first, but I soon grew more upset the more I learned of Trump.
Ms. Piper describes watching and listening to her father fall farther and farther down the conspiracy rabbit hole, chasing a massive sense of anger and rage that had never existed before. He ranted about Pizzagate, said horrible things about Hillary Clinton, posted ridiculous theories on Facebook, and complained about dead people voting- things he never did before he became a fan of Donald Trump.
As her father’s illness became progressively worse, so did his descent into the political darkness of the rabbit hole he’d descended into.
I started avoiding him and skipped visits even though I knew his health wasn’t the best — that’s on me and I still regret it. I just couldn’t stand to see his brain rotting in front of me and his new political opinions on everything from abortion to immigration enraged me. We used to talk about his dogs, his travel, and his work. He was now ranting about locking folks up and welfare abuse and pedophiles. I couldn’t deal with it so I didn’t.
I’m so grateful that my family has been spared this divisiveness. Though I’m pretty sure two of my three brothers have voted for Trump, I’ve made a concerted effort not to discuss politics with them. Nothing could change except for our relationship taking a turn for the worse, so I don’t go there. It’s not worth it.
(Oddly enough, I can discuss Christianity with one of my brothers, who’s an Evangelical Christian and very worried about where I’m going after I die. It’s an ongoing discussion that fascinates me but isn’t about to convert me. I don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t care. I’ll be dead.)
In the end, Ms. Piper had to come to terms with her father, apologizing for his politics on his deathbed. Too late, he realized the folly of his hatefulness and how much he’d hurt those he loved, but after his passing, the question remained. What had led him to such a dark and horrible place?
Indeed, what has led so many millions to a place of such hatefulness, ignorance, and rage? Sometimes, when I go onto Truth Social, I’m stunned by the vitriol of the responses I get. The hatred, anger, rage, arrogance, and ignorance can be epic. I wonder how one can go through life like that, always angry, always spoiling for a fight, always convinced that you are superior and that Liberals are evil and of the Devil.
Donald Trump didn’t do this. He gave permission to people who’d always felt this way to act out freely. No longer did they need to hide who they are. They could proudly be their true asshole selves without having to worry about etiquette or being nice to others, or even respecting their feelings. They could hate, discriminate, and despise others in the name of Jesus Christ freely…and feel self-righteous in doing so.
Yes, the “Fuck Your Feelings!” crowd came out from under their rocks, loud and proud. And they're not going back anytime soon.
That’s what Donald Trump has done to America. Fuck your feelings.
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Such a deep level of pride🦨