Another year gone, and this one was definitely a mixed blessing.
For one thing, Donald Trump just won’t go away. It isn’t even a political thing anymore. Is it even possible that a former president, one who wants to be president again, would make it part of his Christmas message to tell people to rot in hell?
The bizarre part of it is that no matter what he says or how repulsive he acts, it doesn’t seem to bother the Trumpanzees. And as the year goes on, both on the electoral front and in the four criminal cases he faces, those who follow him will get angrier and angrier.
It’s easy to write many of his followers off as stupid or naive, but anger and frustration play a much bigger role. One thing I truly believe is that many of them know Trump isn’t going to solve any problems and indeed may be bad for America, but they love him because the people they hate also hate him.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Two of my oldest friends have become Trumpanzees and at least in one case, it has been harmful to the friendship. It amazes me that anyone with three-digit intelligence can see Trump as anything other than the grifter he has always been, and it amazes me more that the right-wing evangelical Christians see him as a godly man.
Almost as amazing is the poll in today’s Washington Post reporting that more than a third of those surveyed say they don’t believe President Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, an election he won by seven million votes.
I did get a kick out of the revelations from people who have worked with Trump about his horrific body odor and the fact that he has had to wear adult diapers for more than 30 years because he can’t control his bowels.
Not that this by itself is disqualifying, but Trump and his right-wing minions have attacked Biden’s age, physical condition and mental cognition almost nonstop. Trump himself has said he is in much better physical shape than Biden, which is straight out of the Karl Rove.
Rove said that you take your own weakness and attack your opponent for being worse. George W. Bush managed to cover his own draft evasion during Vietnam by Swiftboating John Kerry in 2004 even though Kerry served in Vietnam and earned three Purple Hearts.
Will America see through Trump?
I think they already have. Even in the 2016 election he “won” against Hillary Clinton, he got three million fewer votes than she did.
The problem is that Democrats are putting themselves in an awful position vis-a-vis the fall election. Many voters, including many Democrats, think Joe Biden is too old to run for a second term. He will be 82 by Inauguration Day and would be 86 if he makes it through a second term.
Despite Trump’s lies about the “Biden Crime Family,” the president is a good man who sincerely believes he is the only thing standing between America and a second Trump term.
If that’s the case, we’re in big trouble. There ought to be enough Democrats and honest independents to form a majority that would keep Trump from being elected against any reasonable candidate.
Health and the legal system may keep Trump out of the race in the end, and I have a feeling Biden may not be there in November either.
I’m reminded of that old Chinese saying that sounds good but is actually a curse.
May you live in interesting times.