So all the shouting is over, at least until the recount results come in, and I’m sitting here looking at the election results so far. The Republicans have, as expected, retained the Senate while the Democrats have taken the House and now have a check on Trump’s abuses, a check that the Republicans refused to provide.
The fact is, 35% of the voters stated that they voted based on an affinity for Trump. 38% voted because they were looking to dump Trump and 33% voted for other reasons. But it’s that 35% that really astounds me. A third of the country voted to support a man who in his latest campaign rhetoric has proven himself to be a raving bigot and racist, a man who openly lied to them in almost every sentence he uttered. It will be fascinating to see if the word “caravan” ever crosses Trump’s lips again now that the election is over. The lies he told to an avid coterie of bigots and racists over that fantasy were the things by which veracity is buried. He had them roaring his name and praising his promise to save them from terrorists, rapists, mass murders and every disease except terminal clap.
These people didn’t care that he was lying to them, they didn’t care that he was preaching a racist doctrine, just like they never seem to care that he is always looking to advance Donald Trump instead of the country they live in. That is depressing.
The main reason it’s depressing is this 35% doesn’t exhibit any ability to understand or even be interested in the fact that everything in Trump’s agenda runs contrary to their current interests, whatever they happen to be. I’ve been arguing with people about everything since I was on the debate team in high school way over half a century ago. I don’t understand the mind that closes and refuses to look at any logical approach to a question. These people don’t seem to care if Trump’s policies are good or bad for them. It doesn’t seem to bother them that he spends his days lying to them about everything on the table. What’s really scary is that they are willing to vote against their own interests in any number of areas just so they can wear a hat that says, “Make America Great Again,” and yell their lungs out at a rally where he feeds them nothing but lies and racist bullshit.
There is a valid constitutional argument against just about every position Trump has taken in the two years he has been in office. There is a humanitarian argument against everything he has even thought. But still they blindly follow him.
*****
Trump continues to drain the swamp and as has been happening all along, he is taking the contents of that swamp and dumping them in the White House. The latest disaster is Matthew Whittaker, Trump’s appointment as acting Attorney General. Whittaker, who is now sitting, temporarily and illegally sitting in his new job as head law enforcer in the nation got there through an association with Trump that is unassailable. They are both crooks. Whittaker sat on the board of World Patent Marketing, a company that was set up to be a scam, operated as a scam, was convicted of scamming and thereby earned a $26 million dollar fine for stealing the life savings of any number of veterans. Whittaker earned a nice little salary for his efforts in keeping the scam functional. This puts him in the same boat as The Prez, who ran the infamous Trump University.
But that’s only a minor problem for Whittaker’s appointment. Trump can’t just install his lackeys in any job that’s empty, especially the acting Attorney General slot. He needs Senate confirmation. Nobody is going to confirm this clown with the possible exception of associate clowns like McConnell.
Trump in is full panic over the mid-term and how it will effect the Mueller investigation. Check him out at yesterday’s press conference. That’s why he has installed this unqualified and unconfirmed sycophant in this very important job. This sets up a potentially explosive situation whereby Trump, who recognizes no boundaries except the limits of his desires, goes to Whittaker and demands to have all of the Mueller records read to him. If Whittaker had been a legitimate appointment, confirmed by congress, this would be no problem, but because Whittaker has no legitimate authority to even look at those records, both he and Trump would be acting in collusion to impede justice, a felony.
Whittaker, because of his criminal record, will never be confirmed by the Senate, so the above scenario, considering Trump’s ego would appear to be inevitable. But why would I have any belief that the cowardly jackals’ of the Republican Senate would vote not to confirm Whittaker despite his criminal background? Up to now they have continued to go along with Trump despite his inability to act within the confines of the constitution. But I think the elections this week have put a serious crimp in the GOP Senators’ affinity for Trump and what he wants. Going into the elections Trump was the big noise and it seemed that there was no one to take him on. He made the election personal. A vote for any of his sycophants was a vote for him. So the Democrats crushed the GOP candidates in the House vote, flipping that group to a thirty and possibly larger Democratic majority when final vote recounts are complete. In an impossible Senate situation, at first it appeared as if the GOP would add to its majority of 2 but as final counts come down to recounts in several states it’s still possible that the GOP majority could disappear entirely.
This has put the fear of God in GOP politicians who once only feared Trump but now they are galloping away from the Orange Liar in droves. Slippery Mitch McConnell, who will probably barely hold onto his leadership of the Senate, opposed Trump when he was running and then became his best pal when he was in power. McConnell and others have now come out against Trump’s choice of Whittaker. There will be more turning their backs on Trump. The same scum who showed no backbone by sucking up to Trump when he was hot will now slither away from him as he cools.
The choice of Whittaker is going to be like a bullet in the stomach for Trump. It will do all kinds of damage that is not immediately obvious. Like practically all of Trump’s problems it’s self-inflicted, mainly because he is so self-indulgent that he never considers anything but what he wants. So despite the damage he continues to do to our country, Trump will eventually get his just deserts. If he keeps acting the way he has for the past two years he will end up in a cell. That’s just inevitable.
******
So you don’t think Trump is a racist. Here are four quotes made by Trump to Michael Cohen, along with the circumstances in which they were uttered.
1-That’s because black people are too stupid to vote for me.
2-Name one country, run by a black person, that’s not a shithole. Name one city.
3-Ony blacks could live like this
4-No way I can let a black fucking win
1-When Michael Cohen mentioned that one of Trump’s rallies looked vanilla.
2-While discussing Nelson Mandela’s death
3-While driving through a rough neighborhood
4- When discussing, The Apprentice
There is nothing surprising about any of these. Anyone who has watched or listened to the fat liar over the years knows this is just the way the orange bigot thinks. Actually these quotes fade when compared to things he has actually done like; ripping babies from their Hispanic mothers or accusing a march of Central American’s fleeing violence and poverty of being an invading army bringing terrorists and disease to the US. Trump established his bigot credentials even before he was a candidate when he challenged Barak Obama’s birthplace and he has been doing it ever since. Unfortunately bigotry has never been a cause to deny candidacy in this country. Bigots and racists have been on the ballot as far back as memory serves but that’s no big discovery. That’s just human nature. That’s right, human nature. We are, unfortunately, a failed construction and it seems there will always be those, who because of ignorance or fear or greed or whatever, refuse to accept others for any number of reasons, the easiest to recognize being color but also including yet not limited to religion, ethnic derivation or any number of other criteria. We are tribal and while that may define our ability to survive as a species, it also delineates our failure to mature as a surviving species.
What may in the end help us to attain our hoped for goals as human beings was the existence, back in the late 1700’s, of a group of extraordinary men who somehow managed to create a series of documents that would become the basis for a nation that has been, and still can be, a bright beacon for the rest of the world. Those documents weren’t foolproof but they were pretty damn good and so far they have managed, despite a great deal of abuse, to guide the leaders of this nation to a point that no other nation on earth has reached.
We are currently undergoing a serious test of the ability of those documents to control unruly elements of our government that have, as their final goal, power and wealth, not for the nation but for themselves. If this week’s election is any criteria, the documents will survive and control the problem but to do that those to whom the responsibility of office has been given must adhere to them. That has not been the case for the last two years and the damage to the nation has been severe. I’m not alluding to physical damage aside from that done by our failure to accept our responsibility to create sensible gun controls, but I am speaking to the loss of reputation and international leadership, conceded or simply frittered away by the stupidity and greed of our President.
Yes, he’s a racist and a bigot but he’s much worse. He’s an egomaniac in over his head. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t have the intelligence to do the job. He’s certainly crafty and as long as his followers aren’t too smart, he has undeniable leadership skills, but his refusal or inability to learn from other, more experienced, or more intelligent advisors, along with his denial of any idea that doesn’t come from his diseased mind, are a definite precursor to failure and madness.
Let’s hope that with a House which refuses to bend before his will, this country will be able to staunch his degenerate desires and forge ahead on a path that leads to extension of our healthcare system, the introduction of an infrastructure program, reduction of the debt, a broadening of our educational programs and the continued progression of our economy, now in its tenth straight year of growth. If Trump can control his darker desires, a lot to ask, and our new House can learn to function under Democratic leadership but with bi-partisan cooperation we may have a shot at bringing this country back to where it was before Trump began plundering it.