Sometime in the near future - 2021 or 2025, depending on what happens this fall - a fairly significant chunk of the American public - 35 percent, give or take - will have what can only be described as an epiphany. As if awakening from a deep sleep, they will suddenly come to grips with a staggering reality. That they actively supported, and even agreed with, a man who dragged this nation through one of the darkest chapters in its history. And that realization will hit them like a ton of bricks falling from a roof top.
I can't begin to imagine what that experience will be like for them. Most people, if they're honest, have done some things that they're not proud of over the course of their lifetime, but few, if any, can honestly say they actively participated in a cult that brought this nation to the edge of the abyss. I wouldn't want to be in the same room with these people when that reality sets in.
But until that happens, until the spell is broken, these people will continue to believe the lie that this man is the greatest president ever to occupy the Oval Office, and that any and all revelations about him are nothing more than smears from the main-stream media and the deep state to bring him down. I'm no psychiatrist, but I'm fairly certain this is what they mean when they talk about neuroses.
Don't get me wrong. The article by Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic, in which Trump called soldiers who died in battle "losers" and "suckers", and the recent revelations in Bob Woodward's latest book, in which Trump "downplays" a virus he knew full well was "deadly stuff" is damning evidence that this president is unfit for office. The problem, however, is that while it is damning, it's hardly new or, sadly, all that revelatory.
David Frum writes, "Everyone knows it's true," referring to what Trump said about veterans. Well, almost everyone, that is. For those still trapped inside their own sick and twisted episode of the Twilight Zone, it's just more of the same old "fake news" they've heard over and over since Trump won the election. And even those who haven't gone completely over the deep end - the more lucid among his supporters - will simply chalk it up as just another one of his many idiosyncrasies. They have resigned themselves to excusing abhorrent behavior from him they would never tolerate in a friend, co-worker or family member. This is just Trump being Trump, they'll rationalize to themselves, perhaps even believing it. It must be great having all the bases covered like that. If I'd been this good as a salesperson, I'd be driving a Bentley.
We've never seen anything like this in American politics. A man who literally could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Think about it. It should've been over when he called Mexicans rapists, but it wasn't. It should've been over when he questioned whether John McCain was a hero, but it wasn't. It should've been over when he mocked a disabled reporter, but it wasn't. It should've been over when he attacked a Gold Star family, but it wasn't. And it should've been over when he admitted on tape that he grabbed women by their genitals, but it wasn't.
Any other politician's career would've ended with any one of those slights, but as we've seen all too often, self-inflicted wounds don't seem to hurt this president. If anything, they reinforce the narrative that he is impervious to such wounds. That's why I say with a straight face that Trump calling soldiers who died in battle "losers" and "suckers" and admitting on the record that he knew the Coronavirus was "deadly" won't make one bit of difference to the people who voted for him in 2016 and who plan on voting for him again this year. At this point, he could probably set an American flag on fire and his supporters would spin it as his attempt to provide a beacon of light for the country to rally around. Convoluted doesn't begin to describe what's going on here. Mark my words, there will be courses about this presidency that will be taught on every college campus for decades to come.
The only way to defeat Trump is if enough people who are fed up and disgusted by his behavior vote him out of office. It's that simple. Expecting moderate Republicans to come to the rescue or, even worse, the disillusioned to snap out of it in time, is a fool's errand. He isn't simply the most inept president to live in the White House; he's the most corrupt and amoral human being ever to run for political office.
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