My mantra these days is "Trump ruins everything," and this 4th of July weekend, as well as the 250th birthday of the country, doesn't disappoint in terms of a range of ruination. The nation is in distress.
Of course the guy is a creep and demented and ugly and obscenely rich... and his cult exults in all of that. His MAGA fanatics aren't bothered a bit by his raking in over $2 billion, with the clear connections to corruption, if not outright bribery, in just the past year. Their reasoning? That just shows how great a businessman he is. My view is that he's just a pumped up P.T. Barnum who fully embraces the idea of a "sucker born every minute."
I also am a fan of H.L. Mencken and his quote from a newspaper in 1926: “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
That quote is not as pithy as "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," which he never really said, I find. But the edited quote captures the sentiment pretty well.
The "plain people" are the ones who would sympathize with an Iowa MAGA leader who was quoted in the Times today saying, "It's the 4th and kids are out of school... and it's hot" to explain why most of those plain people in Iowa can't be bothered by Trump's fleecing of America. Willful ignorance is powerful.
Honestly, it turns out that Dear Leader is not grabbing nearly as much loot as his multi-billionaire buddies. Many of them have reaped hundreds of billions in new wealth as they bribe their way into our would-be dictator's graces. In the big picture, Trump isn't even in the same league as the world's first Trillionaire Elon Musk. So, maybe his buisness acumen is overrated.
Trump gleefully posts an illustration of his mug being added to Mount Rushmore and everyone is well aware that such a thing won't happen. His supporters cheer. But he most delights in mocking and trolling anyone NOT already invested in his cult.
Trump represents everything we should be ashamed of in America's history, of course, from the hypocrisy of the wealthy to the outright racism and sexism that many cult members share (or are willing to overlook). But what struck me today is that Trump has allowed me to see so many people all around me as just as flawed as he is, though without the money and power.
No matter what excesses are exposed, about 40 percent of Americans seem to be OK with them. It's puzzling, since most of them will never see much more wealth and will continue to be patsies for the super rich. But their hate of everyone else is enough to drive them.
A Christian nation indeed.
Independence Day should be all about unity and a nation that truly represents "e pluribus unum," out of many, one. It really should be a great time to discuss conepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence didn't claim that anyone would attain happiness, however that might be defined, but that everyone could pursue it.
I must admit to not being as patriotic as I once claimed to be. It's tough to be proud of a nation that can be so ugly and so ignorant as to elect a charlatan like Trump... twice.
Still, it's a big country full of big ideas and I have benefited from so many of them.
Trump will continue to ruin everything, with help from the bigots and wackos he has surrounded himself with, for another 30 months. That seems like an eternity, but my brain tells me it's not.
So this Indepedence Day I will hang onto hope and set my sights on January of 2029, when the Old Fool is put out to pasture. THAT will be a true day to celebrate.
