Friday, January 06, 2017 10:32 AM
I’ve stolen today’s title from the New York Times headline—because in their piece, they’re discussing his rejection of intelligence-gathering agencies—but I think it is just as important to point out the truth of this headline in more general terms. Trump has an animal cunning, so it’s not that he’s casting his own intelligence aside—he’s plowing the intelligence of others aside as he sweeps the road clear for graft, corruption, and misconduct.
He started by belittling the experience and intelligence of his opponent—inveigling the voters to cast aside their own intelligence and good judgement, and vote as if they were watching the reality game show that gave Trump such prominence among the illiterate. Then he began belittling the importance of the truth—pretending, like a toddler, that saying “Is Not!” was sufficient response to charges that he is unfit to be trusted with responsibility.
Now, the New York Times has run op-eds that discuss the finer points of calling Trump a liar—claiming that it is unfair to accuse someone of lying, if that person is unaware of their own untruthfulness. Now, I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit—Trump has blatantly, grinningly presented us with lie after lie, as if daring someone to prove the truth while the airways remain crowded with fake news and bullshit artists like Kelly Conway. Pretending that he has said these lies often enough to start believing them himself—that’s giving him far more credit than he deserves.
If Trump is faced with the choice of convincing people by reason, and bamboozling them with lies, he obviously prefers the second method. Do you remember his shit-eating grin, while he declared, “Obama is the founder of ISIS”—were we not supposed to see his obvious enjoyment of trashing every decent thing in the course of his campaign? Is it because he’s not so good with reason? Is it because he actually enjoys telling lies? Who knows—and frankly, who cares?
Him and his lackeys have parsed the grammar, inverted the morality, questioned the reality, and mugged their way past the sincerity of all the decent people that oppose them. Trump calls people names—that’s his policy. Trump says the professionals don’t know anything and he knows it all—what an asshole!
What Trump, his coven, and the whole GOP, really, do NOT ever do—is offer solutions, alternatives, plans, or ideas. They are full-on negative—because negative has two advantages—it lets them attack their opponents, rather than debate them—and it allows them to do nothing at all—and pretend that that’s their job.
If the media were honest, they’d be pressing Trump hard about what he’s going to do—he still hasn’t said, in case anyone was wondering. The media should be saying, “Yes, yes—bitch, bitch, bitch—we get it—but what are you going to do?” Paul Ryan won’t say what he’s going to do, either—I don’t mean to imply that the fartbag-in-chief is the only scum coating the halls of the Capitol. Their latest plan is to repeal Obamacare, but have cancellation take effect in four years—taking credit for a victory, without the need to solve the problem—these are the kinds of assholes you voted for—you have no one to blame but yourselves.
Imagine if someone turned seventy years old—never had a thought for public service his whole entitled, spoiled life—and decides he wants to be President. Yes, delusional is the correct term for that. What the word is for those who voted for him—I don’t know. Super-delusional? Yes, Trump casts intelligence aside, alright—but he sure has lots of company.
I enjoyed your post. One thing I didn’t agree with was that Trump voters are illiterate. Many other adjectives would work. I was watching “Smerconish” on CNN, Saturday morning at 9 am. He was talking about the huge divide in the country. He had read a book by a man whose name I forgot. The author asked questions like, “Have you or your spouse bought a pick-up truck? Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is?”
We live in bubbles was his point. Smerconish vows he will try to get out of his bubble of living in Philly suburbs, a lawyer, etc. I think there is some truth to this but I don’t want to mingle with folks who know Jimmie Johnson with no offense to the man personally. I don’t disrespect those folks, just find it boring. (Yes, I am avoiding saying what J. Johnson does)
I think there are different groups of Trump supporters. Idiots are one. Those who are too busy to watch the news, bigots. I can’t figure out the intelligent people I know who voted for him. There are Hillary haters (?).
Did you see what the Reps have planned? They are going to jam many of their plans into the week of the inauguration so while the news is playing the same old pomp, they get their agenda going. They make me sick. I still avoid as much Trump talk as possible. All I know is that this country will rue the day they put this man in office and that is one thing I am looking forward to if we still are a country by then.
Are you channeling Kelly Conway? Did you really suppose than I meant literally everyone who voted for the puss-bag was literally illiterate? That’s the trouble with political blogging–every time I indulge in a figure of speech to make a point, the point gets buried under a mountain of nit-picking–meanwhile, these a-holes lie like rugs, but don’t have an ounce of poetry in them, so they never use figures of speech. Straight dishonesty is much more effective–meanwhile the rest of us are spell-checking each other. But I’m not mad at you Mindy–you’re just saying what you think.