We’re at a unique crossroads in our history. We have one candidate on the ballot who is fit and one who is unfit. The unfit one is a convicted felon and civilly adjudicated rapist, as a matter of fact. In any sane culture, he would never have gotten to the top of the GOP ticket, let alone for the third time, on these facts. Yet, there he is. And Democrats have gone out of their way, to put it mildly, to make sure that people understand just who and what Donald Trump is. But that’s missing the point. Because this election will be a referendum on whether we continue to go forward as a democracy or whether we do what the Germans did in the late 1930’s and hand over the reins of government to a fascist, yes. That’s true. But what’s even more true — and more tragic — is that this election is going to be a Rorschach test on America’s mental and spiritual health. The results of this election are going to say who and what we are, as Americans. And that could be a real horror story.
Like many of Trump’s critics, I’ve repeatedly asked one question over the years: What’s it going to take? When will Republican leaders and millions of Trump voters finally see the immorality of supporting such a man? Surely, with these latest revelations, we’ve reached the Moment, the Turning Point, the Line in the Sand, right?
Wrong. As New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu—one of the many former Trump critics now back on the Trump train—said today on CNN in response to a question about Kelly’s comments: “With a guy like [Trump], it’s kinda baked into the vote.”
The belief that at some point Trump voters will have finally had enough is an ordinary human response to seeing people you care about—in this case fellow citizens—associate with someone you know to be awful. Much like watching a friend in an unhealthy relationship, you think that each new outrage is going to be the one that provokes the final split, and yet it never does: Your friend, instead of breaking off the relationship, makes excuses. He didn’t mean it. You don’t understand him like I do.
But this analogy is wrong, because it’s based on the faulty assumption that one of the people in the relationship is unhappy. Maybe the better analogy is the friend you didn’t know very well in high school, someone who perhaps was quiet and not very popular, who shows up at your 20th reunion on the arm of a loudmouthed boor—think a cross between Herb Tarlek and David Duke—who tells offensive stories and racist jokes. She thinks he’s wonderful and laughs at everything he says. But what she really enjoys, all these years after high school, is how uncomfortable he’s making you.
That’s the dynamic. The people who accept Trump, nay who luvvv Trump, who think he’s just swell, are thrilled with his shock value. And it gets worse as the days go by. And they love that, too. And Trump knows it. This is the audience he’s playing to. Take a look at his lashing back at John Kelly.
Trump says his former Chief of Staff, Marine General John Kelly, is a “total degenerate,” “weak” “jello” “low life” and “dumb.” pic.twitter.com/oGWH3urQlq
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 23, 2024
The tweet ends, “military, he will only speak well of you. I said, ‘thank you.'” I guess Trump feels betrayed now, because the truth came out. And he’s not missing a step. Here’s his palm out, greased as usual, begging for more dough when allegedly he’s a billionaire.
We’re in the FINAL STRETCH.
After years of waiting, it is almost time to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY!
Anything you can give right now will mean more than at any point in our HISTORIC MOVEMENT.
Can you please chip in today?
Your support will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 20, 2024
Trump is the deranged general in the culture war. And his troops love him. There is nothing he can do that will change that. And yes, certainly Kamala Harris is right to keep blowing the whistle on this guy and warning America. But it will fall on deaf ears.
Some Trump voters may believe his lies. But plenty more want Trump to be terrifying and stomach-turning so that reelecting him will be a fully realized act of social revenge. Harris cannot propose any policy, offer any benefit, or adopt any position that competes with that feeling.
Exactly why so many Americans feel this way is a complicated story—I wrote an entire book about it—but a toxic combination of social resentment, entitlement, and racial insecurity drives many Trump voters to believe not only that other Americans are looking down on them but that they are doing so while living an undeservedly good life. These others must be punished or at least brought down to a common level of misery to balance the scales, and Trump is the guy to do it.
This unfocused rage is an addiction fed by Trump and conservative media, and the MAGA base wants it stoked continuously. If Trump were suddenly to become a sensible person who started talking coherently about trade policy and defense budgets, they would feel betrayed, like hard drinkers in a tavern who suspect that the bartender is watering down the high-proof stuff. My friend Jonathan Last—the editor of The Bulwark—has been wondering about this same problem, and says that some Trump supporters “are not (yet) comfortable with admitting this truth to themselves.”
Now I am going to show you some mentally ill shit. This is Tucker Carlson articulating the dogma of the MAGA cult. “Daddy’s coming home and he’s pissed,” and woe betide us. “They deserve this,” Tucker intones.
The most epic takedown of the machine!
Tucker- Daddy is home and he's pissed!
This is our America, not Illegals, not the parasites in government, and not the evil hiding behind the machines.
I support the ones raging against the machine!!! Trump/Vance 2024!!🇺🇲❤️🤍💙 pic.twitter.com/FyeQr5219V
— Summer D (@Daisysummer05) October 23, 2024
This is it. This is the Rorschach test right here. Some people see this as wonderful and that’s the MAGA cult. Other people see this as the end of America and that’s anybody normal minded. And just to be clear, Trump is not leading in all seven swing states. Tucker can sell that fantasy to the cult because he must but even with the influx of right-wing commissioned polls, that’s not the case.
MAGAs are intoxicated with the notion of what Trump will do to other people. What Carlson just did is the MAGA Two-Minute Hate, straight out of 1984. Big Brother/Dad/Donald’s coming “home” back to the Oval Office, back to “extreme power.” And he’s pissed. And boy are we gonna get it.
Maybe America is this sick. If it is, I don’t know what will happen. We’ll become a third world banana republic, never again trusted in the eyes of the world, at the very least. I suppose realistically leftist bloggers will be hauled away to camps like other political enemies. Hitler became Chancellor in January and Dachau was up and running by March.
This, I hope, what you just saw here with Carlson, is our lowest hour. I hope that we prove in 12 days that we are better than this. And we’ll have a fight on our hands in all events. Mother Tucker makes that clear. You notice that Tucker said he was sure Trump would win BUT he threw in the part about how “we won’t accept another January, 2020.” But I’m not that worried about another riot, honestly, because the MAGAs saw that Trump didn’t rescue the J6 rioters and a lot of them are cooling their heels in a prison cell.
If in future years a grandchild or someone says to you, “What was that all about, back then, in the Trump era?” you can tell them the simple truth: “It was about whether the crazies and the haters outnumbered the good and decent people in our country. And we found out.” Your next word will be either, “Thank God,” or “Unfortunately.” That’s what this is about, this is America’s cognitive test, our Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV. We’ll either pass it with flying colors or we will flunk, and the sun will sink on yet another republic gone to seed, after a brave democratic experiment faltered after 240-some years.
America has entered a magical and rewarding period, being ‘The Twelve Days of Harris’. God speed, Kamala! Now here’s an opportunity for a PZ quill to author the right worded song, to accompany ‘The Twelve Days of Harris’. Who is up to the task?
God, maybe I’ll do it. This has been a night of epiphany for me. I honestly see MAGA for who and what they are. Trump COULD shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and he not only wouldn’t lose a vote, he would probably gain quite a few. This election is truly about mental illness.
Germany had a reason to want Hitler to avenge Germany. Germany had gotten clobbered in WWI. That was the essence of Make Germany Great Again, i.e., take us back to when we were composers and poets and renowned as cultured people. Instead, they elected a butcher who is an eternal stain upon the German people, for all time.
Will we do the same? I don’t think so. As I noted, Tucker Carlson lied about Trump leading in all seven swing states. Max, he leads in two. That’s it. No effing way in all seven.
Re your “… God, maybe I’ll do it…” Awesome, Ursula! Conquer it!
Regarding Trump and his Trumpism MAGA sect thing. They’re nothing more than a cheap, opportunistic political construct based on, and for the benefit of male white grievance, which is not a movement. Amongst other horrid things, as you’ve alluded to, time and time again, Trump and Trumpisn MAGA sect are the practical political equivalent of an incel bitching board; a bunch of out of shape, smelly slobs sitting in their mothers basements wondering why they can’t get laid.
They’re haters, pure and simple. And they want Trump to *punish* those that they hate. This is a grievance cult. I never thought I’d see this in America but I have lived to see that very thing.
And remember, though they may seem legion, there’s just not that many of them, not enough to do anything but worry the rest of us into resisting them. Their only achievement will ironically be furthering their own demise by invigorating their opposition, us.
Trump’s current orbit is a ‘shitetastropy’ . This surely makes Trump unfit to be POTUS. He’s a mean and vindictive bumblef*ck. One who clearly now is nothing but a confused series of mental clusterf*cks. One who’s achieved his infamy simply by being engaged in a life-long toxic f*ckathon of vindictive f*ckery – what he touches he f*cks, and then it dies; possibly even himself, as witnessed – nothing but a f*ck-knuckle, who’s suffering an acute on chronic case of physical and mental f*ckeries!
… and that Tucker Carlson described as the patron saint of aggrieved rich pricks and manufactured victimhood, where in his one-eyed programme he gets to use his well-rehearsed five basic faces: stunned; annoyed; questioning; deliberate; and trying to understand. All of which, can only be both discerned and understood, in their ever-so-slight differences, by the countries best trained psychiatrists.
There was a lot in his sicko commentary tonight. The message was “get out of line and you’re toast.” No candidate for president, prior to Trump, would have wanted anybody shilling like that.
Sociologists will be debating this for many years to come. Long after we’re on the other side of the grass.
MAGA emphatically does not want a return to cultural greatness. They hate culture of any kind. They just want to tear the country down to their level.
There actually is a word to define a Trump led government: Kakistrocracy
“A kakistocracy is a government run by the least qualified, worst, or most unscrupulous citizens of a country or state. The word comes from the Greek words kákisto, the superlative of kakós, which means “bad”, and -cracy. The term was coined as early as the 17th century.
Here are some examples of how a kakistocracy might be described:
A government ruled by the ignorant and stupid
A government with a total lack of integrity in the administration
A government run by the least suitable, able, or experienced people “
I have been using that word since his residency. Exactly what it was. I had it written on a board at my desk so I could be reminded every day of the shit “leader” he was. Thank you for sharing it!!!
I do not believe that President Biden will allow another January 6th. I believe he already has plans set up to quell it immediately, even if using the National Guard and Military is necessary, which I don’t think he would actually do, just use them to stop the aggression by posing a strong front against the nutjobs. If I was a protester and say AK/AR machine guns pointed at me, rocket launchers, tanks, whatever it takes, I think I would go home. I know the magats are as yellow as their leader. And by the way, out of curiousity, did the orange menace have a face lift several months ago? He was looking so old and suddenly all the pictures of him look like his stupid trading cards. Is it all AI or did he get some work done? He has looked like shit for so long…..
I think it’s the extra layers of spray tan. He’s sporting a pretty thick veneer of it now.
I think they learned a lot from 1/6/2021. The Capitol Police were used to polite citizens and lobbyists coming to see a politician. Their job was checking I.D. and making sure tour groups stayed together and giving directions. I was there a lot lo! these many years in my first two.jobs. (At 24, I was frequently mistaken for a high school kid). They were somewhere between security guards and police.
Perhaps more importantly , they–and most Americans– never expected a group.of angry hateful arseholes breaking in and trying to.murder Congressmen and Senators and staffers. We believed that couldn’t happen here. But it did.
I think the Capitol Police, DCPD, the governors of the adjoining states learned a lot. I imagine that the new line of security will be several.streets away (at least 2_ maybe 4) and there will be police with firearms stationed along the cordoned off areas. Every Capitol Policeman will be on duty. D.C. police will.be helping man the blocked off areas.Snipers on the rooftops along with spotters looking for trouble. National Guard in D.C.,VA, and MD on alert, ready to go in if necessary
I imagine staffers will be told not to come to work, with a skeleton staff at most. Patrols searching the Senate and House office buildings. Those buildings will be inside the cordoned off area.
Biden will.listen to his advisers, and have all this planned out in detail, just as he did with Covid. The level.of security may be overkill, but better safe than sorry. Republicans will whine, but they can be reminded that the Trump Army was happily ready to kill them.and then VP Pence.
I envision the President federalizing the National Guard in every state, bringing it under his control, and deploying them across the country to assist local LE at polling places as a means of heading off the RW effort to post “poll monitors”, as well as countering the “fraudulent ballot handling” claims of election deniers.. Guard units would be deployed only to neighboring states, not to their home states, and all guardsman would be obliged to pledge accepstance of the election’s result, regardless of political affiliation, subject to penalties under the UCMJ.
Uniformed and armed soldiers at polling places would give MAGA crazies second thoughts about causing chaos, and backup squads or platoons centrally located could move in quickly if needed.
Sounds extreme, for sure, but aren’t we in an extreme situation?
I think you’re right. Biden’s not going to let that happen. Also, Trump won’t be back down at the Ellipse ginning up a mob. Now I suppose that he could be ginning up the mob at some other venue, but my point is that the set up this time is totally different from what hapened last time.
Last time, right-wing media was encouraging people to go to Washington. I don’t think that they’ll do it this time. Mother Tucker is blowing smoke. If people show up in Washington and they want to demonstrate peacefully, that’s one thing. But if people march towards the Capitol, it’s going to get shut down fast.
Anyhow who can’t figure that out at this time is a serious moron. And maybe there are some.
Not “maybe” – look around, we have the “Jackass” movies, the video clips on the “Funniest Videos” shows on TV and the endless list of YouTube videos of MAGA supporters openly displaying their idiocy.
We have no shortage of serious morons.
One of Murphy’s Laws is “Nothing is foolproof – the fools have gotten much better at it”
Ursula, I’m in agreement EXCEPT, I think one thing is even worse than you portrayed. Tucker didn’t have to choose the girl “child” who needed to be vigorously spanked when Daddy comes home pissed, but he did and that is not only because of misogyny! When he is talking to cult members who have already been programmed to believe KaMAla is the girl running amok, the child out of control, Carlson knows how easily they will make the connection that she is the girl “Daddy” is spanking! When Trump took the stage and the crowd started screaming “Daddy’s Home! Daddy’s Home!” they could just as easily have been screaming “Spank Her Up! Spank Her Up!” They are sick, twisted, and unrecoverable!!
My brother was going to be a Baptist minister. He ended up having three children in 27 months and that dream went out the window. He would beat his girls mercilessly while telling them how how much he loved them and how sorry he was but it was for their own good. They are magats, anti vaxxers, anti maskers, and totally messed up. Just goes to show…..
These people are the worst. And yes, it was duly noted that it was a female child that Daddy was going to *discipline.* That was a message to uppity broads everywhere. At least that’s how I took it.
Thank you, Ursula for posting this. It all finally makes sense.
I never understood why a percentage of the population supported the guy, especially given his recent descent into madness. It turns out that’s the FEATURE, not the bug.
It’s an extreme case of impotent rage manifest and “owning the libs”.
It’s a Hate Cult. Trump hates the people they hate, and he’s going to get rid of them for his cult. What they fail to grasp is that he’ll get rid of them, too. Trump is only out for number one. That’s the tragedy here, but that’s the tragedy with all cults. Look at Jim Jones and Jonestown. Look at David Koresh and Waco. Those *leaders* were not for their people.
Sorry, but I’m confused as to who the extensive block caps quotes are from 🤔.
This has been the case with a couple of other recent articles!
Britken, the quotes are from an ‘Atlantic’ article referenced by a link in the penultimate sentence of the first paragraph.
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/10/trumps-depravity-will-not-cost-him-this-election/680352/
It is, however, behind a paywall.
If we quote from anything, it is linked to. Just find the hotlink above any block quotes and that’s the source.
Orangebob Von Shitzinpantz is NOT any kind of “dad” to America! It is more like the bat$hit crazy psychotic neighbor with extreme dementia! And a whiny “karen” as well!!
He’s a sick *daddy.* But that’s the essence of fascism, somebody has to be Daddy or Der Fuhrer.
Men make themselves into beasts to avoid the pain of being a man. Samuel Johnson
Wow. Great quote. Trump couldn’t become a man so he became a beast instead.