I found this article by chance, and it really made me think. Is Trump just that oblivious? If something doesn’t pass approval in his nasty mind, does he just ignore it? Are there things he just won’t let himself see? I fail to see how he *doesn’t* know what the non-MAGA opinion is of him. I should know better than to expect sense from Trump, but this *really* doesn’t make sense. From an article on AlterNet:
Journalist Steven Beschloss said, “We know that Trump is narcissistically incapable of grasping how despised he is in America, especially since he’s surrounded by sycophants who refuse to tell him the truth like (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem and (White House adviser) Stephen Miller, who are determined to prove that the harsher the cruelty and criminality, the greater the success. But mass protest can succeed at proving the fallaciousness of this proposition — that Americans will not bow down, be silenced or broken by this malignant regime that despises democracy”.
Indeed. But we’ve just started, and we need to keep it going. The question then becomes, who leads it? Could the No Kings advisors step up and arrange more protests? I think the more we do, the bigger the crowds will get until we absolutely CANNOT be ignored. I’m pretty sure there’s one scheduled for July. And I hope that this time I will be able to go. But, moving on:
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, stated, “I’m concerned that the Trump Administration will seek to conduct mass ICE raids in other major U.S. cities in order to spark further protests and confrontation. These efforts may also be used as the pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would be an egregious and dangerous misuse of the (law) and of executive authority.”
Remember what we said when he sent the military into LA, hoping to provoke a riot? Yup. Where is he going to try it next? I’m guessing somewhere like Chicago. We have to be super careful if he starts with the ridiculous ICE sweeps, trying to get a protest started that he can turn to his advantage. I believe that those of us who protest know *exactly* what he is trying to do. Alrighty, one last quick quote:
Eric Schnurer, who writes a newsletter for The Greater Good, commented, “Donald Trump can’t succeed at building a strong, lasting authoritarian state because he’s more focused on tearing down the institutions of government, enriching himself and his allies, and punishing his enemies. These policies are so destructive that his regime will eventually collapse under the weight of its own dysfunction.”
Please let it be so. We don’t need to rest on our laurels. We need to keep up the pressure and increase it. Dare I hope we can? Yes, I dare to hope. Thanks for sticking with me!
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“his regime will eventually collapse under the weight of its own dysfunction.”
Amen.
And, in the meantime, be out there nudging, standing with restrained righteous indignation, pushing, not shoving and, ABOVE ALL, non-violently.
Since violence was what he was hoping for in LA, we outsmarted him. Very much so for the NON-violent … well, no, make that very much so for ALL of it 🙂
My concern is that what is the country going to look like when it finally does? I hope, however, considering how much worse and worse it gets here, that it collapses before the point of no return.
Great saying and Amen!
On some level Trump does know that he is despised by many, but he employs various defense mechanisms to protect his fee-fees. One, he pretends the number is much smaller than it is. And that would explain so many things, like his famous overestamitions of crowd sizes, his making up of favorable poll numbers just pretending that his polling is great, etc., and belief that he won things that he actually lost. He also makes up stories about how much people love and respect him — “tears in their eyes,” etc. In other other words, denial of reality.
Secondly he dehumanizes anyone who criticizes or won’t play ball with him by giving them stupid nicknames, ridiculing them, etc., etc., as if they were not worth bothering about.
Third, they may be few and inconsequential, but everything that goes wrong in his country is their fault. Especially Obama and Biden.
The operative psychological term here is “defense mechanisms.” It’s Norman Vincent Peale’s “power of positive thinking” on acid.
I thought that it was completely subconscious, and he does all the nonsense because that’s just the way he works. He thinks he’s “above it all,” so everyone else *has* to be “below it all”.
You provided me with another perspective. Thank you!!!!
Castles made of sand wash into the sea…eventually. Jimmy Hendrix
We could hope for sooner than later. One of these days…