It’s even money who was more loaded during Night One speeches at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump, Jr. or his main squeeze Kimberly Guilfoyle. What’s impossible to believe, is that these performances were pre-recorded, and nobody seeing them thought to ask for a second take, preferably when the participants were sober. But then again, if you’re dealing with a couple who are invoking comparisons to everybody from Elmer Gantry to North Korean news anchors to Ctulhu, maybe it’s better to just let these folks be, do your job, and keep your head down. I do see the wisdom in that.
In all events, world press outlets are carrying photos of this debacle, along with commentary on the “sheer unbridled messianism” displayed last night. What are they going to do on night four, I wonder, burst into flames?
Here’s a sampling of commentary from last night’s orgiastic ritual, deifying the One, the Only, Donald Trump, Our Saviour. This is from cancer survivor Natalie Harp, admonishing us to count our blessings that Trump handled the coronavirus so perfectly. It sets the gold standard for disinformation. Greg Sargent, Washington Post:
Just imagine what 2020 would have looked like, fighting for your life, without Donald Trump fighting for it too. In January, there would have been no China travel ban. Millions would have died. Millions more would have been infected. There would have been no record levels of testing … no fast track for a vaccine.
If it weren’t for the glory of Trump, Harp told us, we’d all be wasting away in “Pottersville,” the purgatory in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Again, all nonsense. The impact of Trump’s glorious travel ban wasn’t anything close to this, and regardless, Trump allowed the virus to rampage out of control here after the ban. This whole crisis has been utterly defined by repeated failures on testing that achieved epic, disastrous proportions.
As for the vaccine, scientists inside and outside the government are already sounding the alarm that Trump is dangerously corrupting the process to bring about an “October Surprise.”
Trump as a glorious and benevolent savior. Harp also said this:
You have used your strength to make America strong again. Sacrificed the life you built to make America proud again. And risked everything to make America safe again.And one GOP House candidate said this:
Mr. President, lead the way. Millions in our American family believe in this path to destiny. Guide us to that horizon!
Again, what’s striking here is the totalizing quality of the hagiography. Trump’s performance has been comprehensively flawless in every conceivable way, even miraculously so. And in the process, Trump himself has demonstrated nothing but extraordinary heroism, self-sacrifice and infinite benevolence.
It became blindingly apparent at last night’s revival meeting, that Trumpism is a cult, because as in all religions and cults, it is focused on the teachings of a leader who has been personally touched by God and elevated to lead us all, due to his superior qualities. We were asked — if you can believe this — to Behold Trump the Man.
The need to let Trump into your hearts. Donald Trump Jr. ludicrously claimed that Trump’s GOP is “open to everyone” and offers an America in which the “good guys win.” And then Trump Jr. said this:
It starts by rejecting radicals who want to drag us into the dark, and embracing the man who represents a bright and beautiful future for all. It starts by reelecting Donald J. Trump president of the United States.
The first step into the promised land begins with embracing Trump the man. When juxtaposed with the phrase “bright and beautiful future,” the wide-eyed, cultish quality of this becomes overwhelming. As Aaron Rupar joked, this had a real “Pyongyang note” to it.
Oh, yeah. If you’ve never watched a North Korean state TV news broadcast, they end with a picture of the sun rising high into the sky, racing over a mountain top, as Kim Jong-Un rides across the plain on a white horse. An announcer intones how it’s been another glorious day in paradise, under his leadership.
From profiteering sloganeer to tin cup messiah, the rise of Donald Trump, to head a morally bankrupt Republican party, and shake down the rubes for votes and money. I can’t wait for tonight, to see what they do for an encore.
Absolutely horrifying. I can’t even…
It’s a complete alternate universe. We do have two Americas. My jaw was opening, reading this piece in the Washington Post, after watching Junior and his girlfriend give their stoned addresses. Are there people who buy this? We are told there are.
Just reading about the stuff they’re saying makes me wonder WTAF they’re on. Nothing they say is happening in this universe.
They know that. The question is, what can they convince people is happening? They’re trying to gin up fear, to get a fear response at the polls. It’s getting people to vote against an imagined negative rather than a proven threat. Interesting way to go about winning an election. In 2016, Trump was the big change maker, going to make it all great. Now he’s the only thing standing in the way of it all falling down. Right.
The last hurrah, might as well let all the hatred ooze out, they won’t get another chance like this.
Hey, they want to dispel the notion of how much they hate everybody who isn’t them, cool by me. It’s not gonna be me who gets the backlash for being that big a flaming asshole.
It’s a combination cult/gang like the one Charlie Manson created, with Trump of course as Charlie (only with the tools of the federal government at his disposal to incite Helter Skelter) and Bill Barr as Tex Watson. For young folks who probably have heard of ole Charlie (he was in the news when he finally died a while back) Watson was the cold-blooded criminal (and killer) that was Charlie’s enforcer. Like any big cult there are people at the top who don’t believe for one second that the figurehead is what the rank & file members have been brainwashed into believing, and so it is with Trump. We are terrifyingly closer to the edge of a crumbling cliff than I ever thought possible. If we can create the kind of blue tidal wave of voters we need this fall then, despite the vote suppression and other ratfuckery that’s coming (some of it already taking place, some that won’t start until early voting) Biden might win by a large enough margin and just as importantly can be declared the winner quickly enough that those on the other side might be stunned into backing off. Just long enough to give Biden enough time to make them think they will have to fall back and regroup & re-emerge only when the next election rolls around.
It’s possible for things to get better, but they will get worse before they get better and we need to be ready for that.
Your last line says it all. It’s going to get a lot worse, every damned day. These people are just plain nuts. I caught a few minutes of a replay of Morticia’s rant (because what does Brian Williams do better than replay clips?) and did anyone else notice how much she looks like Melanie at times? Stone cold ice-queen haters. How I’d like to fast forward to February and skip all the chaos and nonsense in between.
It just blows my mind that people watching, would like this stuff and absorb it as truth. Almost as stunning as the contrast between his former political detractors and what they say and do now. Just defies belief in my mind.
The second night was even worse. people making hagiographic speeches, plus the probably-illegal stuff of official acts being done as part of the convention. And Pompeous invoking evangelical support from a rooftop in Jerusalem, with the Old city in the background.