What I’m about to say you’ve heard before. What Donald Trump represents to his followers has been plain for some time. It’s been called the Republican id, and yes, it is that, but only in part. That’s maybe 30% of it, or less.
The 70% part is the desire of the immature to act out, the desire of the have nots to destroy the haves, rather than working to get what they’ve got, to be who they are.
The sublime irony in all this is that the GOP is ostensibly the party of personal responsibility, whereas the Democrats are framed as the welfare party. The plain truth of the matter is that the people who went to Washington, D.C. on January 6 to tear it all down were not Democrats. They were MAGAs.
It’s not a cult. pic.twitter.com/1jMUlKrdng
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) August 23, 2022
Now, isn’t that just a little slice of MAGA heaven? Don’t you want to just go in there and curl up in a big red hat, grab a MyPillow, pull a confederate flag over you and never come out? Just have the KFC and the Mickey D’s delivered?
This is the new counter culture. I was a part of the counter culture of the ’60’s, remember those folks? If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair? We never said, “Be sure to pack a Glock.”
The compass has gone 180 degrees and stopped. The uber-conservative Republicans were the status quo and the flower children the counter culture. Now it’s not a question of social values so much as it is a more basic schism, of the people who know and the people who know not.
Yes, the dumbing down of America led to Donald Trump. And not overnight. Once again I quote the journalist H.L. Mencken, truly a prophet as it turns out.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have seen it come to pass in our lifetimes.
😀
Another memorable Mencken quote that applies is:
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” What many who are familiar with that quote don’t know is that it goes on a bit to say: “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.” That last part fits Trump and too many others in the GOP all too well!
So true. Until the general population WANTS to know the heart of any matter, & be willing to do the work to get there, & be willing to deal with the certainties of old age,(if you are fortunate), & death,& yet revere life…until then, we will allow lies to be the foundation of our collective lives. We will wander in darkness. I wonder if the sound of the car going over the rumble strip on the edge of the highway, will wake us from our slumber to prevent us from an even darker destiny?
Those who can be counted as truly brave are those who know what is sweet in life, and what is terrible, then go out undeterred to meet what is to come. Pericles