On the issue of Trump and his “base.” Something. Doesn’t. Add. Up.

Something’s happening here…What it is, ain’t exactly clear   Buffalo Springfield

If you live long enough, you start to realize that very little in life is “black and white,” most issues have many varying shades of gray that can alter perceptions and opinions. But it appears that Trump doesn’t “do” grays, everything is stark black and white with this clown. Depending on who you talk to, he’s either the greatest thing since the invention of the combustion engine, or the anti Christ with a terrible rug.

God knows that this bleeds over into the way Trump is covered, and the way we talk about him. And here lies the problem. Either Trump is a successful businessman, or he’s an incompetent boob. Either he’s a sadistic racist, or he just wants strong borders. But, when you talk about Trump’s “base,” it suddenly isn’t black and white at all. It isn’t anything, because the two explanations are totally incompatible with each other. The explanations just don’t make sense.

On the one side, there’s you and me, us regular guyz and galz. An extended period of time and polling has led us to the inevitable conclusion that Trump has a rock solid base of 35-40% that will never desert him, no matter what. He could literally shoot one of them on 5th Avenue, and they’d cast an absentee ballot for him from their deathbed. This is just a fact.

But, on the other side of the equation, every time Glorious Bleater says or does something too incredibly stupid to be believed, the automatic reporting by the media is that Trump is desperately trying to hold onto his core base. He must continuously “feed the beast” to keep them from wandering away from him every time that there’s a Duck Dynasty marathon on TV.

Look, these two things cannot both simultaneously be fucking true! The two lines of logic cannot peacefully coexist. Either Trump knows something that we don’t know, and his hold over his fanatical base is much more tenuous than we think it is, Trump is a paranoid delusive, who despite his braggadocio, is insecure about the loyalty of his base, or the $1 Store Caligula’s base really will desert him if he doesn’t keep them constantly supplied with bread and circuses.

Personally, I believe that we’re right, and that at this point, Trump’s Trombie base will never desert him. He doesn’t really need to keep doing these Olympic 10 meter dives into the cesspool of bigotry, hatred, and misogyny. I think that the true explanation is much darker and more sinsiter I think that Trump says and does these things because this is who he truly is, and he loves to surround himself with other kindred souls.

So, to my mind, both sides need to step back, and re-calibrate their message for accuracy. The media really needs to stop using the alleged “insecurity” of his base as a cop out to explain away his atrocious behavior. And us? We need to stop using Trump’s “base” as a convenient catch-all to justify the actions of Trump, and of Republicans in support of Trump. 35-40% is still a fucking minority, it was in 2016, and it still is today. The only difference is that in 2018 there will be no electoral college to thwart the will of the people. But both sides need to stop wrapping ourselves in a warm, fuzzy security blanket of verbiage, and call a spade a spade. We have a vicious, racist, destructive President who is an affront not only to this country, but to the civilized world. He needs to be stopped, and it must start in November. This time, words don’t matter, only actions and results do.