Sick of Trump’s shit? Well, take a number and get in line buddy. Hell, even I’m sick of Trump’s shit, and I even turn the occasional dollar writing about it. And we’re not even talking about the Brits, Germans, South Koreans, Japanese, Canadians, and the Masai tribesmen. But hang in there, help may e on the way.
We are all confused and confounded by the tensile strength of Trump’s “base.” How can anybody be that big of a dick and still expect even his own mother to talk to him? But thinking of Trump’s “base” as being monolithic is an oversimplification. There are at least two separate parts to Trump’s base, and that’s where the fun comes in. Let’s look at each one briefly, and then we’ll draw a possible conclusion.
Trump SUPPORTERS – These are Trump’s hardest core constituents. I like to think of them as the political version of the idiots with shaved heads and a ponytail, wearing robes at airports and trying to hawk you a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The Orange Swami has shown them fulfillment, and every word that springs from his lips is ultimate truth. In other words, deluded social misfits. I peg this number at about 23-28% of his base, my calculation based mostly on things that he espouses that they previously believed in from more imperfect sources. They are the untouchables.
Trump supporters – These are the disaffected Democrats, independents, and others who had become disconnected from the current political climate. You can spot them a mile off, at midnight, with your eyes closed. They’re the ones who, when asked by reporters about Trump’s lack of accomplishment tend to reply, “Maybe he hasn’t gotten a lot done yet, but I’m willing to give him some more time. He’s only been in there a year, and the Democrats have obstructed everything he tries to do.” This kind of a reply screams two words, Buyer’s Remorse! The fact that they can acknowledge that he hasn’t accomplished jack shit shows that they’re still tethered to reality. The lame ass excuse shows that they know they fucked up, but they can’t quite bring themselves to admit it yet, especially to outsiders. These are the 70,000 voters in three states that the Russians successfully influenced to give the electoral college to Trump. But now, this is what can kill Trump, and the whole goddamn Republican party with him.
No matter which camp a Trump supporter falls into, they share one common characteristic. Fantasy. After all, that’s what Trump really is, isn’t he? A paunchy, 70 year old lecher, with disputable business success, and dubious business and personal morals and ethics. But he told them what they wanted to hear, and in the kind of talk they themselves use on Friday night, propping up the bar at O’Leary’s. Besides, he must be rich, he has his own (mortgaged) plane, and he’s such a shrewd businessman on The Apprentice. What have we got to lose?
But there’s a thing about fantasy. To be truly enjoyable, it must have some relationship to reality. For instance, you couldn’t have a truly satisfying fantasy about sleeping with Cleopatra, gorgeous as she may have been, because this little pea in the back of your mind keeps reminding you that she got smooched on the boob by an asp a couple of thousand years ago. I’m never going to sleep with Ashley Judd, but I can always imagine that if I lost like 75 lbs, and won the power ball lottery, I might have a shot.
I think we’re rapidly reaching the non reality based fantasy stage for the Trump supporters. True, they bought into the fantasy, but it was the fantasy about the rich, successful businessman, with the common touch, turning the country around and making their lives better, without buying into the racist xenophobia that the SUPPORTERS did. Trump could hold onto them for a while, by pointing to marginal successes, and blaming Democrats and outsiders like the Chinese for his failures, which could at least loosely be tied to traditional reality, at least for supporters willing to cut him some slack.
But, as the noose tightens, and as indictments and guilty pleas start to stack up, and when conclusive evidence like the SAR that Michael Avenatti laid out on Michael Cohen, Trump’s excuses and justifications become more unhinged every day. I’m sure that if we just wait long enough, Trump will hysterically tweet out that an alien from the planet Zyxtel told him that Robert Mueller is the anti Christ, and must be summarily executed.
At what point do the Trump supporters finally throw in the towel and quit? As much Trump fatigue as we have, I’m pretty sure that these wishy-washy supporters are feeling fatigue settle in too. After all, they truly want to believe him, and in him, they don’t want to have to admit, even to themselves, that they got conned. Those voters are who all of those excuses and protestations of innocence were specifically aimed at. But, as the deliverables disappear, and the excuses become more constant and unhinged, at what point do they finally start to throw up their hands and say, “Alright, alright already! So I fucked up! Can I please go home now?”
GOP strategists are already saying on multiple talk shows that in talking to Midwest farmers, they are directly blaming Trump for the impending collapse in soy, wheat and beef contracts through his trade war with China. And for these people, business trumps politics. The fatigue is setting in for transient Trump voters, if it hasn’t already. So, just hang in there a little while longer. Because, while our Trump fatigue hopefully only serves to strengthen us to action, their Trump fatigue may cause them to either go back to voting Democratic, or stay home altogether. Either one works for me.
