Supporters are a wonderful thing. And the most wonderful thing about them is that we all have them. If you come from a normal background, your family are your biggest supporters. Your friends, however many or few there are, are supporters too. And if you’re even moderately qualified at work, and not quarantined, you have supporters there too.
But as wonderful as it is to have that support at your back, supporters come with a caveat. Their support is not unconditional. Ask Kevin Spacey about that. Or Bill Cosby. Charlie Sheen and Mel Gibson are a couple of more pretty good examples. Steve Wynn too.
Because, while people may like you personally, or support the things that you do professionally, there are certain things that they’d really not be associated with. And once you’ve lost their support, you’ve likely lost it for good, there is a whole world of people out there for them to support who won’t bring them personal or professional embarrassment. This is where Trump supporters come in. The sole reason that Trump says what he says, and does what he does, is because his truest, most base supporters continue to give him positive reinforcement for his words and actions His supporters love his antics, he behaves the way that they do after their fifth round at Casey’s on a Friday night. And better yet, they get the vicarious thrill of not having their wife make them sleep on the sofa when he says or does something that they’d like to do themselves. How many times have we all read articles and comments wondering on Trump’s complete lack of civility and shame. What nobody ever seems to comment on is the complete lack of civility and shame in his backers.
And they’re full of shit to boot. All the way back during the campaign, and ever since, when Trump’s most loyal acolytes are interviewed, they freely admit that they know that the wall will never be built, they just love chanting the slogan as a communal thing. They know he can’t deliver on what he promises, but they love him anyway, because he gives them license to show their true fears and bigotry. And besides, Trump has already delivered on his most basic campaign promise, he is demolishing the entire political and administrative structure of the government. Never forget, all of the racism and xenophobia aside, that is what they sent him there to do. And they’re thrilled.
And he’s using them to kill our political process too. People keep gnashing their teeth about the GOP doing nothing to rein Trump in. Ever watch a politician? They govern with one wet finger sticking up in the air, looking for which way the wind is blowing. And right now, the GOP trade winds are blowing in a Trumperly direction. The old joke is true, the word politics is derived from two ancient Greek words, poly, meaning ‘many’, and tics, meaning ‘many small, bloodsucking insects.” The days of honor and constitutional oaths are gone in the GOP, do you really think that Carlos Curbelo wants to go back to being just another common slob in January?
This is why the investigations that the new Democratic controlled House will undertake starting in January are so important. And why they must be so surgically precise. Exposing Trump’s lies and personal greed won’t do any good. Trump’s supporters won’t care, and everybody else already suspected that stuff. The investigations must be geared to exposing acts and practices that actually affect everyday Americans. There is nothing you can say that is going to turn a Trombie from the “true faith,” the goal must be the same as 2018, ignite passive voters to rise up to protect their own self interests, not the thrill of watching a Three Stooges episode on the 6 o’clock news every night.
Because the general election of 2020 is only 711 days away. Forget the Trumpaholics, they’re lost souls. If Trump is defeated in 2020, there will be no political detox for these people, they will simply slither back into whatever dark hole they came from, imply because they didn’t care about the politics, or the process, only their own amusement. We now know what the GOP ceiling in national elections in the era of Trump is. It’s 46%, that’s what Trump got in 2016, and that’s what the national Republicans got in 20178. And the only way that they can win in 2020 is if only 45.9% of us show up. It’s our job for the next 711 days to use every tool in our box to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
* Bonus Wednesday Chuckle *
Q: How do you make a Kleenex dance?’
A: Blow a little boogie
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