Here at the A1Skeptic we mostly preach to the choir. We’re aware of this, as it’s very unusual for someone to persuade anyone else of political positions that they don’t already have. Our posts can boost the morale of the “troops,” so to speak, and occasionally provide information or ammunition that the troops didn’t already have.
Trump world, as we know, is filled with so many outrages that it’s hard to keep track of them. Back in the “old days” (prior to the 2016 election) we thought that these accumulating outrages might some day come back to haunt Trump. Now we know better. As has been repeatedly pointed out, Trump’s supporters love him because he hates the same people they do.
So I’m not sure that pointing out Trump’s latest outrages will do much for anyone, but every once in a while, we all have to stop, take a breath, and just recognize that this is not normal.1 So, in the last week:
- Trump argued on Twitter and in a news conference that MSNBC television host and former (Republican) congressman Joe Scarborough is guilty of the murder of one of his former staffers (Lori Klausutis).
- Trump threatened the Democratic Governor of North Carolina (Roy Kooper) to move the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte if Cooper cannot guarantee unrestricted access to the convention-goers.
Trump’s wildly unfounded conspiracy allegations caused Lori’s widower (Timothy Klausutis) to object and even to write a letter to the CEO of Twitter asking them to remove Trump’s tweets (which Twitter refused to do, although they did note the controversy).
With respect to the Republican convention, I don’t think that Trump has the power to move the convention (although he clearly has the bully pulpit) but I’m not sure if Trump actually knows that.
The point is this: if any previous president — not just Obama, but Clinton or either Bush or any president before them — engaged in this kind of behavior, everyone would be out of their minds. Impeachment would be in order.
With Trump, it’s just another Wednesday.
There are, of course, Republicans who object to Trump’s behavior, such as those who founded the Lincoln Project. But far too many Republicans have followed Trump like lemmings to the sea.
I thought George W. was a pretty awful President but he was basically a decent human being. One could differ with him vociferously on policy, but he wasn’t a compulsive liar or posterchild for malignant narcissism. This guy is about as awful as a human being can be short of being a mass murder. And the argument has been made, not without merit, that while Trump has not intentionally inflicted mass casualties on Americans during the coronavirus epidemic, he has engaged in the moral equivalent of negligent homicide through his incompetence.
And yet, his supporters stick with him. They will have to reckon with history, which they will soon discover they are on the wrong side of.
- Just for the record, I don’t personally care if the man wants to go golfing over Memorial Day weekend. At least he’s relatively harmless while he’s on a golf course. Yes, there was all that faux Republican outrage over the number of times that Obama went golfing, which they seem to have conveniently forgotten about. But that is just a small sliver of Republican hyporcrisy.