| DUMB DUMB Donald Trump looks into a mirror being held by an aide at CPAC 2021 in Orlando, Florida. |
There he was in his stock uniform. Wearing that wrinkled navy blue ill fitting suit. The ‘Just For Men’ dyed blonde hair and orange makeup. His red necktie askew, held together with scotch tape and never tied properly.
I thought to myself, that rude and inarticulate bully and used car salesman was once a president. Sheesh.
It was funny to watch and observe the GOP at their gathering. It was like being a fly on the wall or going to a zoo. At the CPAC 2021 convention in Orlando, we saw American conservatives and right-wing extremists give each other the side-eye, and they looked at each other warily. They don't know who to trust.
With DUMB DUMB Donald Trump's influence and power over his Party diminishing by the day, many of his devotees are adrift at sea.
Most NEVER-TRUMPERS have rightly left the GOP. Those who are still members of the party include some conservatives, extremist elements (White Nationalist's and Nazi's), and many of Trump’s acolytes. These uneasy co-habitants reflect the Republican Party membership today, and they're very strange bedfellows indeed.
The Republican party lost control of the House of Representatives in 2018. Voters decisively rejected their leader and they lost control of the U.S. Senate in 2020. How did they respond to these electoral losses? In normal times, party leaders would demand an autopsy. They'd look at why and where they were out hustled, and would identify where there was room to improve.
With Trump as the de facto head of the party, don't hold your breath waiting for a post-mortem. It will never happen. That delusional man still won't acknowledge his electoral loss. Many people are shocked and outraged by Trump's behavior. While I've been beyond outraged in the past, his behavior over the last year wasn't surprising to me. I knew what he was up to.
Remember that Trump believes he's a very stable genius, thinks he's got the best words and best education, and said that he was smarter and more knowledgeable than the entire military and intelligence leaders and their respective communities.
Very stable genius? NOT! Trump's job performance reflected the opposite. He was in over his head and couldn't perform the duties required of our commander in chief. He was a part-time president who showed up when there were television cameras around, and a Marine band playing.
When I lived in New York, Donald Trump was viewed as a D-List celebrity and a joke. He's still seen that way by those of us who have followed him for years, myself included. He was always desperate for attention, and the running joke was that Trump would show up to the opening of an envelope.
Keeping that in mind, I'm gobsmacked by the reverence, fealty, and support he has among a large swath of white voters.
[ASIDE: For the record, NO ONE is freaking out about Donald Trump. Look at him. Obese, elderly and unfit. Out of power no one fears him. That's laughable!]President Trump is looking better than ever before!! He’s getting in shape for 2024 and the liberals are freaking out!! pic.twitter.com/7IfBymEsUO
— Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA) March 14, 2021
Some social scientists and political pundits say that Trump is the leader of a cult. A cult is a social group defined by unusual beliefs, "or by its common interest in a particular personality." Another definition states a cult is a "misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing."
What sets some of Trump's supporters apart from many of the others, is their absolute blind fealty and unquestionable devotion to the man. Those supporters fit the definition of a cult with their cult-like behavior. Sadly though, the image of Trump they have in their mind is so far removed from the truth of who he really is.
The man people saw hosting the television show The Apprentice, was a fictional character created for TV. It was a role that Trump played. Nothing about it was real. The board room was a set that was built for the show. The receptionist was an actress playing the part.
Trump was a bankrupt businessman about to lose everything he had, when he was approached to do the reality show. It's estimated that he earned over half a billion dollars from the show, which kept his real estate business afloat, which is where the myth of Trump’s success was born.
I don't know what motivates the people in his base, but when Trump and his cronies implored his supporters to march on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral college votes, they listened and did just that. He said he'd march with them, and they believed him!
Donald Trump and his family have never been held accountable for any transgression in their entire lives. When trouble has presented itself in the past, he's been able to buy his way out of the trouble. I think he'll get away with inciting sedition too.
You'd have to be blind and deaf to not know that Trump's violent rhetoric fueled that seditious mob, and he encouraged them to use violence in their attempted takeover of the Capitol.
Sadly, over 100 police officers were injured, five Americans lost their lives, and two Capitol Police officers took their own lives in the aftermath. For what?
The riots in Washington, and the ongoing culture war we see today (Dr. Seuss etc.) that continues, is a battle to preserve and protect WHITE PRIVILEGE. They claim it's about "stopping the steal" and protecting "election integrity" when everyone knows it's a LIE. It's RACISM pure and simple.
Republican state legislatures around the country are working overtime to enact legislation to disenfranchise voters and suppress the vote. They don't want people of color to vote. They want to preserve their WHITE PRIVILEGE.
EVERYONE needs to know the truth. We require an educated electorate as we move forward. In a country that was founded on the basis of equality, and has come to be defined as a nation with rampant inequality, we're at a crossroads.
What kind of nation are we going to be? Will people embrace the racism, sexism, misogyny and homophobia that the Republican party and Trump represents? Are we going to let these state legislators get away with their racist voter suppression? Or will we commit ourselves to equal rights for all?
Equal rights for all. That's the million dollar question.
They say all people are created equal. What a great idea!
If only it were true.
This post first appeared on Jive 415 Gay LGBT Blog | News Analysis Political, please read the originial post: here
