Letter 2 America for July 27, 2020

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Dear America,

It's almost farcical, what Donald Trump is doing to save himself.  He has more at stake in the 2020 election than he has ever had in anything.  Being rejected and demeaned by the other big name developers in New York might be ego shattering for some, but Trump could find ways to explain it: jealousy, envy of his name spewed all over the 
city, invitations to all the show-biz events and the like being badges of substance for one with as little substance as he has.  He could even chalk up the fact that he lost his home  s tate by a two-to-one margin to some kind of failure of the state to recognize what he thinks the nation as a whole saw when the electoral college went his way.  He could even ignore the fact that he lost the popular election because he did, after all, become president thanks to the backfiring of an institution that Hamilton oversaw including in the constitution so as to prevent exactly what it did: elect some populist buffoon because the people fell for his spiel.  But Biden is now almost ten points ahead in the polls.  We all know that polls, especially ones this far out from an election, really don't tell anyone much.  But we have a shot at them being real omens of what's to come, and if it does, what will the Trumpster do?  Rejection by 74 million Americans when only 61 million saw things his way is impossible to ignore in favor of delusions of grandeur, so what will he do to redeem himself to himself?

In some quarters, there is fear that if Trump loses, he'll pull some sort of banana republic stunt and refuse to move out of the Whitehouse and give up his powers as president. It could happen, especially in light of that remark he made at a rally in Texas a year or so ago.  (The crowd was chanting "four more years" and Trump said, "If you really want to drive them crazy, ask for twelve").  He really thinks he's in Vladimir Putin's league, and thus deserves what Putin has usurped, so he might try to usurp it himself as the only way in which to preserve his ego.  He's openly said that as president, he can do anything, although look where that attitude got Richard Nixon, who thought, and actually said to David Frost in a public interview once, that if the president does it, it isn't illegal.  All that got him was one last ride on a marine corps helicopter and a grandstanding, two-handed flash of a "V"-for-victory that is still seen today as a universally understood symbol of self-delusion.  Or, as I have read at least once, he could just refuse to recognize the election results, for which he has already planted the seeds with his persistent fantasy that there is rampant election fraud in this country, which of course redounds to the Democrats in its entirety if you follow his reasoning, or perhaps more aptly said, his self-serving, delusional thinking.

No matter how you look at it, this election is risky for the nation.  We have a megalomaniac in the White House who now has a psychological imperative to ignore defeat.  He might just settle for throwing the entire election into doubt and leave us to sort out the popular division that would render.  He might even try to get The South to secede again and recognize him as president by right.  I know that seems farfetched, but four years ago, who would have believed that Donald Trump could become president of anything but his own fan club or some sham corporation created for the avoidance of taxes.  What I fear is that no matter what it turns out to be, Trump will try to engineer what Putin has in Russia: virtual life-time incumbency, with all the opportunities that represents for money grubbing...what's known these days as kleptocracy.  In Trump's mind, money talks, and what it says is "winner,"  though in Trump's case that would be "whiner."  

What Trump doesn't acknowledge is that autocrats like Erdogan and Putin see Trump as a spoiled child whom they can manipulate...sort of a catamite.    They  pat him on the head and he goes away beaming over the fact that the "big guys" think of him as one of them, never realizing that he is being condescended to and his ego is being used against him by smarter, and if you can believe it, more devious men.  Thus, even if he loses the election, he is a threat.

Let's hope the people who voted for him experience some kind of epiphany between now and November...and that is sticks thereafter.

Mike

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This page contains a single entry by Michael Wolf published on July 27, 2020 11:17 AM.

Letter 2 America for July 8, 2020 was the previous entry in this blog.

Letter 2 America for August 4, 2020 is the next entry in this blog.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Michael Wolf published on July 27, 2020 11:17 AM.

Letter 2 America for July 8, 2020 was the previous entry in this blog.

Letter 2 America for August 4, 2020 is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.