The Omnivore knows a guy--a guy who is smart, educated, and for whom, at one point, The Omnivore looked up to (this guy is considerably older than The Omnivore and The Omnivore met him as a child). In adulthood The Omnivore had extreme respect for him--he has done interesting things. He has made fascinating things.
He voted for Trump.
He didn't like Hillary--and he was, as with many Trump votes, anti-Left. The Left annoyed him. He saw the Social Justice Movement as something of a cultural plague. He (The Omnivore guesses) felt disrespected by the cultural Left.
So he voted for Trump.
We don't really talk anymore.
When The Omnivore was talking to him, The Guy explained (in some kind of apologia for some Trump basic lie or incompetence) that Trump "Shotguns a lot of stuff." The Omnivore is not exactly sure what that means--but took it to mean that Trump, instead of being a raging narcissistic (i.e. malignant) incompetent is, instead, the 'sort of manager' who tries a lot of things at once--some of them'll hit.
It's a strategy.
This, of course, was the guy's excuse or rationalization. He couldn't say: "The left hurt my feelings and I am striking back by voting for a horrible person who will do horrible things--just not to me and mine."
He was also making a bet. His bet: The Federal Government and The United States in general is strong. People just "doing their jobs" will see us through the coming years just fine. Trump's people will make good decisions even if he doesn't.
We almost got away with it too if not for that meddling virus.
Trump's address on Monday will probably be the historical point where we caved an ice-shelf from the glacier of American might. His job: to reassure a nation--to present a very-high-level plan of action--to make it look like there was a captain at the helm of the ship-of-state.
Stocks fell in real time with every word as he bungled his message, projected zero empathy, and looked like, well, a guy being made to read lines. He was that guy who knelt on the floor too soon in Superman 2--kneeling before Zod--a fake president unable to summon the wherewithal to hold out or hold up even a little.
Thanks Guy The Omnivore knows. You made a bet--but you made it with The Omnivore's country too.
I wonder about the feelings and emotions of those on the right who have been all-in on Trump. Do they feel remorse? Are they embarrassed that they were had and snookered by a con man? Or are they so afraid of that realization that they will double and triple down so as not to have to learn something about themselves - that they were objectively wrong.
ReplyDeleteYes. But this is nothing new: Mark Twain had the details sketched out in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn back in 1884. See especially the section about The Royal Nonesuch.
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