In case you missed it, here’s the Sunday Doonesbury comic strip from Garry Trudeau.
This strip did, indeed tickle me. But it also saddens me. It made me wonder if there are families across the country who are struggling financially but who have fallen victim to Trump’s MAGA-mania and are cutting corners in their own households in order to contribute to Donald Trump’s defense fund.
Well, as P.T. Barnum once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” And Donald Trump is certainly as much of a showman as P.T. Barnum ever was.
The last time I answered this question, my answer was Donald Trump. But I’m not so sure he’s much more than a figurehead, a puppet whose strings are being pulled by evangelical Christians who want to turn America into a Christian theocracy, by the far-right members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Foundation, whose mission is to have this nation embrace white, conservative, Christian values, and by the MAGA maniacs who think Trump is cool for tearing down the institutions that have served this country for almost 250 years and who are being led from the rear by the likes of Steve Bannon, who wants to take a flamethrower to all of the existing government structure.
And then there are all of Trump’s enablers in the U.S. Congress and in red state houses all across the nation. It’s these people who have turned a blind eye to all of the illegal, unethical, and immoral actions of Trump in order to stay in power. It’s like they’ve sold their souls to the devil, who in this case is Donald Trump.
So yes, I still disagree with everything about Donald Trump, but it’s really those who are behind the scenes and are pulling his strings with whom I disagree the most.
Robert Kagan, an Editor-at-large for the Washington Post asks…
“How do you explain voters’ willingness to support Donald Trump despite the risk he poses to our system of government?”
I’ve been wondering that myself and thinking that it’s a fool’s errand to try to talk with MAGA Republicans about this. Why? They don’t give a shit about protecting our democratic system of government. In fact, they support “regime change.”
Kagan goes on the write…
Too many voters no longer care enough whether the system the Founders created survives and, thus, they are ceding the ground to those, led by Trump, who actively seek to overthrow what so many of them call “the regime.” This “regime” they are referring to is the unique political system established by the Founders based on the principles of universal equality and natural rights.
“A republic if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin allegedly said of the government created by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. This is the year we may choose not to keep it.
I’ve been trying to keep away from getting too deep into politics this year because I find the absolute insanity of it too depressing. But sometimes I read something that eloquently expresses what I’m feeling and I feel that I must share it. It doesn’t make me any less depressed about what is happening in my country, but it does make me realize that it’s not just me who is feeling that way.
This was the Editor’s Letter in the current issue of The Week Magazine. It was written by William Falk, the magazine’s Editor-at-large.
So much for the guardrails. The first time Donald Trump assumed the powers of the presidency, apologists assured us that our democratic institutions would curb his most unhinged impulses. Trump was, in fact, impeached twice for egregious abuses of power, including an attempted coup and inciting a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, but acquitted each time by Senate Republicans plainly disinterested in the evidence. As Trump seeks a return to power, the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear last week that any remaining guardrails are gone, when it joined in his efforts to delay his federal criminal trials beyond the November election. Rather than laugh off Trump’s monarchal claim of total presidential immunity, the court’s conservative justices gravely said Trump’s actions to prevent the peaceful transfer of power needed to be carefully parsed, so a president’s “official acts” could be protected. “I’m not discussing the particular facts of this case,” Justice Samuel Alito said dismissively.
How wonderfully convenient for the Don. In a GOP he dominates like a mob boss, even Republicans who denounced Trump in disgust after Jan. 6 are kissing the ring. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who last year called Trump a “consummate narcissist” who “will always put his interests ahead of the country’s,” now says Trump will get his vote. “I think the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement,” Barr explained. It’s a commonly held view on the Right, as Americans wage a fierce cultural civil war over religion, abortion, feminism, race, and immigration. Many people — including Supreme Court justices — find urban, multicultural progressives so abhorrent that anything, even the lawless authoritarianism of a second Trump term, is preferable. In a recent interview with Time, Trump scoffed at the suggestion that his promise of autocratic rule would frighten voters away. “I think a lot of people like it,” he said. About that, at least, he’s not wrong.
Do you want to hear something hilarious? Well, you may have heard the former President and presumptive nominee to be the Republican candidate in November’s election, Donald Trump is being mercilessly mocked on social media after reportedly falling asleep periodically during his hush-money criminal trial in New York.
Responding to reports that he has been dozing off in court in his ongoing hush-money criminal trial in New York City, Trump said…
“I don’t fall asleep. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!”
Is that hilarious or what?
Trump photo: dnyuz.com People laughing photo: Richard Foster@flickr.com.
This, That, and the Other 