How The 'Trump Train' Took America Further Off the Rails

I am not a conservative, but I think one thing must be admitted: Donald Trump's incarnation of the Republican Party is quite skilled at navigating through scandals, emerging relatively unscathed. Sure, there are a few conservative fall guys and scapegoats who get jail time, littering the media landscape here and there. Still, by and large, most of them just "power through" batshit crazy moments like they're all just a figment of our imaginations, and they skillfully rely on our cultural desensitization and collective amnesia.

Another tactic employed: Condemning "the left's" political correctness. Yes, conservatives and Republicans have their own versions of being ultra-PC, such as being hyper-trigged by Colin Kaepernick. Still, when Trump says he was just engaging in "locker room talk" after his famous "Grab 'em by the pussy" line, it resonates with people. Why? Because, as I have written about a million times, no one is perfect. It's safe to say damn near everyone has crossed the line, saying or (let's face it) even doing the wrong thing. No one wishes to be permanently held accountable for every little thing that could be perceived as wrong.

Trump has wielded this perception like an advanced weapon, and it truly is something that separates him from plenty of American politicians. What do I mean? Well, I remember years ago a certain candidate named Howard Dean, whose political career was essentially canceled overnight. What did he do? He let out an excited scream, caught live on camera.

Yes, that's right. That's what ruined Howard Dean, but no such thing would ever happen to Trump, who says something new each day that could easily get a normal person fired. His cultish followers love him for it. They mistake it for charm. Deep down, it's likely they are envious of someone like that, who can say virtually anything he wants, no matter how disgusting, bizarre, or laced with conspiracy theory, and just roll with it. Granted, these people typically won't know he's lying, as they're not intellectually curious enough to investigate the claims for accuracy. Still, they love the "ballsiness" and "boldness" of it.

However, as I recently noted on Twitter, these are (unfortunately) ways to be as "bold" as Trump: "Leer over your own daughter on the Wendy Williams Show, accuse an elderly man of faking his head trauma after being pushed by a police officer and have forced hysterectomies at immigration detention centers."

Trump is Not The Only One...

While the rest of the country sees a somewhat withered, sickly, miserable old man shuffling through the halls of the White House, he has managed to retain the illusion that he has remained young, vibrant, and full of spirit. "Hey!, look at how great I am!," he seems to constantly be saying, However, I have to amend this article a little bit by noting that, in a way, the "Teflon Don" is actually just part of a broader trend of politicians being unaccountable to the public.

In a Medium.com article, Lauren Martinchek recently wrote that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell "always manages to set himself apart" with his brazenness. She notes that, when asked if his latest Coronavirus relief bill has another stimulus check, he responded: "No, it- it doesn’t. But it does address an awful lot of things that we do agree on, and I don’t think the fact those checks are not a part of this package, as others have said, is a good argument for not doing what we’re laying on the floor. Most of which is completely without controversy."

She blames him for the complacency of the public, who are apparently fine with receiving very little aid as "hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars were [instead] given to corporations."

Conservative-leaning corporate media would much rather have us focus on bullshit (supposed) issues like the "War on Christmas" than on far more important, policy-related stuff. Trump would rather we focus on how great he is, and how the media has supposedly been criminally unfair to him (this is the goofball who threatened to launch a Federal probe against Saturday Night Liv Live for making fun of him!).

Trust What He Does, Not What He Says

No matter how far out this wannabe dictator gets, there are always some who maintain he wasn't being serious. On that note, we should apply the admonition "Trust what he does, not what he says."

What Trump says is nearly always a lie. When he's not lying through exaggeration, it's through omission, and he loves to deal in conspiracy theories. Really, 9 times out of 10, the closest he gets to a factual statement will be a half-truth (or, even more often, something more like a quarter truth). I often recall what he said about Martin Gugino, the elderly man who was pushed by a police officer and cracked his skull on the pavement. Rather than lament what happened, Donald Trump — the actual President of the United States — speculated that Gugino staged the incident.

For him to even suggest that kind of thing and not realize how absurd and offensive it was demonstrated his withered brain. Also, I wonder how Trump can proclaim himself a Christian while publicly touting such obscenities. It reminds me of the famous Gandhi quote: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Professionalism?

When he gives interviews and says ridiculous, ignorant things, shouldn't that matter, especially for one of the most powerful jobs in the world? Doesn't professionalism matter in such a role? It seems that, even for an ordinary job, you can't just show up and say, "I'm here because my parents told me I need to get a job." That person probably would not get hired. Why then should we cling to such lower standards for the actual President of the United States?

The easiest answer is that, for some, facts don't matter, standards don't matter, so long as the government keeps kicking poor people when they are down. To them, the first casualty of the Federal budget is the portion that provides social services to low-income Americans. That's when they'll say "We have a deal."

That is their long-term solution and their short-term solution. Anything that bashes people without power. and anything that spreads fear of "outsiders" among the general populace. For example, remember that Trump had triggered an actual government shutdown because Congress refused to fork over $5 billion for his stupid-ass border wall.

In fact, if either party truly cared about the impact of the coronavirus shutdowns, they'd make sure that everyone was covered, at least temporarily, by a universal basic income. Instead, only a small slice of the public received benefits of significance, and many small businesses practically had to stay open or close for good. Because the government isn't doing enough to help people, even temporarily under these unique circumstances, it's led to chaos.

Some Variety of "Trumpism" Will Continue Post-Trump

Although Trump is obviously the foremost agent of chaos right now, make no mistake: This is by no means solely his fault. He is simply the most prominent, visible, smug, self-aggrandizing, hideously self-pitying symptom. Even when we get an apparent remedy, some of the core issues he represented will remain.

Just recently Trump celebrated his supporters harassing a Biden campaign bus in Texas. The so-called "Trump Train" attempted to slow the bus down and run it off the road. Trump's response? "I LOVE TEXAS!" Apparently, a San Antonio police officer recorded the incident on his phone, while laughing, and did absolutely nothing about it.

It doesn't end there, of course. One of Trump's cultists posted on Twitter that he sent his son out as Trump on Halloween, adding "Win it, my man!!!!" My response to him was: "Looks like you're teaching your son the great, cherished values of...attempted murder by forcing a vehicle off the road. What a proud tradition!"

Meanwhile, as Trump cultists blocked traffic with one of their protest parades (apparently to protest our lack of an unfree and unfair election), it's interesting how there were no rubber bullets or tear gas deployed. Long story short, these people will be sticking around after Trump is gone, and they will be an issue for a long time to come.