In my youth (that is, up until about four years ago), I thought that elections in this country were largely decided by the basic common-sense and decency of American voters. From farmers to fine artists or physiotherapists, from geezers to first-time-voters, and regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, or any other factor, the one feature they shared was a very highly refined bullshit radar.
Most Americans, I thought, would have seen through a man whose every utterance was a lie or exaggeration; whose response to any bad outcome attributed to him was to blame someone else; whose public discourse was so larded with self-aggrandizement, and who was foul-mouthed and insulting to all. No such luck! Common sense failed in 2016, leaving me and many others surprised at the end of election evening.
Since then I've noticed it's a pretty clear pattern with Trump that when he is applying epithets to someone or something, his words can almost always be read as applying to himself. Examples: Disgusting? (No contest, that's you, Donald!) A hoax? (Says the empty vessel himself?) The 2020 election will be fraudulent? (If so, it's you and Putin who will have made it so.) Disgraceful?
Let's dwell on that one a sec: I thought it disgraceful that so many Americans could have abandoned their good sense in 2016 to vote for Trump. And it seems even more disgraceful, after three-and-a-half years of experience with the real Trump, that while Biden has a decent if conceivably evanescent lead, polls indicate 40+% of voters still support Trump. He has a real possibility of winning a second term. Really? Doesn't common sense tell us this election should be a landslide, say, Trump 10%, Biden 90%? We need a landslide if we are going to stop him from claiming victory.
I continue in the hope that clear-eyed American voters will now reject Trump, and that they will see the equally crucial need to vote out Trump enablers (meaning at the moment any Republican candidate) and return Democratic majorities in both houses. Without that, the country will remain deadlocked and ultimately ungovernable. But they need not be large majorities, and luckily, given what we know about the body politic, there will still be a few Republicans, enough to slow the Democratic bandwagon on at least some issues and force some compromises, because a Democratic government without some checks and restraints could create its own set of problems.
The horror for me has always been that so many people voted for Trump in 2016 and, worse, still support him.
Posted by: PiedType | October 06, 2020 at 12:21 PM