Don't Underestimate Trump Supporters!

Don't underestimate Trump Supporters!

I am as bothered by the current Trump chaos as anyone. Like many people, I  am tempted to lump all his supporters into the ‘low-info, stupid voter’ category, who I am now calling ‘Trumplings’. It's evident that Trumplings actually are uneducated boobs who bought into Trump's con, and his ‘Make America Great Again’ scam. It’s just so hard to believe that anyone with a modicum of intelligence could actually believe any word from, or support such a monster as Donald Trump. While it's  true that many Trumplings are moronic fools, I believe it's a huge mistake to classify all Trump Supporters are stupid or unintelligent. 

Notice I have separated Trump people into two categories, i.e., “Trumplings” and “Trump Supporters”.

I think many Trump Supporters are smart and intelligent people, and thereby dangerous. The problem is, so many, most, of these are warped and perverted individuals in their thought processes and suffering from a pitiable dearth of character and ethics, not to mention personal sensitivity. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is an example of the sort of person I am thinking about here. Ted Cruz is another.

Ted Nugent on the other hand, would qualify as a high profile Trumpling, a dumb-assed, low-info, (and narcissistic!) moron. Mike Huckabee and Paul Lepage, current governor of Maine are two more. These are the types Trump himself was referring to when he claimed he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue in NYC and his ‘supporters’ would not care. The pitiful part of that statement is that it is literally true for these types of his enablers!

I believe it's a result of an inexorable propagandizing of their very souls, rendering them completely incapable of considering other viewpoints. I also think they are almost always culturally predisposed for this to happen. Think ‘White Nationalism’ and 'fervent religiosity' as two facets of this type.

A great many Trumplings seem to be of the Christian evangelical persuasion, which to me, marks them as victims of a life-long subjugation of personality to the evilness of a perverted religion in a very similar way as radical Muslimism affects its adherents. And history proves that the Christian version can be every bit as dangerous if left unrestrained. Obviously, not all Christians are Trumplings, but many of evangelical types appear to be. For some reason, many Catholics seem to be as well. I say this as a lifelong agnostic, having no religious persuasion, except perhaps ‘anti-religions’.

I am very struck by the eerily similar way that today’s US radical right-wing so closely mirrors the German and Italian Fascists of the 1920’s, ‘30’s and 40’s. Many of those folks were educated, intellectual, and very effective people with the regrettable flaw of possessing evil souls, if I might use that word. There has always been a sort of right-wing Fascist mentality throughout recorded history, and conservatism has always been its close first cousin. These are the folks who cling to the past, and who can easily be motivated by fear, particularly fear of change, and fear of those unlike themselves. All it takes to get them excited and aroused is some rabble-rouser like Trump (or Hitler) who cultivates and nurses their fears. Fervent nationalism, religion, and racism are very often the first go-to catalysts for fear used by rabble-rousers.

Now deceased columnist, intellectual and conservative icon William F. Buckley perhaps described conservatism most succinctly:

“A conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’ “

The more I read, the more I see the world throughout history has had a roughly equal complement of Yin/Yang types, conservatism versus liberality. There seems to be a roughly obvious balance today, though the pendulum does tend to swing back and forth over time.

Nazi Fascists of the past had plenty of the stupid, sheep-like followers too, who bought into the Hitler’s mythical scam of ‘The Fatherland’ and ‘Lebensraum’, and not at all unlike how Trump’s ‘America First’, 'Make America Great Again', and ‘Build That Wall!’ slogans motivate his own obscene hoards today.

My point is, I believe it's a grave mistake to lump today’s American Fascists into an ‘all-dumb-as-rocks’ category. Many Trump Supporters are intelligent, well-educated people with plenty of energy, patience, and pragmatism - a dangerous mix for any group when they have an agenda, which our own Fascists today surely do. It is very dangerous to underestimate groups like these. The world has already made that mistake once which almost sent civilization back to the Dark Ages. (Twice, if you count the Visigoth barbarians' defeat of the Roman Empire - which actually DID result in a Dark Age!)

Steve Bannon is a good example of the type I mean. I believe Trump himself, is merely a Hitler wannabe, without the cleverness or intellect required. He doesn’t seem to have one-quarter the smarts Adolph Hitler had, thank goodness. Yes, he may be able to read, even read well, but he doesn’t bother. He probably has a good, basic raw intelligence too, but he appears to be too lazy and bored to develop that into any meaningful intellectual power, which is likely a good thing for us all.

In my view, the saving grace of our current national political chaos, of which Trump is but the figurehead, is that it will ultimately be self-regulating, and will very likely result in much needed political change for the better.

That is certainly my hope!

"Side With The Truth Tellers"

  ~ Sir Harold Evans

All On Board the Crazy Train!

Wonderful News!

Crusaders are now coming out of the woodwork and wormholes to save our nation! They tell us they know better than anyone else and can and will save us from ourselves. They will take us all back to a far simpler, safer time when everything is all milk, honey, roses and cash on the barrelhead. Back to the past where the world is flat and the Sun revolves around the Earth, the very center of the universe itself, where a Christian God rules everything, where the good get richer and the poor get poorer, the sick get sicker and deserve it by God. Back to a time of black and white certainties, with no grey areas and no doubts about anything at all, ever, thank you very much!

To save ourselves we are told, we will have to put our faith in these wise, determined crusaders for mom, apple pie, cold hard cash and the American Way, and let them show us the way. They are on board a wildly careening and crusading Crazy Train and stoking the fires to work up a head of steam for days to come. They have their Tin Hats all secured in their luggage and their White Horses, Unicorns and Centaurs in the baggage car and letting us know they are on their way to save us all.

‘Just who are these crusaders?’ you may well ask.

If you ever doubted the existence of the figures in those irrational fantasies we heard about and feared as children, now is the time put those doubts to rest for good. They actually do exist in the form of these crusaders who daily live and speechify amongst us. That’s the good news - but very sadly, that’s the awful, wretched news too.

So, who are they? Let’s make a list, in no particular order shall we?

There’s, the Minnesota Banshee of course, Michelle. You didn’t think Banshee’s actually existed? Think again. Michelle is a living proof, with the wail or a tormented woman and the shriek of an injured owl, who gives continuous vent to venomous outrage violating all laws of lucidity or rationality. In fact, Michelle seems to posses a strict, determined and unfailing allegiance to irrationality.

Then there’s Jabberwocky Paul Ryan of Wisconsin who recklessly swings his Vorpal Sword in noisy defense of the official Tin Hat Banner (“Don’t Tread On Me!”) and has famously been heard to mutter, ‘All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.’, and, ‘Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas---only I don't exactly know what they are! But, I DO KNOW what’s good for YOU!’

There’s Tim the Seraphim, also from Minnesota. (Is there something in the water in those regions?) Tim has eagerly climbed aboard the Crazy Train too and champions evangelical endeavors to return the Earth to its flat, pure state and America to a place where immigrants, foreigners, abortionists and gays may be securely walled off for the protection of all good Christian folk, who are the inheritors of, and the rightful owners of this great nation, thank you very much.

There’s Huck, the pious Golem, who fantasizes we need “. . . . to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.” (These are his actual words!) The contemporary view, by the way when the Constitution was written was ‘separation of church and state’. Huck sits right in the middle of the God Car on the Crazy Train along with Tim and Sarah, but running hot or cold depending on the mood of his handlers at Fox News.

We must not leave out The Donald, the comb-over Satyr who has lately boarded the Crazy Train and is now happily seated first class way up front. The Donald’s particular fantasy is that certain people are not actually born where they are born, but in fact, somewhere else, say not ‘Hawaii’ but ‘Africa’. People who believe this way are called ‘Birthers’ and are a brand new addition to Fantasyland. Alas, there are so many that most Birthers are compelled to ride second class on the Crazy Train - but certainly not The Donald whose hair we’ve been informed, actually has its very own birth certificate!!

There’s Newt the Phoenix, who’s risen from the ashes of his once commanding political career to re-board the Crazy Train anew. Newt fantasizes about a return to fondly remembered days of yore, when men were men, and women were women, and women could marry only men and vice versa. Newt himself provides three excellent examples for this procedure by having had affairs with younger women while his current wife is seriously ill, then divorcing the currently extant wife to marry the younger woman. None of that evil same-sex marriage stuff for an ethically challenged Phoenix, nosiree! Newt the Phoenix has a sub-speciality in train wrecking governments.

Sitting up front first class in the God Car on the Crazy Train with Huck and Tim is Sarah from Alaska, the Harpy/Siren who seems to so thrill the sex-subverted legions of Tea Partiers in their search for truths about God and making American safe for all good Christians, not to mention those lusting after unattainable women. Siren Sarah competes at least evenly with the Banshee for shrilling nonsense, especially when it comes to God-hollering and smacking down the less fortunate, and out does her by far when it comes to casting out demons and uncovering Death Panels.

Way back in the caboose is Haley, the Hellhound Boogeyman from Mississippi, whose main hope and goal it is to reestablish the Confederacy to an equal footing with the US Government and install the Ku Klux Klan as overseers of Social Security, Medicare and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His secondary goal is to encode the Ten Commandments as law and official policy in a Christian government.

Alas, left behind at the station is a more sanely rational, but now very lonely Mitt Romney whose sin it was to actually put in place a health care system for all in Massachusetts when governor there. This is an unpardonable sin in the view of most Crazy Train riders in the wake of the new US national health care system modeled on Romney’s, but installed by a . . . gasp! . . . black democrat! However, Mitt is not completely out of the running as he is now urgently seeking and hopes to find a suitable shapeshifting methodology to overcome his handicap.

And, you thought myths and fantasy were just make believe?

Gosh! How gullible you must be!

*Clues For The Clueless

"I don't have a clue'" is a familiar refrain. When someone says that, it usually is in a jocular, self-depreciating way. I means simply, "I don't know."

But you also often hear the phrase used by one person or group in reference to another. For example, someone can say, "He (or she) just doesn't have a clue," or he (or she) is clueless." When used in this context, the message usually is, 'He (or she) is a stupid bastard (or bitch)." This is widely regarded as NOT a compliment.

But, whichever way the phrases are used, there is always a subtext of truth to them. When you say it about yourself, you are acknowledging your ignorance about whatever is being discussed. When said about another, it means the person (or group) being referred to also deficient in knowledge on a specific subject or the issues under discussion. Since the phrase is depreciatory, it is all too often used in an insulting way against someone else.

But all that may soon change.

A little-known subsection of the 'Stimulus Package' (H.R. 1, ‘‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’’) seeks to remedy the paucity of clues for anyone who needs them. Language inserted at the last minute which provided funds or the establishment of a 'Office of Clue Research and Promulgation'. The money will be used to hire experts to be on call to research any matter requested and provide clues on demand, particularly for clueless politicians. Many formerly clued in politicians quickly become clueless in the rarified air of their Congressional life. The same is often true in areas of individual state governments.

Now, any clueless individuals or groups may have them by simply asking for them.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky successfully inserted the provision at the 11th hour. "I've been pretty much totally clueless my entire life." Senator McConnell declared. "So, I really know what I'm talking about. There's been way too many times I've shot off my mouth about something only to realize later I was blowing smoke out my ass. Of course, a lot of other people knew better all the time, so it has been pretty humiliating along the way."

"And Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah is really excited about this too." McConnell went on. "I don't know how that puppy finds his office every day. If he didn't have a couple low level staffers to keep him sorted out, he'd never be able to leave his house."

President Obama indicated he was solidly behind the new clueless office. "It's a real tragedy we didn't have this over the last eight years." he said. "I can think of a lot of people who might have benefited from it. I don't want to get into naming names, but my immediate predecessor was surely one of them. My new dog Bo has more clues than he did."

But, former presidential advisor Karl Rove strongly criticized the provision. "Besides being against the entire bailout package in principle, I am very upset by this so-called Office of Clue Research." he declared just before his appearance on his Fox News show. "The more clues you give anyone, the smarter they are. It's just like education. Clueless folks usually vote Republican, unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing.”

But many other politicians from both parties eagerly embraced the idea. Former presidential candidates Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee are expressing renewed interest in the 2012 elections now that the Clue office will be available to them. Katherine Harris declared she would run for governor in Florida, and even TV evangelist Pat Robertson said he would be able expand his broadcasts into new markets.

"It's really a gift from God," Robertson said. "and, I'll take full credit since I had a talk with God about it the other day and asked him to cause Mitch to put it in the bill."

Sarah Palin of Alaska said, "Hooray! Now, I'll be ready to put some brand-new lipstick on this pig!"

On the Democratic side, former SC Senator Fritz Hollings said he thought the new clue office would definitely benefit Al Gore, or anyone who didn't know what the definition of 'is' is. Congressman Charles Rangel of New York declared he didn't vote for it, but 'just didn't give a damn one way or the other, but what the hell. Another 100 million or so cain't hurt all that much'.

* (The above is a parody written entirely for my own pleasure and gratification. I hope others may also enjoy it.)