A couple of weeks ago, the former Republican strategist Rick Wilson -- now with the Lincoln Project -- predicted there would be a lot of "white-hot crazy" coming from the Trump campaign. On Monday, things really did get white-hot. Jennifer Rubin writes:
During an interview on Monday with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, a spin artist for the president and a purveyor of anti-immigrant sentiment, [Trump] claimed that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is controlled by mysterious people.
In concocting his tale, Trump fantasized of “people that you’ve never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows.” Ingraham, as though trying her best to stop his self-immolation, responded, “That sounds like conspiracy theory.” No luck. Trump continued: “They are people that are on the streets, they’re people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.” This is simply bonkers.
Ingraham tried to stop Trump before he went completely off the rails. But, these days, Trump thinks he's winning when he's spouting madness. He continued, suggesting that police who kill people are like a golfer missing a three-foot putt:
But they choke, just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot [putt],” Trump said. Ingraham leaped in: “You’re not comparing it to golf, because that’s what the media [would say].” In other words, actual reporters would recognize what he was saying was morally offensive and so lacking in self-awareness as to suggest Trump cannot even fake normal behavior.
It's painfully obvious that the president is seriously sick. These should be grounds for exercising the 25th Amendment. Unfortunately, the Republican Party is as sick as Trump is:
In a normal time, with a functioning Republican Party and a patriotic vice president, this might be the end of Trump’s campaign and an invitation to invoke the 25th Amendment. We, unfortunately, have spineless sycophants in the GOP and a zombie-like vice president who feels compelled to show allegiance to a president plainly unfit to hold office. Likewise, in most families, there would be a family meeting to stop him from embarrassing himself. (Perhaps not in families where its members stand to inherit millions of dollars.) No chance of that, but the thesis from the president’s niece, Mary Trump, that there is something seriously wrong with him looks pretty unassailable.
And, so, madness marches on.
Image: nymag.com
14 comments:
When you elect a fascist, you get fascism. When you elect a malignant narcissist, you get malignant narcissism.
Psychologists have documented the 14 ways that malignant narcissists deal with failure. The following article by a shrink who wrote the book on the subject perfectly describes what we see in the Ingraham interview:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/202007/when-the-narcissist-fails
As for the dangers of a malignant narcissist at the helm of a country, the article closes like this: "[L]et me tell you about one malignant narcissist of note. You may have heard of him — he was an Austrian corporal who painted postcards for a living. Full of himself and with no shortage of grandiose ideas, he decided on his own to run for office with one goal among various, which was to 'Deutschland wieder großartig machen' — to make Germany great again."
Cap
The article catalogues all the traits, Cap:
"a hyper inflated sense of entitlement, grandiose feelings of superiority or uniqueness, delusions of infallibility, incessant disregard for the truth, perennial conniving and scheming to take advantage of others, feeling that rules and laws don’t apply to them, and of course the need to debase others, coupled with callousness, not only wears on us, it can have devastating consequences."
That's Trump. And the conclusion of the article should make any sane voter take note.
The period from now until January 20th is fraught with unpleasant possibilities. I've always had an interest in AH's final days in his Berlin bunker. He blamed the German people for failing him and said they deserved nothing better than ruin. The Fuhrer's political testament is dripping with self-praise. No man, he wrote, has struggled as he has. It's all the fault of the eternal Jew. No personal responsibility. No apology. No regret. The millions of lives lost inconsequential, irrelevant.
Imagine what Hitler might have done if his country hadn't been reduced to ashes, his armies destroyed in the field. Imagine if he had some Doomsday weapon. But for some very good luck that might have happened.
There are precedents, Mound. Somehow I can't see Trump falling on his sword. If he's defeated, he'll have to face the courts.
Actually, he reminds me of george dubya bush just with more arrogance.
Personally, Obama's "We tortured some folks" is up there as among the most batshit crazy thing said by a US president. "Folks"!
It appears, thwap, that insanity is a more deadly virus than COVID.
And the conclusion of the article should make any sane voter take note.
I have been reading Kurt Anderson's Fantasyland, that I mentioned before and coming to to conclusion that a lot of US voters are not completely rational as we in Canada would understand the term.
Any country that can have people such as Russ Limbaugh, Alex Jones. Glen Beck and Ken Copeland as opinion-setters is a bit worrying.
US polls give Trump a good chance of winning.
As unplatetable as that my be we must prepare for such a situation.
I have said before that we should distance ourselves from the USA.
By that I mean that we should fight harder for trading issues and more importantly
have a more realistic foreign policy that does not cow tow to the USA.
Purchasing the F35 stealth bomber would be tantamount to caving in to US wishes and following their foreign policy as is membership of NATO.
TB
I agree, jrk. In the United States, there are obviously many people like Trump -- completely irrational.
I agree, TB. Under Trump, the United States is a blatantly unreliable ally. We can hope that things will change. But we should not expect that they will.
@ Trailblazer
we should distance ourselves from the USA
Unfortunately we cannot hitch Canada up to the pickup and go. I think we need to go into superdrive in targeting new trade partners and sources. Ofxcourne I have been hearing this since at least Trudeau I.
I was texting someone in Ireland with whom I sometimes work on small projects and he asked me this comforting question "How will Canada cope if Trump is re-elected and the USA starts to break up into a re-run of the Civil War?"
@ Owen
I agree, jrk. In the United States, there are obviously many people like Trump -- completely irrational.
I was discussing this on another blog at the US Gov't level, that is, US irrational policies and actions and suddenly realized that the USA as an entity is the nation state version of a narcissistic sociopathic personality.
A good question, jrk -- to which there are no easy answers.
The simple truth is, jrk, that Trump is the incarnation of America's darker angels. They're angels that have been there since the founding of the republic.
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