But it merits repeating.
From my vantage point it appears as if tribal affiliations have supplanted reason in the land of the free. No one even seems to care that that lies and misinformation are the order of the day, and the entire country carries on as if that environment is normal.
I’m speculating here, but I’d wager that if five years ago, you were to ask an average American to define the phrase new normal that their answer wouldn’t be, well, I’m thinking we’re going to abandon any value in the truth……..and possibly integrity.
Although I’ve got to say that once truth is abandoned, then it’s only a matter of time before a series of other democratic ideals are likewise deemed unnecessary. Integrity is only one of a long list of principles that fall like dominoes once an insistence on truth is considered a witch hunt.
So, Canada watches in bewilderment as roughly half of America has a completely different view of reality than the other half. And in keeping with the current insanity, our neighbors still insist on calling themselves united.
Let’s start with the concept of who’s fit to be your president. At the moment you need to be a natural born American citizen. You need to be at least thirty five years old and you have to have been a resident for fourteen years.
Fourteen years seems kind of arbitrary, but it must have something to do with 35-14=21. So a future president would have fourteen years of adulthood under his or her belt before they merited the nuclear suitcase. Also making the residency time fifteen years would mean an aspiring president would have to be at least thirty six.
Which is also arbitrary.
So fourteen it is.
I would think though that there should be a list of things that disqualify you from being president. Things other than your age and where you were born. Things like incitements and indictments.
But apparently a candidate can be a convicted sexual perpetrator, a habitual liar, a perpetual tax cheat, a twice impeached flagitious grifter, and an insurrectionist. But as long as he’s thirty five he’s still presidential material.
So, assuming this candidate wins his party nomination, a non-American observer may have a question or two about the mindset of his voting age acolytes.
Question number one.
Do you honestly believe that all of the accusations and charges leveled at this man are untrue?
With a track record of some thirty thousand documented lies, how can his denials be lent any credibility whatsoever?
6, 16, 22, 39.
These are the numbers of daily untrue statements made by this candidate for each year he held the title of commander in chief. These lies are recorded and verifiably debunked. And yes daily is correct, which means that on some days he had to be approaching triple figures to make up for twitterless golf days. Golf days he said he wouldn’t take.
Question number two.
Why doesn’t his dishonesty matter to half the country?
I assume that either his supporters aren’t aware or they don’t care. If they aren’t aware then I’ve got to question how that’s possible, I can understand missing some of his deceit. Hell, I’ll be generous and assume his base was at work for half of his fabrications, but how could they have missed all of them? Particularly if they were true devotee’s and attended any of his rally’s.
And we’re not talking about inconsequential mistruths, or debatable opinions. We’re talking blatant bullshit so obvious that his faithful have had to make a concerted effort to deny reality. And in my opinion, people don’t expend effort on something unless they care. So I can only deduce that there’s some quality about the candidate that they do care about. A quality that’s more important to them than the truth.
Question number three.
What might that quality be?
It’s not eloquence or literacy. It’s not scientific knowledge or diplomacy. It’s not his respect for women or his grasp of how American governance works. It certainly isn’t honesty or a military service record.
I hesitate to simplify the ethos of millions of the candidates body of voters, but I get this sense that what they like is his abusiveness. And the belief that his maltreatment will be directed at targets they endorse. People and groups that they would abuse if they were president. Liberals, immigrants, educated elites, and anyone with different shaped eyes or darker skin.
Also, anyone that their religion tells them to hate.
It’s much easier to validate and exercise a prejudice if you’re willing to discard any requirement for truth, and once the lies become mainstream the results are predictable. The uncultured start a culture war because they no longer need to validate their hunger for malice. They’re free to lie with impunity about their justifications. All they need is a target.
Next thing you know the base is unshackled and the books are burning, because we now have a movement led by the most scurrilous among us.
And so it seems to me that it’s not so much a quality the candidate possesses that resonates with the base, but rather a lack of quality.
Question number four.
How is it possible to support the candidate and call yourself a patriot?
The allegiance that you pledge is to a flag, not to a person. But the candidate appears to demand that your loyalty isn’t to country and constitution, but rather exclusively to him. I’ve been around for a few American presidents and I can’t recall any other commander in chief hurl even one snarling accusation of disloyalty.
The candidate tweets this accusation at least a couple of times a week, and I think he’s misunderstanding how patriotism works. Although to be fair, The Nazi’s also considered themselves patriots, so it would seem the misunderstanding has occurred historically a time or two.
Other than patriotism, it appears that the candidate struggles with understanding what service means. Presidents are supposed to serve the people. The people aren’t supposed to serve the president. The theory of democracy is predicated on this assumption. Also, unless I’m misunderstanding the concept, the presidency isn’t supposed to be about self service, but it’s evident the candidate disagrees with that assessment too.
He likes to be serviced, and if providing that service is patriotism, then Stormy is the epitome of an American patriot. So, there’s something for the base to keep in mind the next time they decide to stormy the capitol.