If Trump loses the next election

[David Horn]

(07-19-2020, 04:25 PM)TnT Wrote: My concern is that Trump is only the symptom.  I have some conservative friends who, when I ask them why they like (or liked) Trump, say, "I like that he tells it like it is."

However, like many conservatives, they are not much interested in drilling into issues or figuring out what makes something make sense or not.  Bumper stickers.  Black and white.

Thus, when I ask, "What is IT that he tells it like, that you like?"  Blank stares.  Then, some will bring up "political correctness."  One friend of mine used the example of janitors being wanted to be called "Custodial Engineers," or some such thing.  Then of course I ask them to give me an example of Political Correctness that does NOT consist of someone criticizing someone else for being too sensitive.  

Here's how I diagnose this.  Trump's idiot savant talent is his ability to bullshit.  He's really good at it.  His overt and covert statements about the underclass that he needs to have, appeal to probably 30-40% of our population.  They're not dumb.  They can hear the occult and not-so-occult racism in his rants.  They can hear that they have been vicitmized by the "Other."  This is not even controversial - it can be demonstrated just by listening to and quoting what the man says, over and over again.

So what do we do as a country?  How can we continue to live together?  The know-nothings, the anti-science, the anti-education, the evangelistic "christians," the folks who believe in angels, a flat earth, global conspiracies, and the Protocols of the Zion.  These folks are our fellow citizens.  They're not going away.  We have to live with them.  They have to live with us.

Finally, once the game of Lose-Lose begins, there's no choice any more.  Folks who are inclined to play Win-Win, or even Win-Lose don't get to do that.  Base survival means that once we're playing Lose-Lose, it's either fight until it's over - that's where everyone is basically a Loser - or roll over and die.

We are a tragically weakened country.  Trump and his corrupt lickspittles have cut many of the ties that bind together legitimate institutions and have discredited most civilized values.  We are not immune to natural law.  Weakened enough, we will become easy pickings.

There may be an argument for going our own separate ways this time.  Let's assume the election is adequately definitive that the Trumpists have no leg to stand on.  Will they see it that way?  Will they fight to the death, if that's what they decide to do, reason be damned?  I honestly can't say.

Trump's go to conspiracy theory ally (QAnon) is actually running real live candidate this year.  They're all  weird to the third power, but more than a few have corralled GOP nominations to run for the House, and one for the Senate.  These folks have no sense of history or even everyday reality.  That's how far the Trump Train has run down the track.  So what happens when they start arguing for their own country? I, for one, might be good with that, if their "country" is some place not near me, though West Virginia is both close and quite likely open to the idea.