Wrapping It Up

October 20, 2024

We are mercifully coming down to the last few days of the 2024 presidential election. I truly hope that I will never have to think about, speak about, see, listen to, or write about Donald Trump ever again. That remains to be seen. I have been accused by more than one person of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which is a cute but terribly unoriginal phrase. It’s actually not a thing just like Jewish space lasers are not a thing. And it’s not derangement if what you are saying is true just like it is not paranoia if you are actually being followed.

I really don’t think I am deranged, but who’s to say? I haven’t paid hush money to a porn star or a Playboy centerfold; I haven’t lied about the size of my crowds; I haven’t called Mexicans rapists and murderers; I haven’t labeled Muslims terrorists, and tried to ban them from entering the U.S; I haven’t made fun of disabled reporters; I haven’t thrown paper towels at Puerto Rican hurricane victims; I haven’t insulted the military again and again while denigrating their service; I haven’t insulted the memory of POW John McCain; I haven’t tried eliminating health insurance for millions of Americans; I haven’t been impeached for threatening a Ukrainian quid pro quo; I haven’t been impeached for an attempted violent takeover of Congress; I haven’t been convicted of 34 felonies for fraud; I haven’t denied the results of the last election; I haven’t been convicted of sexual assault; I don’t have classified material in my bathroom; I don’t have a foundation that has been found guilty of fraud; I haven’t cheated students out of tuition money; I don’t stiff people who have done work for me; I haven’t declared bankruptcy six times; I didn’t play a fake businessman on TV; I haven’t insulted Gold Star families; I haven’t favored Vladimir Putin over my own intelligence agencies; I am not hawking bibles, gold coins, NFT’s, sneakers, digital coins, or anything else; I have not threatened to use the military against U.S. citizens; I don’t think Haitians are eating cats and dogs; I don’t think I am smarter than the National Weather Service, or that Democrats can control the weather; I don’t think that FEMA is diverting emergency funds to illegal immigrants; I haven’t prevented pregnant women from getting lifesaving medical care; I didn’t lie about COVID; I didn’t recommend that Americans take hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, inject chlorine and introduce UV rays into their bodies; I don’t think there are “good people on both sides;” I haven’t invited Nazis to the White House for dinner; I didn’t get my Vice President almost hanged; I don’t think that some of my fellow citizens come from shit hole countries; I don’t pal around with white nationalists; I don’t deny climate change; I didn’t separate families at the border; I didn’t lie about building a wall at the border, and having Mexico pay for it; I didn’t threaten Georgia’s Secretary of State to get more votes. I could go on, but it’s no coincidence that a panel of 154 Presidential scholars voted Trump the worst President of all time. I may get a fifteen yard penalty for piling on, but more than 400 economists and former White House policy advisors endorsed Kamala Harris.

So this is the guy that almost half of the country wants to vote for. Maybe I am deranged. In 2016, I can almost understand someone voting for Trump. If you weren’t from New York, you might not know his history racism, misogyny, grifting, and failure. You were looking for a fresh, new, orange face, and you just didn’t like Hilary Clinton. I get it. In retrospect , you could claim plausible deniability. In 2020, after four years of sufficient evidence, it was clear that Trump was anti-democratic, dare I say, Fascist to the core. Now you have moved from plausible deniability to willful blindness.

Here is the really bad news if you are considering voting for Trump in 2024. You may say that you don’t like Trump, and how he behaves, but you like his policies. You say that he is good for business. It’s not quite that easy. You don’t get a free pass. If you are in for a penny, you are in for pound. You may like his policies, and you may think he is good for business, but you now own all of the other stuff. As we have heard from Maya Angelou over and over, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.” Trump has told you who he is. If you are a three-time Trumper, you are telling everyone who you are. There would be no daylight between you and him. You can’t pretend that is not how you think because that is exactly how you think. You approve of it because you have voted for it twice, and are prepared to do it again. You are contracting out your dirty work. However, when his bill comes due, are you going to pay it, or pull a Trump?