The Witness Chronicles, August 17, 2024

Trump after Trump

Photo by Willian B. on Unsplash

Will Trump Stop When He Loses?

He is a rich old man, why keep going? Ego

It would be easy to make a comparison to Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars, the wrinkled old guy determined to take the universe to the dark side of The Force. Trump even looks like him when you see the rare picture of him without his makeup. But Palpatine is on a religious crusade.

Trump, on the other hand, despite the occasional nod to piety, does not have a shred of belief in him, beyond his immense conviction that he is the center of the universe. So, I have to question why he keeps going if he has everything figured out.

The Trump campaign, on the surface, is a well oiled machine, but it is a machine with a serious problem. The man in control is out of control and his co-pilot is just as nuts. If Trump really wants to win, why are he and Vance seemingly going out of their way to alienate major voter groups?

First it was black voters with his inexplicable statements that Harris ‘turned black’ said while Trump was being interviewed in front of a room full of black journalists. That event was so bizarre that I might have written it off as some progressive version of a conspiracy theory, except it actually happened.

Trump was so determined to kiss Miriam Adelson’s ass, the widow of a huge donor, that he announced that her Presidential Freedom Award was even more important than the Medal of Honor awarded for extreme valor by a member of the military while protecting democracy.

Her award was for giving him lots of money.

This is not going down well with veterans. And Vance, a veteran himself, made up slanderous claims about Tim Walz’ service, all 24 four years of honorable service to his country. A reminder guys, veterans are a big voter group.

Vance of course has doubled down on campaigning for the leadership of the he-man woman hater’s club by saying that post-menopausal women’s role in life is to take care of grandchildren. This is after they spend their reproductive years constantly pregnant, while chained to the stove.

I mean, really?

BTW, women are another big voter group, maybe the biggest.

What do veterans and women have in common as voters? They are not in those categories because of political preference. So, when you alienate them you may be alienating huge numbers of your own loyal voters. Which begs the question: do these guys actually want to win?

Trump is going to lose. There, I said it. Jinx, but wtf? He knows it and he is certainly acting like he knows it. Vance may be delusional but who really cares? The real question now, unless yet another cataclysmic political event takes place, a definite possibility this screwy year, is what will Trump do after this is over?

Given his track record, that is really a serious question because it looks like he isn’t planning on winning, despite what his campaign says. The man is running scared, we all know it, and we should be very worried about what happens next.

I’d really like to think he might just quit and enjoy what he really likes, playing golf and pulling strings behind the scenes. Two things belay that. He faces possible jail time for crimes he is already convicted of and worse ones facing trial. And he has a mental flaw that cannot allow him to give up. Politics is addicting and all the more so to a narcissist. Beneath all addiction, (I know addictive behavior well) is an underlying emotional pull. In politics it is power.

We’re watching it unfold in Joe Biden, a man I admire immensely. He is going through withdrawal and it can be hard to watch. But he recognized what was going on and ended it, an even more admirable act, and one I believe Trump is incapable of doing.

So, as rotten as this whole charade has been, I don’t think it ends on a Tuesday in November. If Melania had any influence she might try and tell him to let it go but it is obvious she is simply living out the terms of her pre-nup. And his numbnut older sons certainly have no say. They are too busy vacuuming up as much money as they can salvage from the mess.

Daughter Ivanka took a cue and got out of Dodge.

The good news is we have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, two eminently normal human beings who are also extremely experienced at the game and dealing with the loons on the right. And in Harris’s case, actual criminals. So, the game is on and the rest of us have two responsibilities: vote Trump out and start talking to each other so we don’t go through this again.

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