I am far from the first person to espouse this belief and I certainly won’t be the last. Time and history will be the adjudicators. Trump, in his own right, is a buffoon; a pudgy, white doughboy. He is nothing without his followers. Trump is also mentally ill, as many psychiatrists and psychologists have written over the years of his presidency. His main problem is his narcissism. As a narcissist par excellence Trump plays a zero-sum game: It is not enough that I alone should win; all others must lose. And this is where things become scary. 70+ million followers are not ALL narcissists. They don’t have the excuse of being mentally ill, but they are a mixture of racists, fascists, xenophobes and more.
Here’s the nub of the issue. Adolph Hitler never actually killed any Jews, communists, Gypsies or others. It was his followers who did that. Stalin didn’t murder his general staff, the Kulaks, and others–his followers did that for him. You get the idea. When 126 Republican elected representatives sign a document supporting Trump’s personal delusion that the election “was a steal”–without any evidence whatsoever, then we are getting into Alice in Wonderland territory. Remember Humpty-Dumpty? “A word means exactly what I choose it to mean, nothing more and nothing less.” It’s like Trump dropped acid and 70 million Americans are on the trip!
When ostensibly ‘sane’ people–who can hold down jobs, are able to drive cars and operate machinery, bring up children, etc–when these self-same people join in Trump’s delusions, then terrible things begin to happen, as we have already witnessed. Hitler’s delusion was that the Jews sold out Germany in the First World War. He believed Germany had not been defeated decisively–which was the case. America’s entry into WW1 had sealed Germany’s fate. But the delusion was preferable to the reality and thus millions of others bought into it. And for them, it became true–to the total ruin of the nation!
Sadly, and scarily, America has many delusions at play: “deep government” (= the constitution!), the “fake Covid pandemic”–despite 298,000+ deaths, “the rigged election”–despite Republican states certifying the election results, and more. These people want what Trump wants and these overgrown babies with guns also want what they want. Biden and Harris will not be allowed a “honeymoon period”. Trump(ists) will be outside shouting in, and Americans are already funding him to keep his tantrums going. The ship of state will not only be rocked, it will be holed! This writer fears the worst is yet to come…why do you think I moved to France?
JACK N. LAWSON - author • speaker • trainer 