Several years ago (prior to President Obama) a friend and I were speculating on the potential for an armed revolution.
No we weren’t planning one, we were just discussing the possibility of one.
At that time we both had given up on the entire political process. It appeared to be completely controlled by big money. The average citizen appeared to be powerless to have any real say in who gets elected to federal office.
We speculated that if things continued to get worse for the common working person, there would be a point where the heated liquid of overall public angst boiled over into outright armed rebellion, essentially a French revolution in the US.
But then President Obama was elected and I gradually allowed myself to believe that change was actually possible.
And then Trump was elected.
Certainly there were many factors that allowed that travesty to be possible. But as I observed the people who blindly followed Trump I came to a realization: Those people are exactly the ones that I saw as eventually overthrowing the federal government. To them, Trump WAS the revolution.
They listened to him make promise after promise. And ate up every word. This was their chance to take America back to whatever fictional reality they desired.
And all I saw was the terrible irony. Trump has repeatedly made his disdain and perhaps even disgust with anyone who isn’t a “Winner” very clear.
That boils down to being rich.
So if you aren’t rich, you’re nobody.
But his followers, like most of us, have the infinite capacity to unsee anything we don’t want to see. So they saw what they so very wanted to see; Their savior.
The painful irony is that he’s done nothing for the working person but has done much against them.
The trade war he’s rushing into will cause prices to fall and jobs to be lost. Companies will close and lives will be destroyed.
For no good reason.
And his blind followers will continue to believe.
There is a part of me that thinks there will come a point in every one of their lives when they are slapped in the face with the actual reality (and consequences) of his idiotic policies.
Maybe when they see friends lose their jobs, homes, lives, etc. Maybe when they lose theirs.
Or maybe never. The grim truth is that there’s always someone else to blame.
When the truth is what Trump says it is, reality is as ephemeral as the morning mist and just as tangible.
