As some of my faithful readers know, the Clown has never been a fan of Donald John Trump ever since he was born in 1946. Trump was an obnoxious tubby infant, a petulant child, a sleazy student all the way through college and then became one of the sorriest excuses for a grown man imaginable. This is not just one clown’s opinion; it is a known fact. If Ivana were still alive, she could confirm that which is obvious to millions of Americans, the term “jerk” isn’t quite strong enough to describe DJT.
The Clown first started referencing the Orange God King when he and Melania, who didn’t marry Trump for his money according to her publicist, descended the golden escalator to announce that he was running for president, again. His first try was a bust.
Given that the Clown appeals to a wide audience of between 15 to 25 active readers, it was certain that his Trump criticisms would elicit some push-back from some on the e-mail list. These readers, many calling themselves libertarians (motto, “I’ve got mine, screw you.”) and/or republicans, were quick to pick up on the meme, TDS ( Trump Derangement Syndrome) and apply it to the Clown. The implication being that the Clown was a pearl-clutching nut job, unable to rationally evaluate the true nature of this former democrat, pussy-grabber and cheesy reality-show host.
During the Donald’s four-year run as president, failed wall contractor and unsuccessful coup director, the Clown occasionally weighed-in on the dangers that such a man-child presented to the common weal. Just as often as the Clown would post a Trump related post, his in-box would become abuzz with readers suggesting that the Clown needed professional help with his TDS. The Clown, not being a fan of talk therapy ever since one psychologist dozed off during a session, refused to act on their suggestions. Besides, it remained clear to the Clown that he was mentally fit and that his meds were working.
The Clown is pleased to report, with no small amount of schadenfreude, that those who truly suffer from TDS are the very ones who insisted that the Clown was deranged. Of course, these people don’t recognize their illness, very typical of autocracy fans. These folks are, after all, the “trickle-down economics” crowd, also known as the Von Mises clique. Well, the educated ones anyway. Ask your average tradesman Trump supporter, or Trump himself for that matter, if he prefers the Milton Friedman or the Keynesian economic model, and crickets.
The House January 6th Commission has done a masterful job of presenting the extraordinary and awful revelations about the lengths to which DJT and his assembled gang of deranged amigos went to avoid the peaceful transfer of power. Never before, in the history of the U.S., has such an attempted abrogation of a free and fair election ever occurred (see Dick Cheney’s primary ad for Liz). The sheer madness of the many clearly illegal activities does not register to those who suffer from TDS. Therin lies the on-going threat to our democratic republic.
Because of the thriving dis-information industry, those with TDS are reassured that they are quite sane and that all democrats are out “to destroy America”. Why, exactly, democrats would want to do that is never convincingly explained by the faithful who basically say, “We can’t prove it, but we know it’s true”.
The Clown would like to report that because Trump is no longer the prez, America will get back to politics as usual and the ship of state will right itself, but he’s far more pessimistic than that. The dis-information industry and the national TDS enablers it has spawned (Josh Hawley, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Tom Cotton, Ron Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, et al) will continue to infect the unwary with TDS. This creeping disease could very well see the return of the Orange God King to the oval office in 2024, thus putting the final nail in the democratic republic coffin. (A Desantis presidency would only speed the death rattle because he too is an authoritarian wannabe and he’s smarter than the Donald.)
Those who say that there is nothing to be done to rein in the dis-information industry, that the genie is out of the lamp, are saying, “We have lost our democratic republic to technology and there is nothing we can do”. The Clown responds thus to those who have surrendered to the existential threat that is the unrestrained fire hose of lies, distortions, character assassinations, conspiracy mongering and threats of violence against public servants: We must try because we have no choice.
Observoid of the Day: A benevolent king is still an autocrat.