“They say the test of one’s mettle is how you act under duress. Not the duress one experiences when they realize they have a losing hand at poker, but REAL duress. Life & death stuff. Like just yesterday for example, when Governor Gretchen Whitmer addressed the people of Michigan to tell them of a foiled terrorist plot to overthrow the Michigan Statehouse. A plot that included taking her life. HER OWN life. She didn’t candy-coat it either. Just the facts, her resolve never wavering.
Another example of clear-minded courage under pressure would be Captain Sully Sullenberger. Cool as a cucumber, even as the force of gravity was wrestling him and his 155 passengers to their deaths. But he never flinched. You all know the story.
Donald Trump is the antithesis of Gretchen Whitmer. He hates her because he knows he can’t be like her—because it’s just not in his character. His batteries are wired differently. His + is connected to the - terminal, and vice-versa. Rather than offering even the SLIGHTEST word of support to the people of Michigan, Trump took to Twitter last night to berate Governor Whitmer. How DARE she remind the people of her state who it was that encouraged his militant followers to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
Donald Trump isn’t unraveling. He’s completely unraveled. We’re all seeing the same outrageous things, witnessing the same dysfunctions. He’s our very own, real-life Captain Queeg. Only instead of obsessing over who stole his strawberries, he obsesses over his “ratings,” and how Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton spied on him. And how soon he can get back to holding his Nuremberg-style rallies. His Covid-19 diagnosis be damned.
The other 330M of us are Fred MacMurry and Van Johnson. It’s up to *US* to determine whether or not the Captain has gone ‘round the bend. Yes, there’s a bright light at the end of this tunnel, but we’re still in that tunnel. And he’s getting worse by the day. Speaker Pelosi made some reference to discussing the 25th Amendment later today. Better late than never, but I for one will be interested in hearing what she has to say. The next 25 days notwithstanding, he’s still an unpredictable, paranoid lunatic with the launch codes.
One final point: When this aberration in American history finally draws to a close, there will be a lot of reflection... and a lot of people will be coming up with elaborate excuses for why they allowed this insanity to go on for four years. “Well, I knew he was a little different, but honestly, I didn’t know he was that bad.”
Don’t you even THINK of pulling that card! You damned well KNEW! You just didn’t give a shit.
To the propagandists at Fox News and the oligarch who pays them, to that cigar-smoking odobenidae with the Presidential Medal of Freedom shamefully hanging around his neck, and to the 80% of white, conservative evangelicals who still TO THIS DAY worship this thug as their Savior 2.0; there will be no excuses. NONE. For four excruciatingly long years, you saw what we saw. You heard what we heard. You said nothing as he sucked up to our enemies and shattered our most valued friendships. You OWN these years forevermore.
We the People will decide Donald Trump’s political fate in 25 days. Then 78 days later, assuming he’s unsuccessful in cheating the system yet again, the fate of his post-presidency may rest in the hands of the Southern District of New York prosecutors.
But to you enablers—you who inflicted this black eye on Lady Liberty; prepare to take the hot seat. Most of us have cried out all along that Donald Trump was UNFIT for Office. But now that he’s proven it by shrugging off 214,000 deaths and putting tens of millions out of work, if you’re STILL defending this monster... please excommunicate yourselves from our once functional electorate. You had your chance to join the sane, but you utterly failed. Miserably.
Your Captain will be going away soon. We cordially invite you to go with him. 🍓”
~ Bruce Lindner