The Deprogramming Dilemma

Before we get to D-Jay's important contribution, I must note Trump's tweet announcing that Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for Covid. I don't wish the man ill-health, obviously. But at the same time, one can't help wondering if this turn of events may have any connection to Rudy's documented willingness to pop into a hotel bedroom with a busty young "reporter" he met just minutes before.

 

Is there anything more Rudy can do to embarrass himself? I thought that the hair dye thing was the absolute limit, but then he farted while presenting the testimony of the world's least credible witness. How can he top that act? Maybe if he picked his nose and licked his fingers, or wore polka-dot boxers over his pants...

 

Also: Trump -- a narcissist to the last -- visited the Lincoln memorial and announced that he's receiving worse treatment than Lincoln did. My sources tell me that Donnie originally planned to say these words during a visit to Ford's Theater. 

 

Here's D-Jay. It's an absolute must-read. If you can any items to add to his list...

 

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The Deprogramming Dilemma

By D-Jay

After living through four years of Donald Trump’s buffoonery, malice, greed, incompetence, narcissism, gratuitous cruelty and complete lack of loyalty to the United States and its Constitution, 74 million Americans actually voted to give the guy another four years to complete his project of destroying our country.

74 million.

Seven million fewer than voted for Biden – thank God – but a terrifying number, nonetheless.

Now, Mad King Donald is said to be wandering the halls of the White House muttering to himself, “I won. I won. I won.” 

An ultra-dedicated devotee of “The Power of Positive Thinking,” Trump has often demonstrated a belief that if he just thinks something strongly, and longly, enough, he can  reshape reality itself to what he wishes it to be.

And now, horror of horrors, it actually seems to be working.

At least, that is, if we stretch our understanding of reality to include the Borg-like mind field in which who knows how many of the 74 million Trump siders now joyfully reside.

And sometimes not so joyfully.  For me, the saddest, but most revealing, example of the hold Trump has somehow managed to gain over his followers has to be the story told by a critical care nurse who works with Covid-19 patients in a midwestern hospital.  She reported that some of her patients actually died of the disease while angrily insisting to the bitter end that this couldn’t be because it’s all a hoax.

Hmm…Where could these sad souls possibly have gotten that idea from?

A critical question has to be, therefore, are they all that far gone?

Seeing polls saying that 70 percent or more of Republicans now think that Biden’s win was a fraud is concerning, to say the least.  And listening for Republican members of Congress to at last stand up and say, “Enough!”…but hearing only craven silence, one can be forgiven for a little healthy pessimism. 

Okay…a lot.

But there are some encouraging signs, too, especially at the state and local levels.

Republican election officials in Georgia and Arizona stood up to all the pressure and threats.

Republican State legislatures haven’t jumped on the alternate slate of unelected electors treason train.

Judges appointed by Republicans, including Trump himself, haven’t hesitated to send Giuliani packing, often with the most scathing of send-offs.

A certain number of Republican senators have chosen to go around Mitch McConnell and negotiate directly with their centerist Democratic counterparts to find a compromise coronavirus bailout plan that might at least mitigate the worst of the coming crisis.

The case can be made that all is not lost.

In fact, that is the case we HAVE to make.

We either proceed on that basis and fight for the survival of American democracy or we give up and watch the world go down in flames – be it from violence and war, or runaway climate change.

So the questions are:

Can the iron bubble of Trump Republicanism be burst?

Can the threat of American fascism be – if not destroyed completely – at least be put back under the rocks from which it crawled?

If so, how?

To answer that one, we first of all need a much clearer idea of how exactly we got here in the first place. 

What is the nature and magnitude of the malicious beast we face?

Can a few well-placed strikes shatter the 74-million-person cult of Trump like an empty beer bottle smashed on the counter in the midst of a barroom brawl?

Can the right thread be pulled that will unravel the whole Gordian knot with a single powerful tug?

Or, should the monster be looked at as if it is some sort of gigantic carrot, and we are armed only with a vegetable peeler?  Can we shave off a strip or two here, another there, and a few more someplace else, until, at first, its power to win elections is lost, and – eventually – we find that only a few rotten spots are left to be tossed on the compost heap of history?

My money is on that sort of process being the one that might work.

Okay, you say, but how do we get there from here?  Where can we look for soft spots or chinks in the armor

It has to start by understanding the multi-generational, multi-faceted process – no – set of processes, some accidental, some perhaps inevitable…and some manufactured with malice aforethought.

So here we go…

Long-time Cannonfire aficionados with exceptionally good memories might recall that almost exactly four year ago I submitted my first guest article, an examination of the roots of Trumpism entitled, A Slow Motion Coup D’etat (under my real-life name of David Jay Morris, rather than my current internet moniker of D-Jay.) 

In the last few years, lot of very good, very insightful work has been done in this area, but what we haven’t often seen are attempts to list all the aspects of the issue, where they come from, how they inter-relate and interact with each other, and how they might be countered.  To a certain extent, that was what I was trying to do with the aforementioned Cannonfire offering, so it might be as good a place as any to start our journey.

In the article, I identified and briefly discussed 12 items that were key to the rise of Trump:

Intensive Voter Suppression 

Creation of an Alternative Right-Wing Reality 

Corruption and Weaponization of Christianity 

Demonization of the Media

Demonization of their Foes, Especially the Clintons

Florida 2000 and the Judicial Coup D’etat

The Weaponization of Social Media

Extreme Gerrymandering

Conspiracy to Undermine the Obama Administration

Corruption of the FBI

Election Fraud

Vladimir Putin 

Not bad for a first effort, if I do say so myself, but after living through the nightmare presidency of the last four years, it’s high time for an update. Now, I’d like to propose an expanded list, divided into two main sections – things done on the right-wing side of the leger…and things our side has flubbed so badly that an obvious calamity like a Trump presidency could occur:

From the Right

Truth Decay – Destruction of the Ability to Distinguish Fantasy from Reality

Ever Worsening Demonization of the Media

Manufactured Distrust of Science and Expertise

The Iron Bubble of Disinformation

The Dark Money Conspiracy

Information Warfare Aimed at Us

Domestic Terrorism

Emergence of a Full-blown Cult of Personality

Ongoing Voter Suppression and Gerrymandering

Election Security

Continued Weaponization of Social Media

Toxic Right-wing Christianity

Racism

Sexism and a Pseudo-Macho Mentality

Putinism and the International Neo-Fascist Movement

Lack of Education in Civics and Critical Thinking Skills

Destruction of Crucial Democratic Norms

The Collapse of Good Manners and Propriety

Radicalization

From the Left (and Sometimes the Center)

OTT PC (Over-The-Top Political Correctness)

Inept Messaging

Lack of Media Investment

Arrogance

Surrender of Rural America Without a Fight

Failure to Call Out and Counteract Toxic Right-Wing Christianity

Failure to Call Out Right-Wing Racism, Sexism and Fascism for what it is, and Counteract it in Time

Framing Too Many Issues as Being Rooted in Race Rather than Economics and Class

Failure to Recognize Just How Bad Things Can Really Get

Forever Bringing Beanbags to a Knife Fight

Failure to Protect Critical Norms

In future articles over the coming months – as the demands of real life permit – I hope to examine each of these items, and perhaps even offer an idea or two on potential cures or countermeasures for a few of them.

In the meantime, if you’ve got any suggestions for items you think ought to be included in the list - or eliminated from it - please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

Stay tuned…