Just over one hundred days into Don Presidente’s regime and thankfully, we’re still here for the most part. The republic stills stands. Democracy survives, for now. The threat is far from over, though, considering a hundred days only accounts for less than 7% of his scheduled time in office, assuming he only serves a single term, and the ongoing investigations into his campaign’s connections to the Russian government don’t bring him down early. These past hundred days have felt like a lifetime, what with all the twists and turns, all the drama, all the missteps and distractions. I could easily turn this piece into a review of Ill Douche’s inauspicious start in his first government position. He’s signed twenty-eight bills into law, none of them substantial, and has issued thirty executive orders (more than any previous president during the same period of time, since WWII — something he criticized Obama for doing too much of, along with golfing), nearly as insubstantial, save for the ones that were blocked by courts; and a couple of military actions, both dubious in their effectiveness.
With a couple of exceptions, he’s filled with cabinet with people as inexperienced as he is, and as rich as he claims to be, a number of them have openly stated their intentions to tear down the very agencies they have been selected to head. His approval rating hovers at about 42%, nationally — a record low of for someone in office this long — yet among his voters, he still enjoys a approval rating in the 90s. Despite his failings, his obvious ineptitude, and his admitted miscalculation about how hard it is to be POTUS, Don Presidente remains an enigma. What does all of this mean for our country, for democracy as a whole, but most importantly, for our chances of surviving his reign in office?
In the first piece for this blog, I questioned Ill Douche’s intentions as president. These first hundred days have made things only somewhat clearer. One narrative, that he’s simply doing it to enhance his brand, remains a viable one. His businesses, now being run by his sons, are in excellent shape with the help of our tax dollars. Once he leaves, or is forced out, he should be set up for a glorious return, reaping the benefits of his unchecked conflicts of interest, unless we can find a way to counter that. I also speculated that he simply wanted power simply for the sake of having it.
I’m no longer sure that’s the case, although if he can find a comfort zone, he may be less willing to give it up. I am sure that his relationship with Putin was about power. Putin wants nothing more than to consolidate his realm of influence by weakening democracy throughout the rest of the world and fracturing the forces — NATO, The European Union, etc — that keep that goal in check. His hope in backing Ill Douche, along with seeing an easing of sanctions, was that his nationalist America First agenda would narrow the U.S.’s interest to primarily domestic issues, leaving him free to continue his own expansion and meddling.
Speaking of domestic policy, that is where a darker theme has emerged. While his campaign was constantly dogged with accusations of racism, there remained an open question about whether he was simply using it to take advantage of the years of fear and loathing bred into the social conservatives that make up his base, or whether that racism would carry on into his administration. With the rise in hate crimes in the country, we’ve all seen how his pandering has stirred up white supremacists. But his immigration policies, to date, and his choice of Jeff Sessions to head up the Department of Justice all point to something far more nefarious: Ill Douche has every intention of stopping, or at least slowing down, the end of the white male power structure.Don’t let Steve Bannon’s recent demotion fool you. Bannon’s still firmly entrenched in the administration. If Don Presidente, Sessions and Bannon can continue to work together by continuing to deport undocumented immigrants in record numbers, discouraging others from coming at all, refusing refugees, stopping the movements for prison reform and a less racist justice system, and moving back towards the privatization of prisons, thereby creating a profit source that discourages anti-recidivism programs, they can, at the very least, make sure white males maintain their power at the polls. So, while the complexion of the country may still change, its power structure will remain mostly unfazed.
This is my greatest fear a hundred days in. If the election has taught us anything, it’s that there are a lot of angry white people, not only because they feel like they’ve been left behind, but also because they’ve seen this country change at, for them, an alarming rate. Women prove they can be as good, if not better than, men every day at everything. Marijuana is becoming legal. Gays can get married and raise children. Men can become women, and women can become men. Not being a Christian is no longer an insurmountable stigma. A black man can become president.
For those who genuinely believe that this country rightfully belongs to Christian white men, and that to be anything else is to practically not be Christian, and thereby not worthy enough to live your lifestyle, much less have a say in where this country goes, these have been scary times. There fears have only been fanned for ratings, or worse, to achieve and maintain power. While unfounded, these fears are very real in the hearts of those who suffer from them. I see no end to the manipulation of these fears, no call to move past them.
The saddest part of this is that these fears aren’t being exploited because the powers that be actually ascribe to them. How does the cliche go? The only color capitalists see is green. What those trying to hold onto power are trying to achieve, with their handpicked fool at the helm, is to make as much money as they possibly can, for as long as hey can keep him there. If they have to keep the rest of us divided to accomplish that, it’s just the price of doing business. Don Presidente’s base should be afraid. They’re just afraid of the wrong things.
The past one hundred days have given us plenty to dread about, some sleepless nights, fits of righteous anger, even some rays of hope. Assuming he escapes impeachment or doesn’t just quit, outright, that gives us a little over 550 days before our best chance to end this national nightmare. Given that his base looks ready to support him to their graves, there’s plenty of work to do to prepare for the midterm elections in 2018. We better get past our own petty differences and unite by then. If we can’t make a difference then, I doubt our chances of limiting Ill Douche to one term. If one hundred days feels like a lifetime, just imagine what eight years will feel like.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.—Abraham Lincoln
Lest you think this will be little more than some touchy feely, All you need is Love kind of blog, let me take a moment to clarify its purpose. Yes, I believe Love is essential to healing the gashes between us, the gashes expertly exploited by those who prefer power to people, to distract from their misdeeds by turning us into bickering factions. However, while Love is needed, it won't be enough. We also need to resist. We must fight back. We need to show that bloated baboon of a buffoon that we will not sit back quietly while he dismantles civil rights, dismantles our economy, dismantles our democracy. This blog is my form of resistance. I want it to serve as a place to rally, to separate the wheat of essential information from the chaff of all the propaganda we're constantly being fed. I also want it to serve as a platform to honor others willing to rise up, willing to speak truth to power. In that spirit, I want to point your attention to Danielle Muscato. Danielle called Don Presidente out after another of his sad tweets complaining about Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live.
Not only does she take him down on his thin-skinned pettiness, she goes on to break down the argument against having such a contemptible human being represent Us. Thank you, Danielle, for saying what so many of us have been thinking. Thank you for your courage and your inspiration. I stand with you.
So, here we are. Hopefully, you’ve been paying attention and realize how we got here. Now the questions needs to be: What exactly do we have? How do we survive it? And what can be done about it?
To understand what we have, you first need to understand who’s in control. The answer’s obvious, but I don’t just mean the man who will soon be our president. I mean the man that he is, the man he’s been. What I and others have noticed is that the man fits a specific archetype that’s troubling, even dangerous if combined with potentially darker personality traits.
Whether he is mostly harmless, a sociopath, a psychopath is still in question. What’s not in question is that he is a NarcissisticMaster Manipulator.
His favorite technique seems to be Pacing & Leading. The manipulator "paces" the public by mimicking his target’s emotional state. He then pushes those emotions by making statements that may be even more extreme than they ever would make. That's what really draws them in.
"The economy/politicians/media/etc. are even worse than we thought! He gets it. He has my vote!"
Once he's manipulated his target audience into believing he is the biggest badass on a given topic, he can then "lead." Since no one understands said topic(s) as well as he has made them believe he does, he is then free to "lead" them to whatever position he really wants to promote, because his target has already been manipulated to trust him, implicitly.
So, what’s his endgame? What does a Narcissistic Master Manipulator really want? He's likely to "lead" everything to the center in order to widen his trust with the public. That will set him up for an "O, he wasn't that bad" re-election campaign. It's the Narcissist aspect we can't ignore, though. That means whatever he's out for, it needs to benefit him, most. That it actually benefits anyone else is just gravy. Gravy is always a part of any good con.
So, what’s the con?
My guess is that, at best, he just wants to enhance his brand. What better way to expand the brand than to attain the highest office in the land, if not the world. If that's the case, watch for him to be more mascot than president, traveling & making appearances that make America, & by default himself, look Great. Actual governing will be left up to others.
At worse, he wants use the office to benefit his businesses. For signs of that, look for him to do nothing about the conflicts of interest created by his office & his family's business. If he liquidates, we'll know he's thinking of Americans first. If he justs hands it all off to his kids, you can be pretty sure there will be deals being cut that will directly benefit The Organization, both domestically & abroad. If he holds to his proposed economic policy, the nation will suffer.
At worst, he wants power for power’s sake. People like that don’t like to give it up. If that’s the case, look for increased domestic surveillance, suppression of the media & free speech, likely through litigation. The slightest excuse might lead to a state of emergency, extending & possibly prolonging his power.
We've all been manipulated, to one degree or another, for a long time. None of us are any less guilty than the other. It opened the door for a Master Manipulator to step in & turn it all to his advantage. Everybody already sort of hated the other. All that needed to be done was to stoke the right fires in the right places at the right times, & viola...
In a sense, what's happening now is part of a continuing manipulation. Not only are the divisions of one side against "the other" laid bare & hurting, now there's infighting, groups usually seeking common goals blaming & shaming each other. We've been royally Trumped!
Now we need to heal. We need to come together. ALL of us. If we continue to distract ourselves with the petty squabbles, no one will be watching while he takes it all down, or all for himself. It’s not a question of whether or not we can survive this. We can. We will. Society moves on despite oligarchs & tyrants. The real question is can we come out of this intact? The answer depends on whether we can get past the blaming, the guilt, the fear, and the hate. If we can turn our attention to what really matters, I like our prospects. I hope this blog can play a role in that healing, however small.
