I have long subscribed to the theory that for most episodes you encounter in life, there’s a parallel episode of “Seinfeld.” I’ve thought recently of the episode where Jerry adamantly denies watching the soapy series “Melrose Place.” Ultimately, he caves under the pressure of a polygraph test. I continue to read about folks who refuse to utter any semblance of regret over their 2024 vote for Donald Trump. I think it’s hints of embarrassment wrapped in doses of intransigence. Under the rigors of a polygraph, my money says they’d relent. I mean, let’s be honest.
I don’t like the guy, never voted for him, and left the Republican Party because of him. So, in fairness, I’ll go first. Joe Biden had no business running in 2024. Kamala Harris was a bad candidate. And there’s a reason that Democrats in Congress, like Republicans, have an approval rating lower than hemorrhoids. At present, Democrats have no unifying standard-bearer, and I cringe when I hear some of the crazy ideas these democratic socialists espouse. Abolish prisons? Just go back to your parents’ basement and play video games.
Your turn. Is this really what you signed up for? Can you name one thing Trump has done to make your life better? I mean, how many ways does he have to literally say or demonstrate he doesn’t care about you? Truth is, he ran for three reasons: to stay out of prison, get revenge, and get richer. He’d sooner build his ballroom, extort the Kennedy Center to plaster his name on the facade, and give Putin a foot massage before he’d lift a finger to sign an executive order lowering your healthcare premiums.
And still, his job performance approval sits north of 70% with “Republicans.” I generally put unrepentant Trump supporters in two buckets. First, the wealthy, Epstein cadre who attend Gatsby-themed parties at Mar-a-Lago while the world burns. For them, it’s all about money. Profit over principle. Here’s what I don’t understand. How is it that voters in the middle class or lower still stand by the guy? The farmer in Iowa, for example, who is forking over $6 a gallon for diesel and mortgaging the farm to pay for fertilizer? The family of four making $100,000 a year and living paycheck to paycheck — struggling to pay for soaring healthcare premiums, gas, and record-high groceries? The cops who watched their fellow officers get tased, beaten, and brutalized on Jan. 6, 2021, only to see Trump pardon the offenders and try to pay them handsome sums for their services? The single mom in the South who can’t afford rent and has given up on ever owning a home?
Hold that thought. Let me put it another way. Try with an open mind to imagine the following, and ask yourself how you, or Sean Hannity, would react: What if Barack Hussein Obama accepted a $400 million plane from a Middle Eastern country? What if his family’s wealth increased by billions while he was in office… much of it from shadowy deals cut with shady despots? What if Joe Biden made billions on dubious crypto deals and — along with his money managers — made over 28,000 stock trades in his first 17 months in office? What if Bill Clinton started a war under the auspices of preventing a country from deploying a nuclear weapon one year after we, uh, “obliterated” their ability to do so, seemingly lost said war, lied about U.S. casualties and calamities and, worse, looked the other way while China and Russia verifiably helped our enemy kill U.S. troops? And then, for kicks, what if Clinton let a Russian oligarch thug help foot the bill for Chelsea’s lavish post-wedding celebrations?
And what if any one of the aforementioned three Democrats paid off a porn star, and spent years palling around with a best friend who was a sex-trafficking pedophile? Or, oh, I don’t know, offered voters $5,000 only if they voted for their party in a pivotal forthcoming election? What if they pardoned a notorious drug kingpin convicted of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States? And, boy, how do you think the right would react if one of them banned Fox News from the White House press corps?
See where I’m going here? Even Melania has seemingly jumped ship.
To understand Trump, you need to read up on Roy Cohn — the devious little man who took Trump under his wing in the early days. On a scale of 1 to Mussolini, Cohn was off the charts. He taught Trump his three rules: 1) Attack relentlessly; 2) Deny everything and admit nothing; 3) Always claim victory. Sound familiar? I wonder if Trump believes his base doesn’t mind the exaggerations or just relies on them not checking the facts. He hasn’t delivered on his promise to eliminate inflation, the national debt, lower healthcare premiums and utility costs, end wars, bring manufacturing jobs back to America, and so much more.
We’ve recently learned what many feared for years. Artificial intelligence comes with both great promise and petrifying peril — with an emphasis on the latter. The very creators say there is a roughly 10% chance it destroys humanity in the next 10 years. Trump disagrees. Why does he love AI? Because AI alone — roughly a dozen companies — is propping up the economy and preventing his two historically epic blunders — tariffs and the war in Iran — from plunging our economy into a recession. Oh, and they donate billions to his coffers. He says the only guardrail we need is his intellectual acumen. Reassuring.
All to say, Trump did NOT “drain the swamp” in D.C. He weaponized and stocked it with a new breed of predators. And he’s failing. He knows it. He’s desperate. And, man, is that dangerous. If hopped up collectively on truth serum, I think most of us would agree things are bad. And where Trump wants to take us is not a place we want to go.
Ben Clarke is a communications consultant. A former Republican speechwriter, he has written for political and corporate leaders across the globe — advising numerous Fortune 100 CEOs on messaging and strategy. He resides in his hometown of Greenfield.