(I
know, this is the one site you can rely on not to have American political commentary ad nauseum. Bear with me: this will not become a habit)
One
of the hallmarks of the Trump presidency has been the extraordinary loyalty of
the 40-45% of the American electorate that has been the Trump "base." You know: "I could shoot someone dead on Fifth Avenue, and...."
When
John Bolton's memoir was all over the news recently, I was thinking, Okay, it is nice to
have more evidence that the ship is sinking. But the rats are still rats.
On
the other hand, the failure of the president's Tulsa rally last weekend -- which seemed a
perfect opportunity for the base to perform its unconditional loyalty -- does make it seem a
larger phenomenon may be at hand. Even the base may want out.
Apparently
in Ponzi schemes, there are always some investors who understand the whole thing is
crooked and a fraud, but who are confident that they can get in and cash out before the inevitable collapse catches the real suckers. Tulsa seemed
like those people running for the exits.
Even before
the pandemic, I had been thinking the Democratic Party only needed one campaign
slogan this year: "The Republicans: they want you to die." Below the headline of each ad, one example would follow in smaller print: the healthcare example, or the inequality
example, or the climate change example, or the race example, or the policing and
incarceration example. And now of course, the Covid example.
Where they are now,
the ads wouldn't even need to include examples. The slogan explains itself. Hashtag #therepublicanstheywantyoutodie
