I don’t understand the appeal of cults, and I get death cults even less. A Trump death cult? Now that’s bizarre. Ten years ago, if you’d told me either Donald Trump or Screech from Saved by the Bell would lead a political movement that embraced racism, cruelty, and barely veiled violent threats while steering our country to the brink of fascism, I’d have assumed the culprit would be Screech. Because I’m pretty sure Dustin Diamond, the farceur behind the famous Saturday morning school jester, knew how to read. And he seemed far more charismatic to me than Trump, despite the stabbings. And while Screech wouldn’t leave Lisa Turtle alone, at least he didn’t invite her to join him on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet.
So, yeah, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole Trump thing. And my mind is pretty elastic most of the time. Except when it comes to Trump, the sriracha enema our country didn’t need and never asked for.
Well, Rep. Debbie Dingell knows better than most the foul humors that Trump has roused in so many proudly sociopathic peeps. Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, Dingell joined host Dana Bash and GOP Rep. Fred Upton, her colleague in the Michigan House delegation, to discuss the ominous Trumpification of our politics. It was, to put it mildly, disturbing.
After Upton brought up the toxic energy that’s animating our politics these days, Bash ran a clip of a voicemail Dingell recently received from a MAGA mite.
Watch:
VOICEMAIL TO REP. DINGELL: “You goddamn old senile bitch. You’re as old and ugly as Biden. You ought to get the fuck off the planet. You fucking foul bitch. They ought to fucking try you for treason, bitch. You and every one of your scumbag fucking friends. I hope your family dies in front of you. I pray to God if you’ve got any children, they die in your face.”
And here’s Dingell’s response to what, in her telling, is typical of the kinds of messages she regularly receives:
DINGELL: “I’ve been getting those for a couple of years.”
BASH: “A couple of years?”
DINGELL: “A couple of years, ever since, at Christmastime, the Christmas right after John [Dingell, Rep. Debbie Dingell’s late husband and a former congressman] had died, President Trump was in Michigan. … Once you’re in that Trump hate tunnel, you kind of don’t escape it. There are a lot of good people out there who are really wonderful to me, etc., but we average several of those a week. And, you know, we’re used to it. … My friends look at me, I play them, and it’s almost like therapy, and they say, ‘How can you do this?’ But you have to, we’ve got to be careful not to normalize it, but I’m not going to not do my job. I’m not going to go out and not be with people. I’m not going to go out and not listen to them. I want the American people to think about what’s happening in our country. That this kind of hate, this fear, is happening in communities across the country. You know, if you even look at the horrific shooting that killed children in our state … he was living with parents that had some of that. We need to really worry about our democracy and find a way that you can disagree with people and do it in a civil and agreeable way. And it really does have me very worried.”
And in case that wasn’t quite enough verbal ipecac for you, here’s the Trumpian tirade that threw open the sluices two years ago. It came during a December 2019 speech in Dingell’s home state:
“Then you have this Dingell. Dingell. You know Dingell from Michigan, you know Dingell, you ever hear of her, Michigan? Debbie Dingell, that’s a real beauty. So she calls me up like eight months ago. Her husband was there a long time — but I didn’t give him the B treatment. I didn’t give him the C or the D. I could have. Nobody would have – I gave the A+ treatment. ‘Take down the flags!’ ‘Why you taking them down?’ ‘For ex-congressman Dingell.’ ‘Oh OK.’ ‘Do this, do that, do that, rotunda.’ Everything. I gave him everything. That’s OK! Don’t want anything for it. I don’t need anything for anything. She calls me up. It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened. ‘Thank you so much. John should be so thrilled. He’s looking down. He’d be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, don’t worry about it.’ Maybe he’s looking up. I don’t know. I don’t know. maybe. Maybe. But let’s assume he’s looking down. But I have him A+, not A, not B+, not B. I have him the A+, and she called me, so nice, oh. I won’t go into the conversation because it’s not fair to do that. But all you want to say is, let’s put it this way: it was the most profuse thank-you that you could ever get. On a scale of 0 to 10, it was a 10. OK. So that was what, February or something. Now they talk about this phony impeachment. And she’s out there. ‘Well, we have to look seriously at our president because he may have violated the Constitution of the United States. And I can’t be happy with that because I love our country. I love this and I love that.’ She loves everything. I said, ‘She’s a no, OK.’ No but I look at her and she’s so sincere and what happens? ‘I vote to impeach Trump.’ And you know what — I didn’t say — who the hell knew this was even going to come up.”
Because it’s one thing to viciously attack a widow who’s doing her constitutional duty, but if you don’t also imply her dead husband is in hell, you’re simply not trying hard enough. And yes, Donald Trump’s understanding of world religion—and everything else, for that matter—is tenuous at best, but I can’t imagine he really thinks people are doomed to everlasting torment if they ever once dare to displease him. (Ha ha ha ha ha! Who am I kidding? Of course he thinks that!)
Of course, Donald Trump wouldn’t be who he is without the support of millions of folks who are just fine with his cruelty, indecency, and all-encompassing contempt for American norms and values. But I refuse to believe these people are the majority or have the political juice to rule over us long term.
Rep. Dingell doesn’t deserve the abuse and hatred that Donald Trump has stirred up, and for that matter, neither do we.
It made comedian Sarah Silverman say, “THIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT,” and prompted author Stephen King to shout “Pulitzer Prize!!!” (on Twitter, that is). What is it? The viral letter that launched four hilarious Trump-trolling books. Get them all, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.