This is I think, an excellent metaphor for Trump’s future:
www.theguardian.com/…
So, this is the story of a haunting---the echo of what once was so alive just moments ago, now so dead in the water.
the Trump International Hotel in Washington is reeling from a huge loss of income and prestige. For critics of the former US president, it is welcome proof of how quickly the city is moving on without him.
“It used to be the hub of Trump World but I can’t imagine who goes there now,” said Sally Quinn,
It was one of the few places in the US capital where “Make America great again” hats were bountiful. But one recent afternoon it seemed more reminiscent of the haunted hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining.
And so the whole article goes ---all about the eerie absence of the incredible wizard of hate in the strange and terrible years we have somehow survived.
It’s only been a month and a half or so, with a decent man at the helm and already, I see this country begin to gratefully crawl itself out of a grave it is was not ready for.
Well, all EXCEPT for the Republican Party, and those who still cling to its pathetic, creature from the swamp, mud laden feet. And I don’t argue, that even as Trump wilts, the GOP does not have the sense to re-plant themselves, to bloom anew. To catch up, to keep up. They simply don’t have it in them. Few toxic things can find a way to bloom, although oddly, I hope they do, some day, somehow. This country needs two strong parties. Right now, we have one very strong party, and another one that has the money to keep on keepin’ on, to do everything they can to become the template for minority/money rule---otherwise known as fascism.
But I am amazed and yet not, by how fast the mighty fall. Without the power of the presidency, without the press panting for his next lie, his next ignoramus statement, his next toxic distraction, turns out, Trump is just like the mighty Wizard of Oz, once the curtain was pulled back. No more thundering voice, no more powerful mists swirling and twirling under and around him.
Indeed, he’s just a man. A very very bad man in this retelling. He’s left behind not ONE thing we could admire, or quote, or be thankful for. Not. One. Thing. He had four years to do one decent thing, and he didn’t do it. And the list of indecent things he did is endless, and bears no repetition here.
I think the important thing here is not a eulogy to the devil, or the mighty upside down Oz, but rather a clear understanding that as progressives, liberals, Democrats, and independents, we made it through this time by the hair of our chiny chin chins. And we are still hanging from the same in our legislatures.
No, I don’t think it will be Trump that undoes us. If he couldn’t do it in the last 4 years—through his own sheer incompetence, he’s not going to get that chance again. I believe that. He was simply a symptom of a ground well plowed for his racism, his corruptness, his chicanery, his cold blooded lack of everything---and it really doesn’t matter all that about his psychological profile. Who cares.
What matters is that he once won the highest office in the land. And as many have said, God forbid he was a more competent man.
The truth is imo, Trump was simply the convenient puppet of what has been going on in this country for a very long time. The fight to turn capitalism into our system of government, rather than our choice of economic system, with our oversight, that serves us, rather than we serving it. Yes, there are other things---this country’s long struggle with white supremacy and more---but largely, it’s always about the money in a country like ours---still so very young and brazen with its hubris.
It should be fine with me if the republicans continue to be afraid of Trump, even though I think they’re literally whistling Dixie. But it’s not fine with me. Because it means that although I think Trump is dead in the water, even if he, the media and his party doesn’t know it yet, I also think he laid down his turds, still moist and waiting for whomever to put their footprint upon them.
I really do think he’s a dead man walking, politically. I do not believe he will ever run again, and if he does, I don’t believe he’ll win. He had his chance. Hell, Hitler had to do a lot better than Trump ever dreamed of to keep his foot on the evil pedal, and even he ended up putting a gun to his own head.
But that doesn’t mean I think we’re free and clear of what we narrowly survived. Democracy, in any form but always imperfect, will also always require fierce vigilance. And sadly, even with Trump dead as a door knob, imo, he did one thing I worry about. He wore down our vigilance. He all but killed one of our major parties. In that way, he still lives.