In an effort to thoroughly punish myself in recent weeks, I've been reading Bob Woodward's Fear. It's been my bathroom book, the reading material I dip into for just a page or two at a time. It has literally been depressing the shit out of me.
I am, however, rather glad I didn't read the book when it first came out. Knowing what I now know and having to live through a couple more years of a Trump presidency would have been way too stressful. Hearing the stuff that is in the book come out in dribbles on the news, like when various figures got asked by the media if they really had said Trump was stupid, refused to listen to anyone, and was so unpredictable it frightened them, was bad enough.
I know Fear sold fairly well when it released. I also know Bob Woodward took a lot of shit for it (as well he should have) just like he did when his more recent book, Rage, came out. I know I kept muttering as I read the book. Woodward was hearing all this stuff about how totally inept and borderline crazy Trump was but he had to be feeding Trump's ego just as much as any of the various other sycophants surrounding the Human Yam just to ensure he still had access to the White House. It's pretty clear he prioritized gathering material for his book a lot more than he prioritized doing any whistle blowing or trying to sound a warning.
Then again, after witnessing the way Trump's minions complained behind the man's back about how flaming nuts the dude was but kept right on enabling him in face-to-face conversations, no doubt he was resigned to the probability we were stuck with Trump until The Donald either choked on some KFC chicken or his term ended (as it will on January 20).
Anyway, so what have been the take-aways from Fear? First, Steven Bannon is a genius. He is a total master of the fine art of polishing a turd, because that's definitely what he did with Donald Trump. He took a potential candidate that a whole lot of ultra-wealthy conservatives had serious doubts about and managed to turn that candidate into the Great White Hope the Mercers, Kochs, and others had been fantasizing about since the Reagan administration. Bannon sold a product that should have been unsellable. And why did Bannon do it? He saw Trump as somebody that could manipulated into making real a smorgasbord of extreme right wing fantasies: anti-immigrant, anti-United Nations, anti anyone who isn't white, you name it and Bannon figured he could use Trump to further that agenda.
One of the ironies, naturally, turns out to be that while Bannon was viewing Trump as a tool for conning other people, Trump was conning him. Bannon fell for the rolling in money billionaire image that Trump worked hard at selling. It's not until the campaign was close to the finish line and Jared told Bannon that Trump didn't have enough in liquid assets to do the ad buys they needed that it sank in with Bannon that Trump wasn't mega-wealthy after all. It was all a front.
Second, Trump really is completely incompetent. When people talk about him being totally focused on himself, they're indulging in understatement. Trump's approach to the world has never changed: it doesn't matter what the issue is, the only thing he cares about is how it affects him. Will it hurt his ratings? Couple that with complete ignorance about how government works and it is pretty much amazing things aren't a bigger mess now than they are currently.
As for Trump's current unwillingness to give up, to admit that he really did lose the election, this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's observed the man at all. The one consistent fact about Trump is that once he's decided on what is real and what is not, there isn't a person on the planet that can get him to change his mind. He might do some spectacular flip-flops on his own -- one thing that drove his advisers and staff crazy and contributed to the high turnover in the administration was Trump being 100 percent for something one day and 24 hours later deciding he actually meant the exact opposite -- but it has to come from his own musings. People pushing, even when it's someone he supposedly listens to like Ivanka, have no effect.
Back when Trump won in 2016 I wasn't happy. I thought the man was boor, a egoistic ass, but I figured then he'd at least be smart enough to surround himself with staff who were both reasonably competent and could help The Donald from fucking things up too badly. I was wrong. Trump's ego got in the way. A good leader always tries to have a few people around him who are willing to tell the boss when he or she is screwing up or make it clear why something will not work. Trump did the opposite. He made it clear really fast that it was his way or the proverbial highway. The people working for Trump learned to work around him -- his attention span can be notoriously short if it's not something that affects his ego directly -- and to suck up big time to his face and in public. He never wanted advisers; he wanted acolytes.
Oh well. The end is in sight, even though some Republicans are intent on making that end as messy as possible. Personally, I'd love to see them all nailed for sedition but realize that won't happen. Which is a shame, because it would be really nice to shoot down the presidential ambitions of weasels like Cruz and Hawley. Technically, if an elected official violates their oath to support the Constitution by trying to overturn a legitimate election they can be removed from office. I doubt if McConnell or anyone else in the Senate has enough of a spine to punish the delusional loons malcontents but one can dream.
You need some better bathroom reading. And since McConnell is a delusional loon himself, I doubt we'll see any improvement there.
ReplyDeleteThree days late reading this and the World has only worse than you imagined. If they don't get rid of him soon, he might do even more damage. Start a war, give away state secrets to Putin, who knows.
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