“Real power is—I don't even want to use the word—fear.”
----Candidate Donald tRUMP
The above quote is from Bob Woodward's new book “Fear” in which our emerging Caesar described how he views the nature of political power. The remark occurred in the course of an interview in which Woodward and Robert Costa questioned tRUMP at the Old Post Office Pavilion in the Trump International Hotel at the Nations capital. The interview occurred on March 31, 2016.
I must admit a fundamental misunderstanding the full implications of which I find myself slow to comprehend. I had somehow read Disgustus' personality disorder as being one, like Bill Clinton's, but more attenuated, as a child in search of love and acceptance. That he sought public notoriety in order to gain admittance into humanity; that his cravings for the attention and affections deprived him in youth is the motivation behind his unquenchable ambitions—ambitions wholly at odds with his real talents.
The thinking was that driven by the need for public acclaim he would soon be violating every Rescumlickan and neo-nationalist precept in a headlong quest to please the crowd. This would lead, inexorably, to the adoption of universal health care, gun control, environmental protections, regulation of the banking and energy industries and the organization of workers in the workplace. It had long been observed that Disgustus', like Willie Stark in Robert Penn Warren's “All The King's Men”, had simply taken to the stump and, responding to applause lines, had built a stock campaign speech around them venting the grievances of those assembled and whipping the crowd into a fury. In the process Disgustus had hijacked the pseudo-populist movement represented by the Koch-funded 'teabagger' movement and become the voice of the 'forgotten American'. Accordingly, I had hoped that once elected he would pivot to governance and, in the process, redefine Conservatism along populist lines. Why? Because he needed the love and affection of his following.
I am in error.
One can forgive oneself given that Disgustus had won the nomination and the presidency by running to the left of the entire Republican field and, it can be argued, his Democratic opponent. He, after all, promised the return of “good-paying jobs”, which one can reasonably conclude can only happen with the return of organized labor. He had promised cheaper and better “health care for everybody”, which is universal health care by definition. This, and the trade agreements, were why he carried Michigan and Wisconsin. Even Hillary wasn't prepared to go that far.
But that vision began to blur when he met with Paul Ryan on the eve of the convention and folded before the Ayn Rand acolyte like a cheap lawn chair and swallowed the supply-side nonsense whole.
It is clear now that this reading of Disgustus is based on fundamental misunderstanding. Disgustus did not seek power because he needs affection, he seeks it because he is a vicious little twit who needs to engender fear. He is not Santa Clause but Caligula.
Not since Nixon has a president used his office to 'punish' people. Not since Nixon has a president been so petty. Firing Assistant Attorney General Andrew McCabe just hours before he would have had enough seniority to collect a full pension is a case in point.
There were, certainly, some warning signs. Declaring at the Convention of the Scum, for instance, that “only I can solve this”, is certainly a statement of a megalomaniac. Recently in an interview with Faux News he openly declared, after once again telling the audience what a great job he is doing, that if he were removed the economy would collapse because the entire industrial and commercial empire is held together in his head. He has openly mused with the leader of China, who had just declared himself president-for-life, that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to have such an arrangement in this country. He has intimated to the leader of North Korea that he wished he could enjoy such adoration from Americans. This is beyond mere megalomania, we are now entering into the realm of extreme delusion. Like Caligula, Disgustus sees himself as a demigod.
Again, Disgustus did not create this. He did not emerge from whole cloth. Rescumlickans have for at least a decade projected their greatest yearnings upon others, accusing Obama of wanting to be a dictator by governing, for instance, through executive order. What they really mean is that, like tRUMP, this is how they want to govern.
As we speak the Scum are ramming through a Supreme Court nominee who loves executive power, who favors torture, who contends that a president is, in effect, above the law, who holds that a president can ignore laws passed by Congress if he finds them objectionable. They will have their way, come hell or high water, because they have no respect for proper procedure or the rule of law. Nothing, it appears will stand before them. This is the view of more than Caesar Disgustus.
We have misapprehended our Caesar Disgustus and the party he represents at our peril. They would have us trembling before our Supreme Leader, prostrate before a creature of our own creation. “A Republic, if you can keep it” declared Ben Franklin when asked by a woman on the street as he emerged from the Constitutional Convention "what form of government have we? A Republic...if you can keep it.
“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison.
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