TRUMP: WILL HIS CULT HANG TIGHT?

Americans have a touching almost magical faith in their Presidents. Even the most vociferous detractors of a POTUS rationalize their respect by arguing they are doing it “For the office of the Presidency not the President”. If the body politic do, on a rare occasion, loose trust in their Commanders in Chief it is well after the fact of their malfeasance. However even then, unlike with Brutus, “their good is not interred in their bones” their blunders are more likely forgotten and their achievements remembered. George W. 43 is hailed for his 9/11 statesmanship not damned for his devastating Iraq and Katrina disasters. Even Nixon after his gigantic fall form grace was retreaded as an elder statesman as the years rolled on. 

This reverence has to be a hang over from the Founding Fathers who debated furiously the wisdom of whether to appoint a monarch as the head of America. In the end they opted for a checks and balances system with the President being subject to Congressional oversight. Hamilton, in particular, feared the type of President that would behave like a monarch without having the gravitas of being one. 

In this national public health and economic emergency Trump, mindful of the veneration the office affords him, has only one objective - to be reelected. In this endeavor his cult like base which gives him unconditional support are central to his chances. Without them he has no hope of a second term. 

TRUMP A SECULAR MESSIAH?

Donald J. Trump has a cult like following who are willing to drink the Kool Aid for him. As Glenn Beck articulated he was prepared to go out there and die for the economy. If Trump was the head of a religious movement he would be hailed as the Messiah. He in fact believes he is a secular Messiah as evidenced by his bombastic boast at the Republican Convention in 2016, “I alone can fix it”. 

He has usurped the professionals in becoming the spokesperson of the “response”, subjecting the nation to two hour daily exhibitions of ignorance, abuse of reporters -females ask “nasty questions” and males are “a disgrace representing fake news”, and a denial of reality. Diversion is central - "It is because of his impeachment that he couldn’t address this crisis". He didn’t believe the crisis existed anyway so he played golf and visited his hotels in the interim. Revisionist history of his own behavior is spouted daily in the knowledge that the clan will conveniently overlook what he opined the day before. On top of it all he acts like an infectious disease expert, albeit that he is unlicensed, dishing out diagnoses and unverified management that has resulted in life threatening shortages of drugs used for other conditions,

He punctuates his delusions on the pandemic by knocking off his enemies one by one. - the most recent being the Inspector General who forwarded the WhistleBlower complaint about his "perfect" Ukrainian call to Congress.

 In spite of the fact that after seventy days into an economic and health crisis where he had dismantled the very agency that was in place to deal with it, dismissed intelligence warnings of the impending diaster, denied that there was a problem for weeks, said a miracle would wipe it all away, risked increasing the death rate exponentially by arguing that the cure was worse than the disease, and daily displayed a total arrogant disregard for the only weapon to fight this plague social distancing, the cult remains solidly behind him.

In his two hour daily self indulgent monologues he has his sycophants and “experts”, who he regularly contradicts standing on top of him, publicly sneering at their carefully thought out recommendations of social distancing. While on the one hand with his usual braggadocio he claims that he is doing an “unprecedented job” on the other he insists that he is not responsible for the management of it - the Governors are. In answer to the question as to whether he would recommend a stay at home policy to Governors he maintains that they know best - the Republican ones that is. As for the Democratic Governors they acted too late, failing in their responsibility to prepare and stockpile… 

He backed his son-in-law, Jarred Kushner, who claimed that the national stockpile belonged to “us”. “Us” being ill defined as the national reserve is there to fulfill the Federal Government’s principle purpose to protect the American people. Cynics claimed maybe they belonged to the Trump family. He unashamedly announced that he will gave life saving provisions to those who “appreciate” his largesse and punish, by not even talking to, those that don’t, especially if they criticize him. He even alleged in his characteristic obnoxious obtuse manner that “his” Personal Protection Equipment was being sold by first responders. 

Then there is the ongoing unconscionable dereliction of duty by not acting in the national interest in purchasing the life saving equipment centrally thereby forcing the States to bid against one another pushing up the costs astronomically. To add insult to injury the Federal Government often outbids them while Trump argues that it is the States’ responsibility to stockpile and that he is not an “ordering clerk”.

Yet for all this and more, as the bodies pile up, the cult argue that it is his leadership that will save us. The question is why do the elected  Republican Governors and legislators acquiese? 

RED STATES HAVE RED GERMS WHICH AREN'T AS DANGEROUS

The POTUS has reminded all that care to listen that he knows more than anyone else about anything and everything. Specifically he told the researchers at the Center For Disease Control that doctors are astounded at his knowledge and maybe he should have been a doctor. Hence his screwball theories are thrust on the nation. One of these is obviously a unique germ theory that germs, (blue germs), will only attack the densely populated East and West Coast Democratic States sparing the red germ South, Center and Mid West Republican states. He then having accepted the latter theory as fact, claimed that the Red States have less prevalence of the coronavirus becuase their Governors are managing it more successfully. 

The red germ states gave him his electoral college victory over Hillary. With regard to the Mid West, at the time he was going through his opening the economy on April 10 phase, he specifically mentioned that there the “workers” who were itching to get back to their jobs. Well the Midwest has too many Democratic Governors and a few recalcitrant Republican ones at the moment to have any impact although good old Iowa is still hanging tough as are seven other Republican Governors. Republican Governor deSanctis of Florida finally gave his reason to enforce stay at home policies as he noted “a change in emphasis” in Trump’s position on the matter while the Republican Governor of Georgia reasoned that the Center for Disease Control had just suddenly ascertained that several patients with Coronavirus were asymptomatic as his rationale for enforcing reality. What catapulted the latter two Governors’ epiphanies is that they both have counties that have the highest coronavirus prevalence in the country. All this doesn’t tell us why on earth are the Republican Governors’ in these areas are such holdouts? 

WHY THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS’ OBSEQUIOUS RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S GERM THEORY? 

The reason that the Republican Governors buy into this junk science is that the Trump cult that elected them in the Republican Primaries. They are all scared out of their wits that he will lash out with a couple of his tweets that will put an end to their careers. The Governors may have won state wide elections but his Kool Aid imbibers control the Republican Primaries. 

To illustrate Trump’s impact, in the Alabama Senate race he has turned against his former Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and warned him against using his, Trump’s, good name, in his battle to gain the Republican nomination. The POTUS owes plenty to Sessions who was the first Republican legislator to support him as early as 2015 thereby giving him respectability with the Conservative base of the Republican Party. Sessions is a twenty year old veteran of the US  Senate and should be a shoe in for his old seat in Alabama but loyalty is a one way stream with Trump. Jeff Seasons recused himself from the Mueller investigation into Trump’s campaign involvement with Russia as he was part of that campaign. Trump publicly chastised and humiliated him for his supposed lack of loyalty.

WHAT ARE TRUMP’S PROSPECTS FOR 2020?

The Commander in Chief keeps throwing red meat to the masses. He has just announced the creation of a task force to look into the reopening of the economy. Another morsel is that soon the sports arenas will be filled. With regard to the latter then so will then his mass Nuremberg style rallies where he keeps the cult entertained with his stand up performances. 

So for as long as the cult holds Trump believes he is competitive. As long as they bolster his claim that he and the USA are one and the same Trump will have forty percent of the vote that he can build on. They like Attorney General Barr have argued that if Trump believes it is essential for the country that he be re - elected, nothing he does to ensure that eventuality is illegal. 

While Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, is increasingly frustrated at being shut out of the narrative by Trump he is well ahead in the polls. However so was Hillary. Biden just has to do what he is doing by taking every chance he is getting to look decent, empathetic, knowledgeable and managerial. Biden has to be buoyed up by the record Primary turnouts that gave him his insurmountable lead over Bernie Sanders. It has to be maddening not to be able to get out and consolidate the electorate that gave the Democrats their victory in 2018. However the Republican suburban women and millennials that switched in 2018, according to the current polls are sticking to their guns.

Trump has the advantage of a national crisis where his poll numbers are holding and have even increased. However he has to know these are transient and are comparatively pathetic compared to other Presidents in these situations. He also has insight into the fact that it was Katrina that sunk the Bushes forever and the economy that put an end to daddy Bush’s second term. He has an unmitigated medical disaster on his hands which he has worsened and a recession that goes with it. 

In this time of a pandemic that threatens the deaths of hundreds of thousands the Republican Senate are colluding with the Trump playbook and are about to conduct an investigation into the Bidens and Ukraine. The POTUS is reckoning on turning this non event into a replay of his smear of crooked Hillary’s emails. This added to his cult that is obviously still hanging in there as evidenced by the Republican Governors’ actions keeps his chances alive. 

One fact is for sure he has, for the most part, the slavish obedience of the Republican legislators who are as fearful as the Republican Governors that he will set them up for defeat in a Primary. The only circumstance that will see them have a change of heart is if the cult wake up from their hypnotic stupor and come to terms that Trump is a false Messiah.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Notwithstanding the numbers of coronaviruses cases with the accompanying high death rate, both of which are exponentially increasing, the Trump cult still hold that Trump’s leadership will save the country. 

Jay H. Ell is of the opinion that Trump would have been defeated sans his catastrophic lack of leadership and preparation for the pandemic which sadly is going to ravage the country. Even  sadder is the silence of the Republican Legislator lambs who are not leading the revolt against Trump’s Presidency. But the saddest fact of the lot is that those who constitute the cult, unlike with the Nixon Presidency, are not calling for Trump’s ouster. The change in attitude between the Nixon era and today is not only with the Legislators it is with the electorate. This of course does not excuse the Legislators who swore an oath to protect the Constitution. 

What has remained steadfast is the integrity, professionalism and service of the public servants whether they be in the military, like Admiral Crozier who was just relieved of his command for demanding action to prevent his sailors dying from the virus, or in the government itself, like in the Medical leadership of Dr. Fauci who has argued that it is incomprehensible that all the states haven’t instituted a shelter in place or with the Surgeon General who has designated this as America’s “Pearl Harbor moment” as well as the majority of local officials who are working night and day to meet their communities’ needs.

With the suburban Republican women and a quarter of their millennials having abandoned the Trump coalition, an eureka moment by a section of the cult, recognizing the Commander in Chief’s incompetence and perfidy, will spectacularly end the nightmare of the Trump era. He has systematically relegated America to a parochial outpost leaving both the country and the world rudderless in this national and global crisis. 

If the death rate is under the projected rate in the hundreds of thousands Trump will claim credit.