American Psychosis… What is Wrong With Us?

Trump, the Vagitarian, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 2017

“Psychosis is the term for a collection of symptoms that happen when a person has trouble telling the difference between what’s real and what’s not… false beliefs that someone holds onto very strongly, even when others don’t believe them or there’s plenty of evidence that a belief isn’t true.”

—clevelandclinic.org

“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

—Donald Trump

“The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them.”

–Turkish Proverb

Why?

I get it (sort of). A lot of people are pissed. There is a lot of anger out there at the “do-nothing” politicians, at the “elites”, at immigrants, at the demographic changes going on in America.

And folks are looking for a solution–an easy solution.

For many, apparently, Donald Trump is the solution. Many seem to have believed him when he said, “…I alone can fix it.”

It is soooo easy to swallow the fat pill o’ magic and join the mob (read: the cult) when one is angry, lonely, fearful, desperate, feeling ignored, and so on. It’s easy to surrender your free will, your judgment, and your trust to a charismatic figure who claims with authoritarian authority to have all the answers. Great! I’ll vote for him and he will fix everything–I won’t have to think at all!

Or, maybe you support him because he has that big red “R” next to his name, you aren’t really paying much attention to anything but your Facebook feed, and you and yours have always voted Republican… and, furthermore, “they” have been telling you for years (on AM radio) that the Democrats are evil and they are will soon turn the country into a communist gulag. (News Flash: In many ways, today’s Democrats are your father’s Republicans.)

So, I have to ask…

Critical Thinking

…whatever happened to the critical thinking skills of America’s electorate?

Is it a problem with our educational system? Is it a problem with our current for-profit news and social media structure? Is it our too-busy-at-all-times-to pay-attention lifestyle? Something else?

Do we now need special classes (at all grade levels!) on how to distinguish between fact and fiction? How to identify disinformation and propaganda? How to zero in on reliable information, or at least find the best information?

Why have so many thrown away their ability to think in exchange for a red hat?

Democracy is not an easy, neat, form of government. It’s often quite messy–like watching suasage made, as they say. It can be very frustrating. Change can be slow and it requires a collective effort. And most important, it requires a populace that is educated, engaged, and understands and accepts basic scientific facts and democratic principles.

Shameful

As I watch the polls, as an American, I feel shame that even 100 people support Trump let alone millions. The fact that this upcoming election is even remotely close is utterly shameful.

[Side note: I suspect, from what I have seen and read, that many polls are not at all accurate and are heavily skewed to favor Republican candidates and that they are missing many newly engaged, young voters. That goes for the 538 aggregate, too, I think. We will see in November.]

In a normal, psychosis-free, country, there is plenty of room to have legitimate, hard-fought debates about policy, but we are apparently no longer that country. Healthy debate has seemingly ceased.

As to Trump… to continue to support someone who is ignorant of history and doesn’t read, has a vocabulary of 15 words, who is a convicted felon, an abuser of women, a racist, a compulsive and sociopathic liar, a very, very marginal “businessman”, an obvious malignant narcissist, and… someone who never smiles!… well, that last seems rather crazy to me.

Yes, he never smiles–isn’t that strange, even weird!? Or, if he does smile, it is but a mere flicker, a forced unnatural expression that immediately reverts to the standard Trump scowl after mere seconds.

Well, that’s just insane.

I prefer Presidents who smile. Presidents with a positive message. Presidents who unite, not ex-Presidents who divide, hate, exact retribution, and kick down on their “lessers”.

Ask other Republicans!

Don’t believe me on this, that is fine.

I would ask you to do two things:

First, simply listen to a Trump speech with an open mind. Actually listen to his own words.

And…

Second, take a look at what many conservatives and Republicans themselves have said, including former members of Trump’s administration, his former Attorney General, Chief-of-Staff, even his former Vice-President! Even…Oh my God!… that boogey man of the American Left, that arch-conservative, the former Veep under Geroge W. Bush, Dick Cheney!!!

There Is Hope

Aren’t you all tired of Mr. Doom and Gloom’s fearmongering? His berating of America and the scapegoating of the weaker of its citizens? His sidling up to the world’s worst dictators? His threats to dismantle multinational security agreements like NATO? His constant pessimistic and repulsive appeals to our baser instincts?

I think you are… I hope you are… and I feel the winds of a very positive change in the air.

My hope is that Trump is not merely defeated in November, 2024, but that it is a landslide rejection of everything he stands for.

Only then will we be able to get back to some sensible and fact-based policy debates between the major political parties.

If this happens, perhaps then we can start the work of patching up the weaknesses in our fragile democratic republic. Things like… how money goes into politics and elections… how the Electoral College functions… the ethics and structure of the Supreme Court… our broken immigration system (Trump influence is what blocked the recent conservative immigration bill, BTW)… whether women will get to control their own bodies and make their own health care decisions… sensible gun control we can all agree on… whether we will seriously tackle the global warming issue… and so on and so on.

That is where YOU come in…

What to Do–A Minimum Checklist

1. Register to vote.
2. If registered, check that your registration is current and active. This is important as many voter rolls are being “cleaned up” or “purged”. Have you been “purged”???
3. Then… VOTE! for the Democratic ticket all the way up and down the ballot. A message needs to be sent!

Once MAGA is eradicated from the Republican party, then by all means feel free to vote for your conservative (non-MAGA) favorites–and definitely feel free in the next election to hold the Democrats to account if they fail to meet their promises.