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George Merlis's avatar

I recommend the book, Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Trump is step-by-step following the pattern for taking control of the country established by Mussolini, Hitler & Putin, among others. The scary part: they were all successful.

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robert bell's avatar

All you write is valid on its face but the hardest thing for a lot of us to accept is such a large percentage of our nation is willing to accept his debasement. So, why is that? IMHO it has to be because that cohort is not just willing to overlook these "sins" but because they consider the acceptable behavior. No , not for politicians but for the society as a whole. And, that is the shame. That such large percentage of the American pubic has become as debases as this man himself.

I think COVID has shown us how if we allow a deadly virus to run amok among us it will be fatal. In the same way Trump and his beliefs are a deadly virus which has become an active ingredient to those in our society who are not just willing but active participants in a campaign to overturn the morality and decency we would like to believe are integral to the American psyche and experience. Trump has made it more than OK for a lot of us to do what we probably have always wanted to do but were afraid to do lest we be seen as boorish. He unleashed a Kraaken and , voila , a lot of us discovered there were a lot like us out there willing to join his unholy crusade.

Donald Trump is not the problem, It is to one degree or another the 70+ million Americans who voted for him thinking they could walk away from the experience unsullied. They can't . Now they are the problem and the rest of us are still left to wonder why could so many of us have thrown in with this man and his values so easily and quickly.

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