thebulwark--2020-08-07--Trump Saying Biden Would ‘Hurt the Bible’ and ‘Hurt God’ is the Height of Hypocrisy

In Ohio on Thursday , Trump described what would happen if Joe Biden became president : “ No religion , no anything .
Hurt the Bible .
Hurt God .
He ’ s against God.
” That ’ s an odd charge .
Biden is a churchgoing Catholic who has told the moving story of how his faith sustained him through the deaths of his first wife , his daughter , and his son .
But yes , there is a candidate without real religion or Christian morality .
His name is Donald Trump .
Omarosa Manigault Newman , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minister , put it this way : “ Donald Trump has no knowledge of the Bible at all .
It might as well be a paper brick to him.
” After Trump said that public schools should offer the “ option ” of Bible study , a pastor tweeted : In her recent book , his niece quotes his sister Maryanne : “ The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there.
” Trump ’ s ignorance of religion is comical .
In 2015 , when a reporter asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he declined by saying “ it ’ s very personal.
” Watch the video .
If you ’ re a teacher , you have seen that body language from students who haven ’ t done the assigned reading .
What ’ s more troubling is that he scorns the moral teachings of the faith that he pretends to believe in .
The New Testament warns against hatred : “ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar ” ( 1 John 4:20 ) .
Trump preaches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was persecuting the wrongly accused ( and then wrongly convicted ) Central Park Five , he said : “ I hate these people and let ’ s all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we ’ re gon na get something done.
” Perhaps the most famous of Jesus ’ moral teachings is : “ If someone slaps you on one cheek , turn to them the other also ” ( Luke 6:29 ) .
In 2012 , Trump tweeted : “ When someone attacks me , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100x more .
This has nothing to do with a tirade but rather , a way of life !
” Lest anyone miss the point about Trump ’ s repudiation of Jesus ’ words , see a tweet from 2013 : “ What happened to ‘ turn the other cheek ?
’ Sorry , not a believer !
” Think about that .
Presented with the words of the religious figure that he claims to worship , he sneered , “ Sorry , not a believer !
” Trump stands against the Bible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not commit adultery ?
No further comment necessary .
Bearing false witness ?
By one count earlier this summer , he had made more than 20,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency .
Some of his lies are just silly , such as his ridiculous claim about his inauguration crowd .
Others , like the whoppers that he has told about COVID-19 , are potentially lethal .
And they all fall afoul of biblical morality .
The Book of Proverbs has a verse ( 17:7 ) that seems intended for people like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a godless fool—how much worse lying lips to a ruler !
” The same goes for a New Testament verse ( John 8:44 ) : “ When he lies , he speaks his native language , for he is a liar and the father of lies.
” Trump ’ s business career is a long , sordid tale of graft and grifting .
He has deployed platoons of lawyers so he could stiff his creditors , vendors , and workers .
The Letter of St. James ( 2:6-7 ) describes him well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are exploiting you ?
Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court ?
Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong ?
” Trump was talking nonsense when he suggested that anybody could hurt God .
But it is possible to hurt religion , which he does every day .
Because of his alliance with certain evangelicals , many Americans may equate Christianity with Trumpism—which means they see it as organized hypocrisy .
More than a century and a half @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a faith “ can not share the material strength of the rulers without being burdened with some of the animosity roused against them .
.
.
It does not need their support in order to live , and in serving them it may die .
”

In Ohio on Thursday, Trump described what would happen if Joe Biden became president: “No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God.” That’s an odd charge. Biden is a churchgoing Catholic who has told the moving story of how his faith sustained him through the deaths of his first wife, his daughter, and his son.
But yes, there is a candidate without real religion or Christian morality. His name is Donald Trump.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former Trump aide and an ordained Baptist minister, put it this way: “Donald Trump has no knowledge of the Bible at all. It might as well be a paper brick to him.” After Trump said that public schools should offer the “option” of Bible study, a pastor tweeted:
I was @realDonaldTrump's pastor for 5 years @MarbleChurch. I assure you, he had the "option" to come to Bible study. He never "opted" in. Nor did he ever actually enter the church doors. Not one time. https://t.co/hf06e6LyRz — David Lewicki (@dlewicki) January 29, 2019
In her recent book, his niece quotes his sister Maryanne: “The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there.”
Trump’s ignorance of religion is comical. In 2015, when a reporter asked him to name his favorite Bible verse, he declined by saying “it’s very personal.” Watch the video. If you’re a teacher, you have seen that body language from students who haven’t done the assigned reading.
What’s more troubling is that he scorns the moral teachings of the faith that he pretends to believe in. The New Testament warns against hatred: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar” (1 John 4:20). Trump preaches hatred. In 1989, when he was persecuting the wrongly accused (and then wrongly convicted) Central Park Five, he said: “I hate these people and let’s all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we’re gonna get something done.”
Perhaps the most famous of Jesus’ moral teachings is: “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also” (Luke 6:29). In 2012, Trump tweeted: “When someone attacks me, I always attack back . . . except 100x more. This has nothing to do with a tirade but rather, a way of life!” Lest anyone miss the point about Trump’s repudiation of Jesus’ words, see a tweet from 2013: “What happened to ‘turn the other cheek?’ Sorry, not a believer!”
Think about that. Presented with the words of the religious figure that he claims to worship, he sneered, “Sorry, not a believer!”
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Trump stands against the Bible in many other ways. Thou shalt not commit adultery? No further comment necessary. Bearing false witness? By one count earlier this summer, he had made more than 20,000 false or misleading statements during his presidency. Some of his lies are just silly, such as his ridiculous claim about his inauguration crowd. Others, like the whoppers that he has told about COVID-19, are potentially lethal. And they all fall afoul of biblical morality. The Book of Proverbs has a verse (17:7) that seems intended for people like Trump: “Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—how much worse lying lips to a ruler!” The same goes for a New Testament verse (John 8:44): “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Trump’s business career is a long, sordid tale of graft and grifting. He has deployed platoons of lawyers so he could stiff his creditors, vendors, and workers. The Letter of St. James (2:6-7) describes him well: “Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?”
Trump was talking nonsense when he suggested that anybody could hurt God. But it is possible to hurt religion, which he does every day. Because of his alliance with certain evangelicals, many Americans may equate Christianity with Trumpism—which means they see it as organized hypocrisy. More than a century and a half ago, Alexis de Tocqueville warned that a faith “cannot share the material strength of the rulers without being burdened with some of the animosity roused against them . . . It does not need their support in order to live, and in serving them it may die.”


thebulwark--2020-08-08--Europe’s Last Dictator Is in Trouble

Europe’s Last Dictator Is in Trouble

Kiev In 1994 , a 39-year old Aleksandr Lukashenko , a former kolkhoz ( collective farm ) director , became the first democratically elected president of the former Belarus Soviet republic by campaigning on an anti-corruption platform and riding a tide of popular discontent over early 1990s hyperinflation .
Election monitors and western observers dubbed his victory as the first absolutely free , unfettered , democratic elections in the nation ’ s history .
They were also the last .
Almost as soon as he assumed office , Lukashenko began dismembering the democratic institutions and constitutional guarantees that had allowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ reelection ” to a second term in 2001 was marred by charges of widespread manipulation and falsification of the vote count—plus accusations of intimidation tactics employed by the security services .
This scenario has been repeated in each successive election .
Lukashenko has consistently utilized state mechanisms under his control in order to remain in power for 26 years .
During this time , any potential contender or critic who emerged in Belarus was either jailed on fabricated charges , bullied into submission , forced to flee the country or—in several cases—died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of Lukashenko ’ s opponents was not only jailed , but was also threatened with a 10-day stint in a special punishment cell for the crime of “ refusing to sign a confession.
” All of which earned Lukashenko the title of “ Europe ’ s last dictator.
” Few expected that Lukashenko would have trouble being reelected for a sixth term this coming Sunday , on August 9 .
And yet , the combination of a population suffering under years of a flagging economy and growing corruption has caused an undercurrent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organised and united opposition—which has been further propelled by Lukashenko ’ s almost comical response to the COVID-19 pandemic .
Rather than assembling initiatives of government assistance for various business sectors or subsidizing medical services , Lukashenko stated that his citizens should “ just drink vodka ” and that “ tractor vylechit vsekh.
” Which translates as : “ Driving a tractor can cure everyone.
” By the beginning of the summer , opposition candidates saw an opening and started positioning themselves to challenge his presidential bid .
The Belarus strongman turned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the usual suspects.
” Those detained numbered more than 100 persons and include both potential opposition candidates and prominent pro-democracy activists .
But what happened next was unexpected .
Three female and largely political novices – the wives of two of the three most serious contenders and a female senior aide to the third candidate—joined forces and gave birth to the candidacy of a former English teacher , Svetlana Tikhanovskaya .
She is the 37-year old wife of the imprisoned popular blogger and intended presidential candidate , Sergei Tikhanovskiy , and had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tsepkalo , the wife of one of Valeriy Tsepkalo , a former Belarus Ambassador to the U.S. who is now in Moscow to avoid being jailed by Lukashenko , and Maria Kolesnikova , a deputy on the staff of the other jailed candidate , former banker Viktor Babaryka , have both endorsed her campaign .
The three have made numerous appearances together as a trio of voices calling for an end to Lukashenko ’ s rule .
And her rallies have drawn tens of thousands of supporters , much to the chagrin of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numbers on the race are hard to pin down , because polling in Belarus is heavily restricted and only a small number of polling companies are legally permitted to operate in country .
But the polls that have been taken show that Lukashenko ’ s trust factor among the people in Minsk was rated as low as 24 percent in April .
Other polling suggests he will garner no more than 35 percent of the vote , which , if true , would give Tikhanovskaya a chance to beat him .
Tikhanovskaya has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ head of state .
The goal of her campaign is to remove Lukashenko , release Belarus ’ s ever-expanding population of political prisoners , re-instate the Belarussian constitution as it existed before 1996—and then hold free , legitimate elections within six months that would allow all of the currently jailed opposition candidates to participate .
For a country that has spent 26 years in the grip of a strongman , this is a broadly attractive platform .
One of the factors that has increased the movement against Lukashenko has been an organized group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kiev , since Ukraine has become literally the only former Soviet republic to have competitive elections and some level of freedom of expression .
The number of political refugees from Russia , Belarus , and other former Soviet republics has caused more than one western observer to describe this city as “ Casablanca without the heroes.
” Last month , a hero finally arrived in the form of Vadim Prokopiev , a former-military businessman famous for both brilliant creativity and dedication to perfection .
He has become one of the most successful restaurateurs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Casablanca .
( Full disclosure : I have known Prokopiev for almost 20 years and am an unabashed admirer of his business skills and principled manner . )
Prokopiev launched a campaign against Lukashenko in Minsk through a video address he made as the head of the Belarus restaurant owners association criticising the government ’ s lack of any effective response to the COVID-19 crisis .
But his speech was slyly aimed aimed at ( and resonated with ) the military officer corps and security services .
And it touched on numerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Most of the senior officer corps know me from both my military background and my career now as a businessman , ” he said when we spoke recently here in Kiev .
“ After I made this video , they would come up to me on the street , shake my hand and thank me for what I had said—and literally all of them saying that they are completely fed up with this regime.
” Upon his arrival here , Prokopiev proceeded to make a series of black-and-white film noir-inspired video addresses to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenging Lukashenko to a boxing match , imploring the elites in Belarus to change the regime , and even addressing Lukashenko ’ s 16-year old son and urging him to choose his own path and not accept the life his father ’ s dictatorship is creating for him .
The videos have since seen millions of views despite relentless attempts by Belarus state-sponsored cyber attackers to disable them .
On Sunday , we will see just how far Lukashenko is willing to go to keep the country in his grip .
Correction : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : The piece originally said that the wife of Viktor Babaryka had endorsed the Tikhanovskaya campaign .
The endorsement came from Maria Kolesnikova , a deputy on the staff of Babaryka , not Babaryka ’ s wife .
The piece has been changed accordingly .

Kyiv
In 1994, a 39-year old Aleksandr Lukashenko, a former kolkhoz (collective farm) director, became the first democratically elected president of the former Belarus Soviet republic by campaigning on an anti-corruption platform and riding a tide of popular discontent over early 1990s hyperinflation. Election monitors and western observers dubbed his victory as the first absolutely free, unfettered, democratic elections in the nation’s history.
They were also the last.
Almost as soon as he assumed office, Lukashenko began dismembering the democratic institutions and constitutional guarantees that had allowed him to capture the presidency. His “reelection” to a second term in 2001 was marred by charges of widespread manipulation and falsification of the vote count—plus accusations of intimidation tactics employed by the security services.
This scenario has been repeated in each successive election. Lukashenko has consistently utilized state mechanisms under his control in order to remain in power for 26 years.
During this time, any potential contender or critic who emerged in Belarus was either jailed on fabricated charges, bullied into submission, forced to flee the country or—in several cases—died under mysterious circumstances. In 2012, one of Lukashenko’s opponents was not only jailed, but was also threatened with a 10-day stint in a special punishment cell for the crime of “refusing to sign a confession.”
All of which earned Lukashenko the title of “Europe’s last dictator.”
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Few expected that Lukashenko would have trouble being reelected for a sixth term this coming Sunday, on August 9.
And yet, the combination of a population suffering under years of a flagging economy and growing corruption has caused an undercurrent of discontent to spill congeal into an organised and united opposition—which has been further propelled by Lukashenko’s almost comical response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than assembling initiatives of government assistance for various business sectors or subsidizing medical services, Lukashenko stated that his citizens should “just drink vodka” and that “tractor vylechit vsekh.” Which translates as: “Driving a tractor can cure everyone.”
By the beginning of the summer, opposition candidates saw an opening and started positioning themselves to challenge his presidential bid.
The Belarus strongman turned to his tried-and-true method of “round up the usual suspects.” Those detained numbered more than 100 persons and include both potential opposition candidates and prominent pro-democracy activists.
But what happened next was unexpected. Three female and largely political novices – the wives of two of the three most serious contenders and a female senior aide to the third candidate—joined forces and gave birth to the candidacy of a former English teacher, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. She is the 37-year old wife of the imprisoned popular blogger and intended presidential candidate, Sergei Tikhanovskiy, and had been a complete unknown until May.
Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of one of Valeriy Tsepkalo, a former Belarus Ambassador to the U.S. who is now in Moscow to avoid being jailed by Lukashenko, and Maria Kolesnikova, a deputy on the staff of the other jailed candidate, former banker Viktor Babaryka, have both endorsed her campaign. The three have made numerous appearances together as a trio of voices calling for an end to Lukashenko’s rule.
And her rallies have drawn tens of thousands of supporters, much to the chagrin of the Lukashenko government.
The actual poll numbers on the race are hard to pin down, because polling in Belarus is heavily restricted and only a small number of polling companies are legally permitted to operate in country. But the polls that have been taken show that Lukashenko’s trust factor among the people in Minsk was rated as low as 24 percent in April. Other polling suggests he will garner no more than 35 percent of the vote, which, if true, would give Tikhanovskaya a chance to beat him.
Tikhanovskaya has no ambitions to become the permanent Belarusian head of state. The goal of her campaign is to remove Lukashenko, release Belarus’s ever-expanding population of political prisoners, re-instate the Belarussian constitution as it existed before 1996—and then hold free, legitimate elections within six months that would allow all of the currently jailed opposition candidates to participate.
For a country that has spent 26 years in the grip of a strongman, this is a broadly attractive platform.
One of the factors that has increased the movement against Lukashenko has been an organized group of opposition figures who have gravitated to Kiev, since Ukraine has become literally the only former Soviet republic to have competitive elections and some level of freedom of expression. The number of political refugees from Russia, Belarus, and other former Soviet republics has caused more than one western observer to describe this city as “Casablanca without the heroes.”
Last month, a hero finally arrived in the form of Vadim Prokopiev, a former-military businessman famous for both brilliant creativity and dedication to perfection. He has become one of the most successful restaurateurs in this region—a modern-day incarnation of Rick from Casablanca. (Full disclosure: I have known Prokopiev for almost 20 years and am an unabashed admirer of his business skills and principled manner.)
Prokopiev launched a campaign against Lukashenko in Minsk through a video address he made as the head of the Belarus restaurant owners association criticising the government’s lack of any effective response to the COVID-19 crisis. But his speech was slyly aimed aimed at (and resonated with) the military officer corps and security services. And it touched on numerous other long-term grievances against Lukashenko.
“Most of the senior officer corps know me from both my military background and my career now as a businessman,” he said when we spoke recently here in Kiev. “After I made this video, they would come up to me on the street, shake my hand and thank me for what I had said—and literally all of them saying that they are completely fed up with this regime.”
Upon his arrival here, Prokopiev proceeded to make a series of black-and-white film noir-inspired video addresses to the people of Belarus. These include challenging Lukashenko to a boxing match, imploring the elites in Belarus to change the regime, and even addressing Lukashenko’s 16-year old son and urging him to choose his own path and not accept the life his father’s dictatorship is creating for him.
The videos have since seen millions of views despite relentless attempts by Belarus state-sponsored cyber attackers to disable them.
On Sunday, we will see just how far Lukashenko is willing to go to keep the country in his grip.
Correction: April 8, 2020, 11:59 a.m.: The piece originally said that the wife of Viktor Babaryka had endorsed the Tikhanovskaya campaign. The endorsement came from Maria Kolesnikova, a deputy on the staff of Babaryka, not Babaryka’s wife. The piece has been changed accordingly.


thebulwark--2020-08-08--Jerry Falwell’s Zipper Has Been Down for Years

The board of trustees of Liberty University announced on Friday that the president and chancellor of the university , Jerry Falwell Jr. , had assented to the board ’ s request to take “ an indefinite leave of absence ” from both positions , “ effective immediately.
” The board ’ s request followed several days in which Falwell had been widely criticized in the news and on social media .
By now you have probably seen the vacation picture that Falwell posted to Instagram earlier in the week standing next to his wife ’ s assistant , a young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with underwear visible ) and his arm around her waist .
Nobody really knows why he did it .
Maybe parodies of the show Trailer Park Boys are excused from the normal rules of decency , maybe he was trying to empathize with a pregnant woman , or maybe Falwell was under the influence of the mysterious “ black water ” ( as he called it ) that he was holding .
Liberty students have performed excellent research calculating the fines that the university would have slapped on Falwell ’ s picture had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Others have discussed the absurdity of Falwell ’ s refusal to live by his own school ’ s code of conduct .
As a recent Liberty graduate , I am frustrated beyond words .
That these things need to be said at all shows that Falwell has sunk pretty far .
The decision by the board to ask Falwell to take a leave comes as a pleasant surprise : It ’ s nice to know that he ’ s finally facing consequences , however lenient and temporary , for his actions .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ board nor members of Liberty ’ s administrative and student leadership ( many of whom , to be fair , live in fear of social exile and job loss ) have historically shown backbone in standing up to Falwell .
Let ’ s be clear : The problem with Jerry Falwell Jr. isn ’ t that he occasionally makes clownishly inept , crude posts on social media .
It ’ s bigger than that .
Falwell ’ s zipper has been down for years .
The Liberty community has always looked at Falwell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He ’ s always shown us too much .
For instance , Falwell has explicitly said that he takes no responsibility for the spiritual growth of Liberty students , even though the school is a Christian university .
A loyal supporter of Donald Trump , Falwell has openly said that his political activities are not influenced at all by his faith .
He called a Liberty parent—which is to say , someone who helps pay his salary—a “ dummy.
” He told one well-known evangelical pastor to “ grow a pair , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to speak “ on any subject.
” Falwell even told Liberty students to “ Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar ’ s , ” then threw his support behind a bizarre plan for Virginia counties to secede from the state and join West Virginia .
“ But he ’ s been really good for the school !
” Falwell ’ s defenders stammer .
“ Enrollment has gone up every year !
” That ’ s a ridiculous metric : As long as a college has the unused space to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increase enrollment year by year without that number meaning anything about educational standards or the number of applicants to the school .
In fact , since 2015 ( the year Falwell became nationally famous for his support of Trump and a comment about shooting Muslims ) , freshman applications to Liberty have dropped by a whopping 60 percent .
Transfer applications have declined too , by 30 percent .
If you ’ re following the math , this means that higher enrollment reflects higher acceptance rates , not some kind of Falwell-induced higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has an online school too , where enrollment has trended down over the last five years ( there was an anomalous spike last year that allowed Falwell to boast about record-setting enrollment , and we ’ ll likely see another spike this year because of COVID-19 ) .
Last year , Falwell made deep cuts to the School of Divinity ( supposedly because of money ) ; this year , he eliminated Liberty ’ s philosophy department ( money again ) .
He received pushback about the online school ’ s academic degradation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says he won a “ big victory ” by figuring out how to “ tame the faculty.
” Liberty spends far less than peer schools on student instruction , while Liberty professors have no tenure and are employed on one-year contracts .
It ’ s widely known that school ’ s faculty is overworked and underpaid , but Falwell doesn ’ t prioritize them : Two years ago , he said online teaching compensation ( a vital source of income for many faculty members ) would “ soon ” go up by 30 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the latest faculty pay schedule .
But along the way , Falwell has been really great at growing the endowment , and that ’ s awesome , because money means power .
Money and power , by the way , are the two things Falwell really cares about .
He constantly brags about his access to President Trump , Kanye West , and others .
You should see what he thinks of poor people .
In his pursuit of status and material well-being , Falwell has done catastrophic damage to my school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to notice : It ’ s now not uncommon , despite a culture of fear that is still present at the school , to see students , faculty , and in one case , a group of 30-plus black alumni leaders—including pastors—speak out against Falwell .
This is good and necessary .
Until now , board members have stayed largely silent , apparently thinking that Falwell Jr. is the right person to carry out the vision his father had in founding the university .
Student leaders , who get special treatment ( parking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perceive themselves as having access and influence as a result of their proximity to administration officials , also rationalize their silence about Falwell .
( As a student government leader for four years , I did , too , for a while . )
And disturbingly , the school ’ s spiritual leaders , many of them privately opposed to Falwell , persuade students that their moral convictions aren ’ t worth pursuing—a worrying indicator of how Falwell ’ s presence is having a chilling effect on the moral formation of Liberty ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Falwell is virtually impossible , so the culture that supports him is constructed with layers of flimsy , culturally accepted truths about faith , politics , media bias , and loyalty that make Falwell out to be the hero , the victim , and an unassailable authority figure all rolled into one .
Really , the only unassailably true things about Falwell are that he dismisses his faith at every turn , disavows his spiritual responsibility , and finds great fulfillment in the pursuit of political influence and prosperity .
Just watch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all LU students ) and note how Falwell is ever-absent for the sermons but ever-present for the politics .
Beyond the spiritual dimensions of Falwell ’ s failure , it ’ s worth noting that an average person would be fired if they damaged the reputation of their employer half as much as Falwell has .
To my fellow members of the Liberty community : If anyone tries to downplay this latest incident to you ( and they will ; take my word for it ) , you should gently remind them that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t just a one-off parody but part of a long pattern .
According to Falwell , his Instagram post was embarrassing to the young woman he was pictured with , but not to Falwell himself .
And why would he be embarrassed ?
After all , Falwell ’ s zipper has been down for a long time .
We ’ ve seen everything , and it ’ s too disturbing to stay quiet .

The board of trustees of Liberty University announced on Friday that the president and chancellor of the university, Jerry Falwell Jr., had assented to the board’s request to take “an indefinite leave of absence” from both positions, “effective immediately.” The board’s request followed several days in which Falwell had been widely criticized in the news and on social media.
By now you have probably seen the vacation picture that Falwell posted to Instagram earlier in the week standing next to his wife’s assistant, a young woman, with his pants unzipped (with underwear visible) and his arm around her waist. Nobody really knows why he did it. Maybe parodies of the show Trailer Park Boys are excused from the normal rules of decency, maybe he was trying to empathize with a pregnant woman, or maybe Falwell was under the influence of the mysterious “black water” (as he called it) that he was holding.
Liberty students have performed excellent research calculating the fines that the university would have slapped on Falwell’s picture had it been posted by a student. Others have discussed the absurdity of Falwell’s refusal to live by his own school’s code of conduct. As a recent Liberty graduate, I am frustrated beyond words. That these things need to be said at all shows that Falwell has sunk pretty far.
The decision by the board to ask Falwell to take a leave comes as a pleasant surprise: It’s nice to know that he’s finally facing consequences, however lenient and temporary, for his actions. The outcome is especially surprising because neither the board nor members of Liberty’s administrative and student leadership (many of whom, to be fair, live in fear of social exile and job loss) have historically shown backbone in standing up to Falwell.
Let’s be clear: The problem with Jerry Falwell Jr. isn’t that he occasionally makes clownishly inept, crude posts on social media. It’s bigger than that. Falwell’s zipper has been down for years.
The Liberty community has always looked at Falwell and seen things that made us uncomfortable. He’s always shown us too much. For instance, Falwell has explicitly said that he takes no responsibility for the spiritual growth of Liberty students, even though the school is a Christian university. A loyal supporter of Donald Trump, Falwell has openly said that his political activities are not influenced at all by his faith. He called a Liberty parent—which is to say, someone who helps pay his salary—a “dummy.” He told one well-known evangelical pastor to “grow a pair,” and chided another for being unqualified to speak “on any subject.” Falwell even told Liberty students to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” then threw his support behind a bizarre plan for Virginia counties to secede from the state and join West Virginia.
Podcast · August 15 2023 A.B. Stoddard: All the Ex-President’s Conspirators Donald Trump has been a low-rent mobster for his entire career, and now he’s getting…
“But he’s been really good for the school!” Falwell’s defenders stammer. “Enrollment has gone up every year!” That’s a ridiculous metric: As long as a college has the unused space to take more students, the school can arbitrarily increase enrollment year by year without that number meaning anything about educational standards or the number of applicants to the school. In fact, since 2015 (the year Falwell became nationally famous for his support of Trump and a comment about shooting Muslims), freshman applications to Liberty have dropped by a whopping 60 percent. Transfer applications have declined too, by 30 percent. If you’re following the math, this means that higher enrollment reflects higher acceptance rates, not some kind of Falwell-induced higher interest in Liberty University. L.U. has an online school too, where enrollment has trended down over the last five years (there was an anomalous spike last year that allowed Falwell to boast about record-setting enrollment, and we’ll likely see another spike this year because of COVID-19).
Last year, Falwell made deep cuts to the School of Divinity (supposedly because of money); this year, he eliminated Liberty’s philosophy department (money again). He received pushback about the online school’s academic degradation, but not to worry, he says he won a “big victory” by figuring out how to “tame the faculty.” Liberty spends far less than peer schools on student instruction, while Liberty professors have no tenure and are employed on one-year contracts. It’s widely known that school’s faculty is overworked and underpaid, but Falwell doesn’t prioritize them: Two years ago, he said online teaching compensation (a vital source of income for many faculty members) would “soon” go up by 30 percent. That never happened, according to the latest faculty pay schedule. But along the way, Falwell has been really great at growing the endowment, and that’s awesome, because money means power.
Money and power, by the way, are the two things Falwell really cares about. He constantly brags about his access to President Trump, Kanye West, and others. You should see what he thinks of poor people. In his pursuit of status and material well-being, Falwell has done catastrophic damage to my school’s image. People are starting to notice: It’s now not uncommon, despite a culture of fear that is still present at the school, to see students, faculty, and in one case, a group of 30-plus black alumni leaders—including pastors—speak out against Falwell. This is good and necessary.
Until now, board members have stayed largely silent, apparently thinking that Falwell Jr. is the right person to carry out the vision his father had in founding the university. Student leaders, who get special treatment (parking passes, perks from athletics) and perceive themselves as having access and influence as a result of their proximity to administration officials, also rationalize their silence about Falwell. (As a student government leader for four years, I did, too, for a while.) And disturbingly, the school’s spiritual leaders, many of them privately opposed to Falwell, persuade students that their moral convictions aren’t worth pursuing—a worrying indicator of how Falwell’s presence is having a chilling effect on the moral formation of Liberty’s students. Mounting a sincere defense of Falwell is virtually impossible, so the culture that supports him is constructed with layers of flimsy, culturally accepted truths about faith, politics, media bias, and loyalty that make Falwell out to be the hero, the victim, and an unassailable authority figure all rolled into one.
Really, the only unassailably true things about Falwell are that he dismisses his faith at every turn, disavows his spiritual responsibility, and finds great fulfillment in the pursuit of political influence and prosperity. Just watch Convocation (the twice-weekly event required for all LU students) and note how Falwell is ever-absent for the sermons but ever-present for the politics. Beyond the spiritual dimensions of Falwell’s failure, it’s worth noting that an average person would be fired if they damaged the reputation of their employer half as much as Falwell has.
To my fellow members of the Liberty community: If anyone tries to downplay this latest incident to you (and they will; take my word for it), you should gently remind them that Falwell’s recent public indecency isn’t just a one-off parody but part of a long pattern. According to Falwell, his Instagram post was embarrassing to the young woman he was pictured with, but not to Falwell himself. And why would he be embarrassed? After all, Falwell’s zipper has been down for a long time. We’ve seen everything, and it’s too disturbing to stay quiet.


thebulwark--2020-08-09--What if It’s All Burned Down Already?

What if It’s All Burned Down Already?

As it looks increasingly likely that President Trump is going to lose reelection in November , the attention of disgruntled Republicans has moved down the ballot .
Hence the “ Burn It All Down ” debate : To what extent should Trump ’ s failures be taken out on the rest of the Republican party ?
Mona Charen , for example , argues that “ the only thing that will send a message to the Republican party commensurate with its moral abdication over the past four years is to lose in a landslide .
Not just Trump , but his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I suspect this debate is academic .
A lot of voters have already decided to extend their disgust with Trump to other Republican officer-holders , and as we saw in 2018 , they ’ re doing it indiscriminately .
So we may not have to worry about burning down the Republican congressional majority .
The voters are going to do that for us whether we think it ’ s a good idea or not .
That ’ s why it ’ s a mistake to look at this question on a purely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right is : What if it ’ s all burned down already ?
What if it ’ s not just Republican majorities in Congress or in the statehouses that are in danger ?
What if the underlying ideological coalition of the right has been shattered ?
And what if it ’ s not going to come back together again ?
The unspoken premise behind the current “ Burn It All Down ” debate is that this coalition will come back together .
Many NeverTrump conservatives want to burn the party down , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coalition can be magically reborn from the ashes .
I ’ m not so sure that ’ s going to happen .
The old coalition was the product of conservative “ fusionism , ” which tried to draw together the religious right , free marketers , and anti-communist foreign policy hawks—all of them held together , particularly in later years , by a kind of cultural populism .
One of the things that united all three wings was that they were looked down upon by people in highbrow cultural institutions .
So a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot of work papering over genuine ideological divides within the coalition .
But the ideological rifts remained , and the Trump era has blown them wide open .
I don ’ t think they ’ re going to be glued back together .
What has opened the rift is the rise of an openly illiberal vein of conservatism .
Haven ’ t conservatives alway railed against “ liberals ” ?
Yes—while also crowing loudly about how much they love freedom .
From a philosophical , historical , and international perspective—pretty much everywhere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always meant “ pro-freedom ” and usually described the more pro-free-market party—this makes no sense .
But American conservatives long ago accepted the left ’ s attempt to rebrand itself as “ liberal ” and used that term to describe the entire agenda of expansive government as “ liberal.
” This historic mistake left an opening for a wing of conservatism to turn against freedom itself .
This is driven by the frustration of a subset of religious conservatives who believe that the “ fusionist ” coalition ripped them off .
As they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with secular free-marketers in a partnership where everyone was supposed to benefit , but while free-markets got tax cuts , the religious conservatives got gay marriage and a precipitous decline in religious belief .
This case vastly overstates what free-marketers have gotten : I don ’ t know a free-marketer who thinks we ’ ve won a major political battle since the 1990s .
It ’ s also a bit of an exercise in excuse-making .
Keeping the flock in the fold is primarily a job of persuasion and , well , evangelization @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be waged primarily in the culture , not in Washington .
But having lost the war out in the countryside , there is a group of religious conservatives who want to turn to politics in the ( delusional ) belief that if only they can control the government , then they will turn back the secular tide .
There are some who argue , quite plausibly , that the opposite it true : That it is this association of religion with partisan politics that is driving many people away from the faith .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ upshot is that the fusion between religious conservatives and free-marketers—their sense of having a common cause that keeps them together—has been broken .
And the religious conservatives aren ’ t getting along much better with the hawks .
Those who think government should be using its power to impose traditional values and religious belief have a tendency to be sympathetic to authoritarian regimes , such as Russia or Hungary , which claim to be doing the same .
These are broad generalizations with many exceptions .
But like most generalizations , they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of what ’ s happening .
These divisions filter out to the masses through Trump apologists such as Tucker Carlson , whose whole show is dedicated to promoting an illiberal perspective in which Big Business is more of a villain than Big Government , and the only problem with Elizabeth Warren is that she ’ s on the wrong side of the Culture War .
While Trump is resolutely anti-intellectual , some of the more ideological , big-picture politicians are trying to give a coherent shape to the politics of his era .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Marco Rubio , who has briskly moved from Reaganesque fusionism to nationalist “ common good capitalism.
” Moreover , Trump ’ s big selling point was his willingness to throw out good manners , yet good manners—and yes , a little hypocrisy—are part of what helps keep an ideological and political coalition together .
It may be necessary , once in a while , for a politician to sell out one faction of his coalition .
But a prudent politician will do it while still assuring them how much he values and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An ideological coalition depends on manners that maintain a degree of mutual respect and the sense that we are all on the same side .
Built on that , there is also usually a network of personal friendships and professional partnerships that keep the factions tied to one another .
Trump ’ s unique genius for constant conflict has broken many of those connections apart .
The result is that the ideological factions of the right are more at odds than they have been in at least 50 years—since the factional conflict between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back in the 1960s .
What if the rift can ’ t be repaired ?
The chaos on the right isn ’ t happening in a vacuum .
The ideological coalition of the left is experiencing a rift of its own , one that is opening up between the illiberal left , with its mania for social media mobs and censorship , and the “ liberal ” center-left that has recently stood up in favor of “ open debate.
” A lot of these center-left types are also hoping for some kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The pro-free speech liberals who are rebelling against “ cancel culture ” often seem like they just want to rewind the clock 10 or 20 years , to the last time mainstream left-of-center culture was hospitable to them .
I don ’ t think they ’ re going to put the pieces of their ideological coalition back together any more successfully than the right will .
And that raises some interesting possibilities .
We are in a period of chaos in which the old ideological coalitions are falling apart as their different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creeds .
At the same time , this offers an opportunity for the formation of new ideological coalitions .
There has already been some speculation that the alliances of convenience between the center-left and the NeverTrump right could persist beyond the Trump administration .
Certainly , both the left and the right have relatively liberal factions that are not being well-served by their current leadership and are increasingly at odds with their respective illiberal factions .
What if they could find common cause precisely around this principle of liberalism—that is , the advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the group often referred to contemptuously by the far left as “ neoliberals ” —old-fashioned liberals who still believe in free speech and are willing to grasp that the free market has some significant value—and the “ classical liberals ” currently despised on the right by the rising nationalist faction ?
That ’ s the sort of deeper strategic thinking we need to start doing .
Let ’ s start thinking less about political parties and more about the ideological coalitions that lie beneath them .
And rather than debating whether we want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s start talking about whether we want to build up something new .

As it looks increasingly likely that President Trump is going to lose reelection in November, the attention of disgruntled Republicans has moved down the ballot. Hence the “Burn It All Down” debate: To what extent should Trump’s failures be taken out on the rest of the Republican party?
Mona Charen, for example, argues that “the only thing that will send a message to the Republican party commensurate with its moral abdication over the past four years is to lose in a landslide. Not just Trump, but his silent enablers too.”
To some extent, I suspect this debate is academic. A lot of voters have already decided to extend their disgust with Trump to other Republican officer-holders, and as we saw in 2018, they’re doing it indiscriminately. So we may not have to worry about burning down the Republican congressional majority. The voters are going to do that for us whether we think it’s a good idea or not.
That’s why it’s a mistake to look at this question on a purely electoral level. The real question for the right is: What if it’s all burned down already? What if it’s not just Republican majorities in Congress or in the statehouses that are in danger?
What if the underlying ideological coalition of the right has been shattered?
And what if it’s not going to come back together again?
Podcast · August 15 2023 A.B. Stoddard: All the Ex-President’s Conspirators Donald Trump has been a low-rent mobster for his entire career, and now he’s getting…
The unspoken premise behind the current “Burn It All Down” debate is that this coalition will come back together. Many NeverTrump conservatives want to burn the party down, but only so the old Reagan-era ideological coalition can be magically reborn from the ashes. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen.
The old coalition was the product of conservative “fusionism,” which tried to draw together the religious right, free marketers, and anti-communist foreign policy hawks—all of them held together, particularly in later years, by a kind of cultural populism. One of the things that united all three wings was that they were looked down upon by people in highbrow cultural institutions. So a contempt for “coastal elites” did a lot of work papering over genuine ideological divides within the coalition.
But the ideological rifts remained, and the Trump era has blown them wide open. I don’t think they’re going to be glued back together.
What has opened the rift is the rise of an openly illiberal vein of conservatism.
Haven’t conservatives alway railed against “liberals”? Yes—while also crowing loudly about how much they love freedom. From a philosophical, historical, and international perspective—pretty much everywhere except America, “liberal” has always meant “pro-freedom” and usually described the more pro-free-market party—this makes no sense. But American conservatives long ago accepted the left’s attempt to rebrand itself as “liberal” and used that term to describe the entire agenda of expansive government as “liberal.”
This historic mistake left an opening for a wing of conservatism to turn against freedom itself.
This is driven by the frustration of a subset of religious conservatives who believe that the “fusionist” coalition ripped them off. As they see it, they made common cause with secular free-marketers in a partnership where everyone was supposed to benefit, but while free-markets got tax cuts, the religious conservatives got gay marriage and a precipitous decline in religious belief.
This case vastly overstates what free-marketers have gotten: I don’t know a free-marketer who thinks we’ve won a major political battle since the 1990s. It’s also a bit of an exercise in excuse-making. Keeping the flock in the fold is primarily a job of persuasion and, well, evangelization. The Culture War is supposed to be waged primarily in the culture, not in Washington. But having lost the war out in the countryside, there is a group of religious conservatives who want to turn to politics in the (delusional) belief that if only they can control the government, then they will turn back the secular tide.
There are some who argue, quite plausibly, that the opposite it true: That it is this association of religion with partisan politics that is driving many people away from the faith.
Be that as it may, the upshot is that the fusion between religious conservatives and free-marketers—their sense of having a common cause that keeps them together—has been broken. And the religious conservatives aren’t getting along much better with the hawks. Those who think government should be using its power to impose traditional values and religious belief have a tendency to be sympathetic to authoritarian regimes, such as Russia or Hungary, which claim to be doing the same.
These are broad generalizations with many exceptions. But like most generalizations, they’re useful for understanding the overall outline of what’s happening.
These divisions filter out to the masses through Trump apologists such as Tucker Carlson, whose whole show is dedicated to promoting an illiberal perspective in which Big Business is more of a villain than Big Government, and the only problem with Elizabeth Warren is that she’s on the wrong side of the Culture War.
While Trump is resolutely anti-intellectual, some of the more ideological, big-picture politicians are trying to give a coherent shape to the politics of his era. See the efforts of that human chameleon, Marco Rubio, who has briskly moved from Reaganesque fusionism to nationalist “common good capitalism.”
Moreover, Trump’s big selling point was his willingness to throw out good manners, yet good manners—and yes, a little hypocrisy—are part of what helps keep an ideological and political coalition together. It may be necessary, once in a while, for a politician to sell out one faction of his coalition. But a prudent politician will do it while still assuring them how much he values and appreciates them. Trump targets them.
An ideological coalition depends on manners that maintain a degree of mutual respect and the sense that we are all on the same side. Built on that, there is also usually a network of personal friendships and professional partnerships that keep the factions tied to one another. Trump’s unique genius for constant conflict has broken many of those connections apart.
The result is that the ideological factions of the right are more at odds than they have been in at least 50 years—since the factional conflict between the Goldwater Republicans and the Rockefeller Republicans back in the 1960s.
What if the rift can’t be repaired?
The chaos on the right isn’t happening in a vacuum. The ideological coalition of the left is experiencing a rift of its own, one that is opening up between the illiberal left, with its mania for social media mobs and censorship, and the “liberal” center-left that has recently stood up in favor of “open debate.”
A lot of these center-left types are also hoping for some kind of grand restoration of the status quo ante. The pro-free speech liberals who are rebelling against “cancel culture” often seem like they just want to rewind the clock 10 or 20 years, to the last time mainstream left-of-center culture was hospitable to them.
I don’t think they’re going to put the pieces of their ideological coalition back together any more successfully than the right will.
And that raises some interesting possibilities.
We are in a period of chaos in which the old ideological coalitions are falling apart as their different factions follow the inexorable logic of their creeds. At the same time, this offers an opportunity for the formation of new ideological coalitions.
There has already been some speculation that the alliances of convenience between the center-left and the NeverTrump right could persist beyond the Trump administration. Certainly, both the left and the right have relatively liberal factions that are not being well-served by their current leadership and are increasingly at odds with their respective illiberal factions. What if they could find common cause precisely around this principle of liberalism—that is, the advocacy of freedom?
Could we draw together the group often referred to contemptuously by the far left as “neoliberals”—old-fashioned liberals who still believe in free speech and are willing to grasp that the free market has some significant value—and the “classical liberals” currently despised on the right by the rising nationalist faction?
Call it “neo-classical liberalism.”
That’s the sort of deeper strategic thinking we need to start doing. Let’s start thinking less about political parties and more about the ideological coalitions that lie beneath them.
And rather than debating whether we want to burn something down, let’s start talking about whether we want to build up something new.


thebulwark--2020-08-09--Trump Has a Pen and a Phone

Trump Has a Pen and a Phone

President Trump knows he needs to change the game .
He ’ s deep in the polling hole and can ’ t hold any rallies to boost his confidence .
In search of an attentive audience and the chance to flaunt his presidential powers , he decamped to his New Jersey golf club to see if he could finally get a ball on the green .
Late Friday afternoon , Trump ’ s aides called a last-minute press conference , which managed to become a disaster before he even started speaking .
Members of his club , who pay extravagant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appeared fresh off the golf course , were invited to attend .
They gathered , mostly maskless , and not socially distanced , in violation of state laws .
After a few rounds of tweet shaming from the press , Trump ’ s aides handed out masks and urged them to spread apart .
Because Twitter had informed them that the optics were terrible .
Not because they were committed to public health best practices .
You know how it is .
When Trump started speaking he said , “ Coronavirus is disappearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” So his latest New Serious Tone was gone and he was back to his February happy talk .
When it came time for questions , a reporter inquired : “ You said that the pandemic is disappearing , but we lost 6,000 Americans this week .
And just in this room , you have dozens of people not following the guidelines in New Jersey which say you should not have more than 25 people .
So why are you setting a—why are you setting such a bad example , Mr. President , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that “ They don ’ t have to .
This is a political activity.
” He hammered on , “ It ’ s a peaceful protest.
” The club members laughed , amused by how droll the president of the United States was .
You see , a few weeks ago people—many of them poor or middle-class and decidedly not the kind who join golf clubs—had assembled to demand that armed agents of the government not randomly kill black men and women .
The president sent federal agents into this crowd and had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and beaten .
And now he was saying that , by jove , these very fine golfers are just gathering in their own peaceful protest !
Goose , gander , etc .
But the president was not through owning the libs .
“ I ’ d call it ‘ peaceful protests ’ because they heard you were coming up , ” he continued .
“ And they know the news is fake .
They understand it better than anybody.
” At this point , the club members applauded .
For anyone who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking coronavirus seriously , I have a golf club membership to sell you .
The price of gullibility appears to be around $ 250,000 .
Trump ’ s team liked his Friday event so much that they scheduled a repeat performance on Saturday .
Same venue , same crowd .
Only this time , they made it more “ presidential.
” After riffing on “ Sleepy Joe Biden , ” hyping unproven allegations of voter fraud , and bragging about his still unbuilt border wall , Trump announced a series of executive orders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to defer payroll taxes through the end of the year , provide $ 400-per-week unemployment benefits , suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year , and stop renters from being evicted from their homes .
Will these orders actually be implemented ?
Who can say .
They are likely to be challenged in court because only Congress can authorize spending .
This is a tenet of Constitutional Conservatism that you may have heard some Republican here or there mention in the times before Trump .
When asked by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump said , “ If we get sued , it will be someone who doesn ’ t want people to get the money.
” Are Constitutional Conservatives still bothered by the prospect of a president demolishing the separation of powers as a political stunt ?
Well , no .
Not really .
Mitch McConnell more or less shrugged .
I mean , hey man , what are you going to do ?
Binary choice and all that .
Meanwhile , the coronavirus ravages on .
And Trump considers his next steps from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .
It would be nice to think this is nothing but Trump kicking up a bunch of sand trying to get himself out of the trap .
As he grows more frantic in what are likely to be the final days of his presidency we should expect more erratic moves .
Neither President Trump , nor his campaign , nor his supporters are taking the virus or policy measures required to confront it seriously .
Masks , social distancing , limits of power ?

President Trump knows he needs to change the game. He’s deep in the polling hole and can’t hold any rallies to boost his confidence. In search of an attentive audience and the chance to flaunt his presidential powers, he decamped to his New Jersey golf club to see if he could finally get a ball on the green.
Late Friday afternoon, Trump’s aides called a last-minute press conference, which managed to become a disaster before he even started speaking. Members of his club, who pay extravagant fees to join and many of whom appeared fresh off the golf course, were invited to attend. They gathered, mostly maskless, and not socially distanced, in violation of state laws. After a few rounds of tweet shaming from the press, Trump’s aides handed out masks and urged them to spread apart.
Because Twitter had informed them that the optics were terrible. Not because they were committed to public health best practices. You know how it is.
When Trump started speaking he said, “Coronavirus is disappearing; it’s going to disappear.” So his latest New Serious Tone was gone and he was back to his February happy talk.
When it came time for questions, a reporter inquired: “You said that the pandemic is disappearing, but we lost 6,000 Americans this week. And just in this room, you have dozens of people not following the guidelines in New Jersey which say you should not have more than 25 people. So why are you setting a—why are you setting such a bad example, Mr. President, for the country?”
The club members booed.
Trump scoffed that “They don’t have to. This is a political activity.” He hammered on, “It’s a peaceful protest.”
The club members laughed, amused by how droll the president of the United States was. You see, a few weeks ago people—many of them poor or middle-class and decidedly not the kind who join golf clubs—had assembled to demand that armed agents of the government not randomly kill black men and women. The president sent federal agents into this crowd and had them gassed, pelted with rubber shrapnel, and beaten. And now he was saying that, by jove, these very fine golfers are just gathering in their own peaceful protest! Goose, gander, etc.
But the president was not through owning the libs.
“I’d call it ‘peaceful protests’ because they heard you were coming up,” he continued. “And they know the news is fake. They understand it better than anybody.”
At this point, the club members applauded.
For anyone who says that Trump and his supporters are taking coronavirus seriously, I have a golf club membership to sell you. The price of gullibility appears to be around $250,000.
Podcast · August 15 2023 A.B. Stoddard: All the Ex-President’s Conspirators Donald Trump has been a low-rent mobster for his entire career, and now he’s getting…
Trump’s team liked his Friday event so much that they scheduled a repeat performance on Saturday. Same venue, same crowd. Only this time, they made it more “presidential.”
After riffing on “Sleepy Joe Biden,” hyping unproven allegations of voter fraud, and bragging about his still unbuilt border wall, Trump announced a series of executive orders. He said he would bypass Congress to defer payroll taxes through the end of the year, provide $400-per-week unemployment benefits, suspend payments on some student loans through the end of the year, and stop renters from being evicted from their homes.
Will these orders actually be implemented? Who can say.
They are likely to be challenged in court because only Congress can authorize spending. This is a tenet of Constitutional Conservatism that you may have heard some Republican here or there mention in the times before Trump.
When asked by a reporter about such legal challenges, Trump said, “If we get sued, it will be someone who doesn’t want people to get the money.”
Are Constitutional Conservatives still bothered by the prospect of a president demolishing the separation of powers as a political stunt? Well, no. Not really. Mitch McConnell more or less shrugged. I mean, hey man, what are you going to do? Binary choice and all that.
Mitch McConnell says he supports Trump’s four executive orders — Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) August 8, 2020
Meanwhile, the coronavirus ravages on. And Trump considers his next steps from the resort patio while his adoring members cheer him.
It would be nice to think this is nothing but Trump kicking up a bunch of sand trying to get himself out of the trap. As he grows more frantic in what are likely to be the final days of his presidency we should expect more erratic moves.
Neither President Trump, nor his campaign, nor his supporters are taking the virus or policy measures required to confront it seriously. Masks, social distancing, limits of power?
It’s all optional inside Trump’s club house.


thebulwark--2020-08-10--The Ravings of Mad King Trump

The Ravings of Mad King Trump

To a striking degree , Donald Trump ’ s administration evokes the final days of the mad king of some Ruritanian backwater , spewing splenetic ravings while his shrinking cadre of sycophants struggles to steer their foundering ship of state .
Take these incoherent ruminations from a mid-July press conference : Problem is , he does this pretty much every day .
Emulating a frightened oldster hearing the first , faint echo of senescence like a distant signal on a transistor radio , Trump bragged to Chris Wallace about acing a test designed to detect the onset of Alzheimer ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is different—instead of entering his second childhood , Trump seems never to have left his first .
These recurring scenes from a Peter Sellers movie might have a certain seriocomic fascination had Trump not failed the most serious test of real-world leadership : a rolling public health disaster which has afflicted sickness , death , and privation on many millions of Americans .
Once again , COVID-19 is surging .
Our total number of cases is heading toward 5 million ; our fatalities already exceed 160,000 .
Asks Ed Yong in the Atlantic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answer : “ Trump is a comorbidity of the COVID-19 pandemic .
He isn ’ t solely responsible for America ’ s fiasco , but he is central to it.
” Trump ’ s abdication of responsibility proceeds apace .
He has no national testing strategy ; no plan for the reopened schools he so noisily demands ; no road to reviving the economy ; no disciplined or sustained message about social distancing and wearing masks .
Nothing but the prattling of a self-absorbed child regurgitating willful make-believe—claiming that the virus will disappear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least February , any sane president would have rallied the country to curb the coronavirus before disaster struck , fusing federal power with the expertise of scientists to distribute vital resources , facilitate testing , and develop a national public health regime .
Instead America ’ s ersatz Nero heeded the discordant notes of his own incessant fiddling , downplaying the threat to life and health while spreading disinformation that endangered all who believed him .
In the Washington Post , Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker explain his lethal incapacities : Instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for affirmation from the fever swamp of right-wing media , recycling falsehoods , bogus conspiracies , and patent quackery .
To please his base , he has mocked mask-wearing , campaigned against the public health measures recommended by his own administration , and shifted blame to everyone from the Chinese to Barack Obama .
The only unifying theme is the cosmic self-pity which disqualifies Trump from leadership and destroys his empathy for others—licensing Trump ’ s laser focus on himself as the pandemic ’ s chief victim .
All this creates the bizarre @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview last month with Chris Wallace , in which he asked his press secretary to fortify his own bubble of ignorance : “ I heard we have one of the lowest , maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world.
” So pathetic was this spectacle that , for the moment , Trump descended from the mad king to Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard , insanely fixated on demented self-delusions nurtured by her slavish retainers—which , as with Trump , prove deadly for others .
This raises a frightening question : does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ liar of convenience , or has he become so addicted to his own fantasies that he has taken leave of the world as perceived by normal humans ?
Daily , Trump ’ s statements suggest the latter .
The Washington Post reported but one example : “ In wide-ranging , often erroneous comments on ‘ Fox & Friends , ’ Trump claimed the virus was spreading in a ‘ relatively small portion ” of the country ( it is spreading nearly everywhere ) ; said children are ‘ virtually immune ’ to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and once again insisted the outbreak ‘ will go away like things go away.
’ ” This followed Trump ’ s surreal interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios , a spectacle aptly described by Ryan Bort in Rolling Stone : But for the rest of America , reality bites—hard .
Said Dr. Deborah Birx on CNN : “ What we are seeing today is different from March and April—it is extraordinarily widespread.
” In the latest manifestation of his penchant for projection , Trump called her remarks “ pathetic.
” It fell to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force , Admiral Brett Giroir , to discredit yet again one of Trump ’ s most persistent quack cures : hydroxychloroquine .
Little wonder , then , that public health officials fear Trump will pressure the FDA to approve a vaccine before it is proven safe and effective—which is to say , before November .
Perhaps the most dramatic example of Trump ’ s departure from reality is his failure to comprehend that containing COVID-19 is , and always was , the indispensable prerequisite to reopening the economy .
Particularly astonishing is this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to comprehend his own political self-interest .
Rather than grappling with the linkage between public and economic health , he attempted to transform America into a Disney World wherein the economy could rebound on its own .
Our real-world reward is the largest quarterly economic decline—9.5 percent—in the 70 years since the government began posting such data .
This news broke immediately after our tangerine soothsayer assured us that “ the recovery has been very strong.
” Sixteen-plus million unemployed Americans were no doubt relieved to hear that .
Rationalizing Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his economic adviser Stephen Moore lionized his crippling myopia : “ He ’ s so focused on the big problem , which is getting the economy up and running and trying to get businesses up on their feet .
That ’ s been their priority.
” What ’ s so scary is that Moore is not the biggest fool to advise Trump on the economy .
That distinction goes to the time-tested buffoon Larry Kudlow , who continues to celebrate our “ V-shaped recovery ” despite the ongoing slump driven by COVID-19 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the comprehensive results of such mindless compartmentalization : “ Failed businesses and lost loved ones , empty theme parks and socially distanced funerals , a struggling economy and an unmitigated public-health disaster : This is the worst-of-both-worlds equilibrium the United States finds itself in.
” Trump ’ s refuge from reality is that the stock market is thriving .
But a chasm of privilege separates Wall Street from the real economy .
At least for now , financial institutions and the wealthy are largely insulated from the economic depredations of COVID-19—principally because of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and interventions from a Federal Reserve Trump so often disparages .
But for millions of Americans trapped in this pandemic , work is either dangerous or unavailable .
Trump ’ s indifference to their plight accounts for his abstention from working with Congress to craft a further stimulus bill that would renew enhanced unemployment benefits—which , humanity aside , helped prevent our economy from collapsing altogether .
Democrats proposed such legislation by mid-May ; Trump and his party still have not .
“ Starting this week , ” Robert Reich wrote last week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will no longer receive $ 600 in extra weekly unemployment benefits .
As a result , tens of millions will not be able to make rent or mortgage payments .
More will go hungry , including children .
The economy is likely to slide even further.
” Why delay unemployment benefits ?
Because , Kudlow advises , “ We don ’ t want to create disincentives to work.
” If only we could disincentivize Kudlow—according to Catherine Rampell , five recent expert studies concluded that enhanced unemployment benefits did not inhibit workers from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ named his horse a consul , he included the entire horse .
Cosseted by sycophants like Moore and Kudlow , Trump also floated a proposal so irrelevant that not even Republicans embrace it : a payroll tax cut which , by definition , does nothing for the unemployed .
Instead of engaging with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer , Trump disparages them for seeking to prevent a potential financial collapse of state and local governments that would accelerate unemployment and hamstring the providers of essential services like the K-12 schools which Trump insists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding he so loudly defends , and the hospitals and public health institutions to which he has delegated the brunt of this pandemic .
Instead of trying to find a legislative solution , Trump on Saturday issued four executive orders of dubious constitutionality and design , including deferring payroll taxes through December and providing $ 400 weekly in unemployment aid—part of which would be paid by the cash-strapped states for which he refuses to provide relief .
As the New York Times observed the day before , anticipating Trump ’ s unilateral move @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he had the power to do so without Congress , which controls spending , or that any set of executive actions could stabilize an economy devastated by the pandemic.
” This is dereliction on an epic scale .
But , increasingly , Trump spouts hallucinatory nonsense like a man awaking from a fever-dream .
“ We ’ re going to be doing a very inclusive healthcare plan , ” he said in July .
No such legislation existed—except , perhaps , in Trump ’ s Lotusland of the mind .
Nonetheless , Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ re getting rid of it because we ’ re going to replace it with something much better.
” He would sign a new plan into law “ very soon , ” “ within two weeks ” —or so he promised three weeks ago .
Not to worry .
Trump now promises to reform healthcare by executive order—a literally impossible task which , Lindsey Graham nonetheless assures us , “ he ’ s pretty excited about.
” What is so unnerving about this folie à deux is its utter evanescence .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that such a plan exists—nor , except in his imaginings of monarchical omnipotence , can Trump transform healthcare by presidential fiat .
But there is one larger mercy : Unlike a Ruritanian potentate , America ’ s president must run for re-election .
This goes badly .
Trump ’ s approval ratings are underwater .
In early August , the Washington Post summarized his week : What stands out amid this self-inflicted wreckage is that , as ever , Trump found someone else to blame—the erstwhile genius Parscale .
But this can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but a pathological narcissist : that Trump ’ s most insuperable problems fester within .
Denuded of self-awareness , Trump looks in the mirror and sees himself in the eyes of his adoring base .
But in his suffocating solipsism he refuses to perceive how many Americans will vote against him out of ineradicable loathing .
Instead , Trump demonizes Joe Biden .
Consider this semi-hysterical tweet : One trembles at the thought .
But , on Thursday , Trump further informed us that Biden was out to kill off Christianity , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He ’ s following the radical left agenda , take away your guns , destroy your Second Amendment , no religion , no anything , hurt the Bible , hurt God .
He ’ s against God.
” Even worse , Trump added , “ He ’ s against energy , our kind of energy.
” Such incoherent vituperation captures Trump ’ s central problem : Compared with Trump himself , Biden is Mr. Rogers .
Trump ’ s ad hominem lunacy isn ’ t working , and his time is running out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carolina , and Wisconsin starts in mid-September , and Trump ’ s campaign seems to be writing off Michigan .
In desperation , Trump has declared war on the ultimate reality which separates democracies from monarchies : that , come November 3 , voters will render judgment on his presidency .
Hence his preemptive claims of voter fraud spawned another hallucination—postponing the election itself .
That this would abridge the Constitution eluded America ’ s premier historical illiterate .
What ’ s real is a fear of mail-in balloting so deep that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Trump ’ s solution is to sabotage another of our institutions : the postal service .
The Washington Post reports that his new postmaster general , a Trump mega-donor , is cutting overtime pay , shutting down sorting machines early , and requiring letter carriers to avoid extra trips—all of which operate to delay mail deliveries .
The almost certain effect will be to undermine voting by mail , and therefore the election itself—which is precisely what Trump wants .
Observes the Post : “ A delay in delivering ballots to voters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials could cause people to be disenfranchised—especially in states that require ballots to be returned by Election Day , voting rights experts warn.
” This would force Americans to vote in person at risk of their own health or , Trump ’ s preference , to have their ballots discarded .
This evokes the maddest of monarchs : having abandoned his duties to America , he would trash its democracy to save himself .
Because nothing ever matters to Trump , but Trump .
“ It is what it is , ” Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And what it is , more terrible to say , is the perfect expression of everything Trump is .

To a striking degree, Donald Trump’s administration evokes the final days of the mad king of some Ruritanian backwater, spewing splenetic ravings while his shrinking cadre of sycophants struggles to steer their foundering ship of state.
Take these incoherent ruminations from a mid-July press conference:
But we had, in 2016, something even more so, but we got in, and we had 306 to, I guess, 223, which was a tremendous margin of difference. You remember, they all said, “He cannot get to 270.” I went to Maine a number of times, where we just freed up lobster fishing and fishing. Just—they took away 5,000 square miles from Maine. I just opened it up. And I just got rid of tariffs in China. And we’re working on European Union, which charge our fishermen tariffs. And I said, “You’re not going to do that.” So we freed it up for Maine. But if you take a look, we went up there recently. There were crowds. Thousands of people lined up going over to a factory where we were opening up for—we’re making swabs. A beautiful, big, new factory, making swabs.
Problem is, he does this pretty much every day.
Emulating a frightened oldster hearing the first, faint echo of senescence like a distant signal on a transistor radio, Trump bragged to Chris Wallace about acing a test designed to detect the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia. But his problem is different—instead of entering his second childhood, Trump seems never to have left his first.
These recurring scenes from a Peter Sellers movie might have a certain seriocomic fascination had Trump not failed the most serious test of real-world leadership: a rolling public health disaster which has afflicted sickness, death, and privation on many millions of Americans.
Once again, COVID-19 is surging. Our total number of cases is heading toward 5 million; our fatalities already exceed 160,000. Asks Ed Yong in the Atlantic:
How did it come to this? A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom.
Yong provides the obvious yet appalling answer: “Trump is a comorbidity of the COVID-19 pandemic. He isn’t solely responsible for America’s fiasco, but he is central to it.”
Podcast · August 15 2023 A.B. Stoddard: All the Ex-President’s Conspirators Donald Trump has been a low-rent mobster for his entire career, and now he’s getting…
Trump’s abdication of responsibility proceeds apace. He has no national testing strategy; no plan for the reopened schools he so noisily demands; no road to reviving the economy; no disciplined or sustained message about social distancing and wearing masks. Nothing but the prattling of a self-absorbed child regurgitating willful make-believe—claiming that the virus will disappear or that hydroxychloroquine is great.
By at least February, any sane president would have rallied the country to curb the coronavirus before disaster struck, fusing federal power with the expertise of scientists to distribute vital resources, facilitate testing, and develop a national public health regime. Instead America’s ersatz Nero heeded the discordant notes of his own incessant fiddling, downplaying the threat to life and health while spreading disinformation that endangered all who believed him.
In the Washington Post, Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker explain his lethal incapacities:
People close to Trump, many speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid discussions and impressions, say the president’s inability to wholly address the crisis is due to his almost pathological unwillingness to admit error; a positive feedback loop of overly rosy assessments and data from advisers and Fox News; and a penchant for magical thinking that prevented him from fully engaging with the pandemic.
Instead of listening to science, Trump looks for affirmation from the fever swamp of right-wing media, recycling falsehoods, bogus conspiracies, and patent quackery. To please his base, he has mocked mask-wearing, campaigned against the public health measures recommended by his own administration, and shifted blame to everyone from the Chinese to Barack Obama. The only unifying theme is the cosmic self-pity which disqualifies Trump from leadership and destroys his empathy for others—licensing Trump’s laser focus on himself as the pandemic’s chief victim.
All this creates the bizarre dissociation from reality he exhibited in his interview last month with Chris Wallace, in which he asked his press secretary to fortify his own bubble of ignorance: “I heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world.”
So pathetic was this spectacle that, for the moment, Trump descended from the mad king to Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, insanely fixated on demented self-delusions nurtured by her slavish retainers—which, as with Trump, prove deadly for others. This raises a frightening question: does Trump remain simply a sociopathic and remorseless liar of convenience, or has he become so addicted to his own fantasies that he has taken leave of the world as perceived by normal humans?
Daily, Trump’s statements suggest the latter. The Washington Post reported but one example: “In wide-ranging, often erroneous comments on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Trump claimed the virus was spreading in a ‘relatively small portion” of the country (it is spreading nearly everywhere); said children are ‘virtually immune’ to the virus (they are not); and once again insisted the outbreak ‘will go away like things go away.’”
This followed Trump’s surreal interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, a spectacle aptly described by Ryan Bort in Rolling Stone:
Trump genuinely seems to think at the top of this clip that he’s about to put the idea that he’s mismanaged the pandemic to rest by showing Swan a few charts his aides printed out for him. As Swan soon realizes, Trump is touting that the death rate by the case is lower than in other countries. Far more pertinent, obviously, is the percentage of the American population Trump has let die from COVID-19, as Swan quickly points out. “You can’t do that?” Trump says. “Why can’t I do that?” Swan asks. “You have to go by . . . you have to go by . . .” Trump begins before shuffling some papers and trailing off.
But for the rest of America, reality bites—hard. Said Dr. Deborah Birx on CNN: “What we are seeing today is different from March and April—it is extraordinarily widespread.” In the latest manifestation of his penchant for projection, Trump called her remarks “pathetic.”
It fell to another member of his captive coronavirus task force, Admiral Brett Giroir, to discredit yet again one of Trump’s most persistent quack cures: hydroxychloroquine. Little wonder, then, that public health officials fear Trump will pressure the FDA to approve a vaccine before it is proven safe and effective—which is to say, before November.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of Trump’s departure from reality is his failure to comprehend that containing COVID-19 is, and always was, the indispensable prerequisite to reopening the economy. Particularly astonishing is this most self-interested of president’s failure to comprehend his own political self-interest. Rather than grappling with the linkage between public and economic health, he attempted to transform America into a Disney World wherein the economy could rebound on its own.
Our real-world reward is the largest quarterly economic decline—9.5 percent—in the 70 years since the government began posting such data. This news broke immediately after our tangerine soothsayer assured us that “the recovery has been very strong.” Sixteen-plus million unemployed Americans were no doubt relieved to hear that.
Rationalizing Trump’s failure to deal with the pandemic, his economic adviser Stephen Moore lionized his crippling myopia: “He’s so focused on the big problem, which is getting the economy up and running and trying to get businesses up on their feet. That’s been their priority.”
What’s so scary is that Moore is not the biggest fool to advise Trump on the economy. That distinction goes to the time-tested buffoon Larry Kudlow, who continues to celebrate our “V-shaped recovery” despite the ongoing slump driven by COVID-19.
In the Atlantic, Annie Lowery summarizes the comprehensive results of such mindless compartmentalization: “Failed businesses and lost loved ones, empty theme parks and socially distanced funerals, a struggling economy and an unmitigated public-health disaster: This is the worst-of-both-worlds equilibrium the United States finds itself in.”
Trump’s refuge from reality is that the stock market is thriving. But a chasm of privilege separates Wall Street from the real economy. At least for now, financial institutions and the wealthy are largely insulated from the economic depredations of COVID-19—principally because of prior stimulus spending spearheaded by Democrats, and interventions from a Federal Reserve Trump so often disparages. But for millions of Americans trapped in this pandemic, work is either dangerous or unavailable.
Trump’s indifference to their plight accounts for his abstention from working with Congress to craft a further stimulus bill that would renew enhanced unemployment benefits—which, humanity aside, helped prevent our economy from collapsing altogether. Democrats proposed such legislation by mid-May; Trump and his party still have not. “Starting this week,” Robert Reich wrote last week, “more than 30 million Americans will no longer receive $600 in extra weekly unemployment benefits. As a result, tens of millions will not be able to make rent or mortgage payments. More will go hungry, including children. The economy is likely to slide even further.”
Why delay unemployment benefits? Because, Kudlow advises, “We don’t want to create disincentives to work.”
If only we could disincentivize Kudlow—according to Catherine Rampell, five recent expert studies concluded that enhanced unemployment benefits did not inhibit workers from seeking re-employment. At least when Caligula named his horse a consul, he included the entire horse.
Cosseted by sycophants like Moore and Kudlow, Trump also floated a proposal so irrelevant that not even Republicans embrace it: a payroll tax cut which, by definition, does nothing for the unemployed. Instead of engaging with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Trump disparages them for seeking to prevent a potential financial collapse of state and local governments that would accelerate unemployment and hamstring the providers of essential services like the K-12 schools which Trump insists must re-open, the police departments whose funding he so loudly defends, and the hospitals and public health institutions to which he has delegated the brunt of this pandemic.
Instead of trying to find a legislative solution, Trump on Saturday issued four executive orders of dubious constitutionality and design, including deferring payroll taxes through December and providing $400 weekly in unemployment aid—part of which would be paid by the cash-strapped states for which he refuses to provide relief. As the New York Times observed the day before, anticipating Trump’s unilateral move: “It was not clear that he had the power to do so without Congress, which controls spending, or that any set of executive actions could stabilize an economy devastated by the pandemic.”
This is dereliction on an epic scale. But, increasingly, Trump spouts hallucinatory nonsense like a man awaking from a fever-dream. “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive healthcare plan,” he said in July. No such legislation existed—except, perhaps, in Trump’s Lotusland of the mind. Nonetheless, Trump said to Wallace of Obamacare: “We’re getting rid of it because we’re going to replace it with something much better.” He would sign a new plan into law “very soon,” “within two weeks”—or so he promised three weeks ago.
Not to worry. Trump now promises to reform healthcare by executive order—a literally impossible task which, Lindsey Graham nonetheless assures us, “he’s pretty excited about.”
What is so unnerving about this folie à deux is its utter evanescence. No one else on Capitol Hill can verify that such a plan exists—nor, except in his imaginings of monarchical omnipotence, can Trump transform healthcare by presidential fiat.
But there is one larger mercy: Unlike a Ruritanian potentate, America’s president must run for re-election.
This goes badly. Trump’s approval ratings are underwater. In early August, the Washington Post summarized his week:
A slew of public polls showed Trump falling further behind Biden, who now leads by double digits nationally; Trump demoted his campaign manager Brad Parscale and replaced him with longtime GOP operative Bill Stepien; nearly 25,000 Americans died of the novel coronavirus, and a record 2 million were infected; Trump canceled the Republican National Convention celebrations; the economic recovery from a record contraction slipped into reverse; and 30 million Americans lost their $600 weekly federal unemployment assistance after the White House and Congress struggled to negotiate a stimulus package.
What stands out amid this self-inflicted wreckage is that, as ever, Trump found someone else to blame—the erstwhile genius Parscale. But this cannot obscure what would be obvious to anyone but a pathological narcissist: that Trump’s most insuperable problems fester within.
Denuded of self-awareness, Trump looks in the mirror and sees himself in the eyes of his adoring base. But in his suffocating solipsism he refuses to perceive how many Americans will vote against him out of ineradicable loathing.
Instead, Trump demonizes Joe Biden. Consider this semi-hysterical tweet:
Joe Biden and the Radical Left want to Abolish Police, Abolish ICE, Abolish Bail, Abolish Suburbs, Abolish the 2nd Amendment – and Abolish the American Way of Life. No one will be SAFE in Joe Biden’s America! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2020
One trembles at the thought. But, on Thursday, Trump further informed us that Biden was out to kill off Christianity, the Bible, and God himself: “He’s following the radical left agenda, take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God.” Even worse, Trump added, “He’s against energy, our kind of energy.”
Such incoherent vituperation captures Trump’s central problem: Compared with Trump himself, Biden is Mr. Rogers. Trump’s ad hominem lunacy isn’t working, and his time is running out: Early voting in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin starts in mid-September, and Trump’s campaign seems to be writing off Michigan.
In desperation, Trump has declared war on the ultimate reality which separates democracies from monarchies: that, come November 3, voters will render judgment on his presidency. Hence his preemptive claims of voter fraud spawned another hallucination—postponing the election itself.
Oblivious to John Lewis’s funeral, Trump tweeted:
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
That this would abridge the Constitution eluded America’s premier historical illiterate. What’s real is a fear of mail-in balloting so deep that he threatens not to honor the electoral results.
Trump’s solution is to sabotage another of our institutions: the postal service. The Washington Post reports that his new postmaster general, a Trump mega-donor, is cutting overtime pay, shutting down sorting machines early, and requiring letter carriers to avoid extra trips—all of which operate to delay mail deliveries.
The almost certain effect will be to undermine voting by mail, and therefore the election itself—which is precisely what Trump wants. Observes the Post: “A delay in delivering ballots to voters and then returning them back to election officials could cause people to be disenfranchised—especially in states that require ballots to be returned by Election Day, voting rights experts warn.”
This would force Americans to vote in person at risk of their own health or, Trump’s preference, to have their ballots discarded. This evokes the maddest of monarchs: having abandoned his duties to America, he would trash its democracy to save himself. Because nothing ever matters to Trump, but Trump.
“It is what it is,” Trump said of our national death toll. And what it is, more terrible to say, is the perfect expression of everything Trump is.