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“‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying. “‘No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
The crowd cheered. I cannot help but wonder how extreme Trump could go and people still cheer. Are there not limits to positions he can take, and the cheering not stop? If he says we need to drop bombs on illegal immigrants crossing the border, would people cheer? If he says we need to round up the homeless and put them in labor camps, would the people cheer? I think they would. People will surrender to their worst instincts if they have a leader telling them that it is Ok to think like they do.
I have a low opinion of Donald Trump but I do not think he is a Hitler. He is however a demigod. I think he wants to be a dictator. Trump is in love with the cheer of the crowd and he has the crowd in the palm of his hand and they will follow him anywhere. Very few tyrants came to power without the cheer of the crowd. Looking in the rearview mirror we see how tyrants came to power and put all the blame on the tyrant. Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Castro, Peron and any number of other tyrants were popular. They came to power on the cheer of the crowd. Some were elected to office. Other were swept to power in an ecstatic wave of enthusiasm. There are tyrants who came to power by a military coup or other means, but most came to power with popular support. The cheering crowds bear much of the blame for evil things that happen in the world.
Anyone who needs to have explained why allowing Russia to invade and occupy a NATO ally country is a bad idea, would not comprehend why or be persuaded by the explanation. If Trump says it, that is all the explanation that need. Many a Trumpinista have closed their mind to being persuaded by logic. Learning facts is too complicated. People want simple answers. They want to feel. Thinking is too hard. They want to be grabbed emotionally. Nuance is just confusing.
Trump has already said he would end the war in Ukraine on day one. I can only conclude that he would immediately halt all aid to Ukraine and give Russia the green light to finish the job of destroying that country. When Trump says he would end the Ukraine war on day one or says he would encourage a Russian invasion of a NATO country, many dismiss it as Trump simply being bombastic and they say he really wouldn't do that. I believe him. Many others simply do believe him and agree with him.
Trump is not very smart. Many people who served under Trump have written books and said, Trump has only a rudimentary understanding of how government and the world works. His knowledge of history and geography and diplomacy is said to be very shallow. Trump has such an ego, that he thinks his instinct is all the information he needs to govern.
In Trump's first term he had establishment Republican as advisors who moderated his worst instincts. He would also listen to his advisors and be talked out of his most reckless instincts. He won't have those in his second term. We will have fewer people like Attorney General William Barr and Vice President Mike Pence around him and more people like Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon. We may have Marjorie Taylor Greens and Tucker Carlsons. There will be no one around Trump who knows more than he does. He will be surrounded by loyalist cheerleaders.
If Trump is elected to a second term, God help us.
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