'Whathoppened' 111820

The United States has faced two major traumatic events in its almost 250 year history.  The first was a civil war fought over states' rights.  A war that cost over 620 thousand American soldiers lives (S+N); unknown numbers of civilian casualties and finally defined the federal union.   The cost of this war was justified by the objective of uniting the nation.  The second great national trauma is still going on with an objective of shattering that union and dividing the nation.  To date the casualty rate is in the millions with over a quarter million dead.

Civil war casualties were the result of guns, bayonets, starvation and disease.  It was a simple time; doctors were just beginning to understand how to save lives.    A hundred and fifty years later, in what is now the world’s most advanced society with exceptional medical capabilities the Union has been attacked by an unknown lethal Virus.  The federal government that was forged on American battlefields 150 years ago has told the states that it is their problem and they are on their own.  Without Washington’s guidance and assistance, 50 individual states are struggling to deal what a national catastrophe.  The Trump administration denied the national danger even impeded a coordinated response.  Trump’s inability to accept science led to his denial and demonization along with mobilization of his red hats to ignore precautions leading to runaway contagion.   Without access to federal resources, states struggle to deal with a complex dynamic disaster.  People are dying, going hungry, and losing their homes and faith in the national government.   Trump’s response, “not my problem” on his way to the golf course.

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So ‘whathoppened’ in the last four years that led to disunity trends in the United States.  A view from the bottom has to look back to before the 2016 election.  Hillary Clinton campaigned for eight years and was widely considered a shoo in for president.  Apparently even the GOP believed it, nominating a known con man to disrupt the election processes, as he made good TV.  Clinton’s over exposure tagged her as a wicked witch supported by her loyal coven.  Over confident arrogance led to her poor strategic campaign, and surpriseingly Trump won.  The GOP was left with a TV clown.  Its leadership assumed they would be able to “control” a three-ring circus.  Congressional Republican leaders seized the opportunity to advance their agendas giving Trump early support.  They quickly discovered they were the ones being “controlled” and couldn’t recover their constitution powers.   

Using social media Trump mobilized an extremely radical Red Hat army that took to the streets and became a political power, frightening the GOP.  Trump became bully in chief and through a series of executive orders began to destroy American foreign and domestic policies.  He embraced authoritarian regimes stroking his ego while punishing allies refusing to kneel before him. Continuing campaign disinformation rallies convinced the Red Hats that he ruled in their interest. They pressured local governments to follow Trump’s white surpremist agenda beginning a great divide.  Trump openly used his power to intimidate, bribe, tamper with reality and ignored federal & constitutional law.  He awarded no bid federal contracts to unqualified big donors to his interests.  Trump used federal monies to reward supporting states and denied support to states that opposed his “greatness”.  When the world was racked by a pandemic in 2019.  Trump had surrendered America’s world leadership while denying the growing danger.  His distrust of science and loose grip on reality led to a disinformation campaign against scientific medical advice.  Five months after the outbreak he finally admitted the country was experiencing a minor medical challenge that would soon pass.  Instead of national leadership Trump blamed the states for not dealing with the problems.  Following his directions federal agencies denied state support and hospitals soon became overwhelmed.

Trump continued his mass campaign rallies and by election 2020 the epidemic was out of control.  The Democrats allowed Trump to define their party through extensive disinformation while he continued to reward state supporters and punish opposition.  The people voted and the demonization of Democrats stuck. The GOP won but Trump himself lost big time.  Trump's problem is the electorate had begun to tire of  “Trumpery” (look it up) and demagoguery.  The Trump era is like a bad sit-com that had been cancelled.  It still has a large cult following but more viewers have tired of the same jokes and poor plot.  

Narcissistic Trump refuses to accept his loss and is fighting to overturn election results.  He has mobilized his Red Hats with unfounded conspiracy theories.  He is attempting to reverse his loss by wearing down opposition with frivolous, wild lawsuits that are being rejected in courts.  Trump is a loser attempting to burn down the nation that has rejected his delusional self-image.  He refuses to recognize the new administration while attempting to imbed loyal Red Hats deep within government and disrupt future foreign relations by agreements against American interest.  Trump, the loser, hopes to deny Biden's, the winner, ability to govern a broken nation.  Trump probably sees himself as a king in exile pulling GOP strings to rule in absentia.  Biden may not be able to repair the divisive damage done to the union in his term but it is improbable that Trump can make a comeback as more truths leak out.

The real estate developers code: Never use your own money and there is profit in chaos.  We may never know how much profit Trump made from the chaos he created.