With all due respect to Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump is not a “fucking moron”; Donald Trump is a moron savant. He’s really stupid but he has an unsurpassed talent. He says stuff that many people want to believe. He has stock phrases that resonate with those who refuse to employ critical thinking. He speaks to the angry, ignorant, and lazy.
He lies, says
almost nothing, and people who want to believe him (or are terrified of not believing
him) interpret his word salads as something semi-reasonable. He's very good at
mimicking an adult rational person but he's really an ignorant toddler. And he is stupid, but he has a talent that
hides this from many people. He hides
his ignorance (or his inability to even understand the question) with a number
of vague stock answers. Their ambiguity
allows him to get away with saying nothing.
Much of the time he doesn’t even have to lie.
While it is true that the art of the non-answer is as old as politicians, Donald answers almost every question, difficult or simple with a deflection. It is effective for non supporters because any push back is easily rebuffed. When he does say something substantive, it is often just a bluff that he will completely forget about after the next bluff. His base thinks that he has delivered because.... they are ignorant; they're not watching "fake news" where the truth is.
After all.
He IS the president; you aren’t allowed to “brow beat” him into a substantive reply. If you do have the courage to stand your ground like James Acosta, you will be labeled as a Trump “hater”, someone who will have to watch his back because of the very large MAGA mob available to put you in your place. He'll call you names on Twitter and try to get you fired from your job. Or you will be fired.
Only when he goes off of message does he reveal his true "thought process". It is at this point that one might glean substance from his words, like: inject bleach, subject your body to ionizing levels of ultraviolet light, take unapproved prescription drugs.
Dr. Brix violated her hippocratic oath when she didn't stand, gently take the microphone away from trump when he went off confusing surface disinfection procedures with treatments to the human body. She should have said, "No no no, never do this. The President is confused. Do not listen to this." With real bravery, she could have said, "This is the time for the 25th amendment; President Trump is insane." But no.
Instead, we are still being gaslighted with some stock Trump
“Answers”:
“We’ll see about
that.” We’re looking into it.” "It's perfect."
“I think XYZ is
wonderful.” “America is the greatest.”
“I’ve done more
that anybody [about XYZ].” "No one has ever done it."
"[XYZ] has never happened before." "Nobody thought it was possible."
“We’re coming out with a certain policy that’s going to be very
interesting and very surprising, I think, to a lot of people.”
“It relates to everything we’re doing…”
“You’ll be hearing about it in—over the next couple of months.”
“We’re going to have
to look at a lot of things very closely.”
In the beginning of his term, almost nobody thought that he could actually be as bad as he was during the campaign. People thought it was a clever act. It wasn't, he hasn't changed a thing. No one wanted to believe that America could be led by someone as awful as he showed us he could be then; the office would change him; his advisors would temper his worst behavior. He had to be kidding.
We whistled past the
graveyard.
We hoped he would be humbled by the office, schooled by good advisors and encouraged to do his best for the country. It’s a little like Vietnam in 1970; surely all those young Americans didn’t die for nothing, so we’ll all refuse to believe that, and keep on doing what we're doing. Too many of people convinced themselves that we had to persevere; then and now. Don't change run-away mad horses in the midst of an on going disaster.
People say their votes for Trump don’t make them responsible for the mess we are in; it has to be somebody else’s fault. Little by little too many people have gotten used to him. He has normalized the unthinkable: an ignorant, stupid, stubborn, immature, lying, spoiled brat, bully with a third grader's world view is president of the United States. And spectacularly, the Republican Party, Republican Senate, and Republicans in the House of Representatives appear to be OK with that. NOW, there's a problem.
At this point, Trump is literally killing people on 5th Avenue, New York City and all around America. Anyone who believes what he says may die. Anyone who doesn't vigorously contradict him to his face in public, is enabling him. Accessory to manslaughter, is not exactly the hippocratic oath.
Now, he wants the United States' Military to dominate American citizens because they see what he is.
