Trump is Rorschach. He's not trapped in this crisis. We're trapped in here with HIM
It'll be the same result as with the prison scene in the Watchmen movie. Lots of chaos, lots of conflagration, lots of bodies lying around... But before we get to that big payoff, we are at this moment.
Trump is not trapped in the politics of this moment, despite his paranoid belief that he is. Instead, all of American politics is trapped inside the pandemic with him. I've seen comparisons made to Trump from fiction, everything from Frankenstein's monster to the mayor from Jaws.
But now he's Rorschach from Watchmen. Delusional, uncompromising, instinctively aggressive, wrapped up in his own crazy worldview, pathetically insecure, and disdainful of the consequences of his own actions, no matter how many people die. He's a small man with a big job, a living trainwreck.
The polls I've seen show that just barely under half of Americans think Trump is doing a good job. That is a lot of ignorance, a lot of compelled gullibility, a lot of disconnection from the facts of this pandemic.
We can have all sorts of theories about whether it's Stockholm syndrome or the Dunning-Kruger effect that binds his voting base to his cult of personality. The reality is he has enthralled a wide swath of middle America, played on their fears and turned them into devotion to his quirky irresponsibility.
And now he's acting like a Fifth Columnist, creating chaos and divisions behind our supply lines before we can fight this horrible virus. The invasion will run deeper and kill more Americans ... and he just doesn't care. In fact, he thrives on the chaos. He's a dim man with strong instincts; and his instructs are driving him to make the situation worse.
God help us.
