Why ARE we still talking about Trump anyway?
I was reading the comments attached to a story about TFG over at Huffpost. Most were in acknowledgment of the many flaws and issues running through the man's psychology like marbling through an expensive cut of meat.
One bad-faith comment asked why we on the Left are still discussing the guy, suggesting that we are the ones with the problem and that got me to thinking-- in analogies and metaphors as I tend to do.
First, we are still thinking and studying the phenomenon that is the Trump himself because he is like an asteroid whose orbit could swing back around and create damage again. Second, that first pass of the asteroid left behind plenty of destruction and we are very much in repair mode.
Setting aside the analogy, Trump was a trauma that we are all still processing. So, we talk about it in order to heal, express our anger and figure out a strategy for moving forward.
Swinging back into analogy, during the Trump years, we were the unwilling subjects of a religious cult that forced us into an arranged marriage with a husband who sucked. We ended the marriage, but our ex is still hanging around on the periphery, and that cult still has a nearly controlling interest on many of the businesses and government services in the town where we still live. This complicates any forward-thinking strategies, frankly.
Stepping outside analogy again, that word, "trauma" really spoke to me--not just as someone who despises the Trump-mind set--but as someone who is bewildered by the people who continue to support the man. All kidding aside, I think many of his rank and file followers are also dealing with trauma in the lives. Trump is the drug-habit, the excessive alcohol use, the acting-out-with-flailing-fists that some people use to numb the pain of their existence without ever really having to feel the pain and face the bitter truth of their helplessness in the face of trauma.
Many will say that we don't owe the Trumpists any sympathy or understanding. I still insist that attempts at understanding are to our benefit, because they help us to process our own trauma. I am NOT saying that we should allow these people to dictate social mores or cause further damage to our democracy. But just writing them off as "evil" is counterproductive. Many of them are not evil, but they are damaged. . . Of course, a lot of them are neither evil or damaged but just painfully stupid, and my analogies (and alas, my compassion) just aren't up to the task of explaining any further.
But hey, writing this just helped me process a little of my own PTTS (Post Trump Traumatic Stress), so even if my analogies are imperfect and my metaphors are mixed and my compassion has limits, I'm still trying, and that's something.
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I will admit I was looking forward to his being 'GONE' after January 20. Boy, was I wrong!
