“The enemy within”: Trump trumps Trump

He’s vindictive, shallow, delusional and increasingly dangerous – but no one seems to care. Houston, we have a problem. Actually, we have many problems and Apollo 13 was flawless compared to this presidential race.

We are, of course, talking about Donald Trump. He danced like a nonplayer character, or NPC, in a computer game for 39 minutes at a town hall meeting the other night after taking a handful of questions. His dancing makes “Seinfeld”’s Elaine Benes look like she’s Fred Astaire and I only compare him to a fictional character because during his rambling statements, he once again referred to Hannibal Lecter, his favorite fictional friend he finds so quotable.

“Is Hannibal with us now Mr. Trump?” I want to ask at his necessary therapy session held inside prison walls.

The morning after his St. Vitus dance, in what was described as a “testy appearance” at the Economic Club of Chicago, he played off his incoherence as a sophisticated “weave” of multiple ideas that only a political genius would attempt. At this point, we need to check if Trump is wearing blue contact lenses. As my dad used to say, he’s so full of crap his eyes should be brown.

Among the ideas he tried to “weave” in that appearance is that his crowd in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, was infused with “love and peace.” It was infused with something all right, but peace and love were not among them – not according to what I saw firsthand. This was not John Lennon and Yoko Ono doing a bed-in for peace singing “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” There were plenty, however, who believed that “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” 

By now, we are well-versed in Trump’s solipsistic universe. It’s a fetid, ugly place filled with nazis, racists, greedy venture capitalists, grifters, drifters, father stabbers, P Diddy lovers, mother rapers and father rapers, as Arlo Guthrie sang, sitting right there on the Group W bench. All kinds of horrible and ugly crime-type guys. Yes, Arlo might even write a song about it.

But kid, what we need to talk about is why this race is still close.

It’s easy to say that no matter how low the Republicans set the bar, the Democrats can barely crawl over it. We can say it and we’d be right. But we also have to recognize some of my least favorite people on the planet. These people are as transactional in their actions as Trump. They are as amoral as Trump’s vile army — and some of them have joined it. We have met the enemy and he is us. As George Carlin opined, our horrible politicians are brought up in American families, go to American schools, American churches, watch American television, read American newspapers, belong to American clubs and eat at American restaurants. Perhaps the problem isn’t just the politicians. Perhaps it is us. Garbage in and garbage out.

Which brings me to another part of the problem: us in the media.

If you read the headlines these days Trump is insane — or Harris is desperate. Headlines tell us Trump is in the driver’s seat for the election. Other headlines tell us Harris has it in the bag. JD Vance is a brilliant savant, according to some, while other headlines call him an idiot and leave out the “savant.” In short, part of the problem involves the press not understanding what is at stake — or at least not reporting it very well. 

We have been very good at pointing out Trump’s foibles. We have pointed out how Trump mocks the truth and how he shatters conventions. We have been excellent at showing the fool doing what the fool does best – acting like the biggest village idiot at a village idiot’s convention. We treat his lunacy as normalcy and criticize Harris for her indiscretions with equal aplomb. The false comparisons are because we have to investigate each candidate equally. Where we fail is in showing that both candidates are not equal in their transgressions. We present Trump’s and Harris’ transgressions side by side as if comparing them and without putting them in context. In doing so, we’re missing a bigger point. So, as we laugh, deride and decry Trump’s startlingly ignorant, angry, loathsome and insipid antics, and as we point out the lesser transgressions of Harris and her team, we do not point out the stakes of putting Trump back in office.

That’s the key point. 

There are people who support Trump (who don’t work for him) who still know what he is, but believe that Kamala Harris and the Democrats are worse. If you believe that this is a race between Harris and Trump, you’re not entirely accurate. And if you think that man who is an adjudicated rapist, convicted of 34 felonies, declared bankruptcy multiple times and has already been impeached twice is a better candidate than Harris, you’re misinformed — and we’ve misinformed you. 

Remember, Chief Justice John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court killed democracy this year. They gave the president unlimited immunity for official acts. Only the Supreme Court can decide what “official” acts are. That’s a star chamber – right out in the open. That’s not democracy. 

Trump has already said he’ll jail his opponents. That would be an official act, as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court. James Carville is one of the few people who recognize this and was laughed at in some circles for saying it recently. But he’s not the only one sounding the warning bell.

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair retired Gen. Mark Milley called Trump “a total fascist,” according to excerpts from a recent book.

Then there’s Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen. “He absolutely will do this,” Cohen warned me. “Don’t kid yourself. When he says he’ll rain fire down on his enemies, he’s not just talking about immigrants,” Cohen added. The kicker to this is Cohen is still embroiled in legal action against Trump regarding his First Amendment rights and that has gone underreported by a press that should know better. "After all," Cohen notes, "it’s everyone’s First Amendment right. And just think what will happen if Trump is back in power. Do you think he wants critics in the press pool? Do you think he’s going to allow you back in? He’s going to go after anyone who questions him and that’s why the press should be covering this issue more. And you aren’t.”

Carville is of the same opinion and urged reporters to look at what’s at stake here. “General Flynn is telling the truth when he says the gates of hell are going to rain on his enemies. We already know previously the things that he tried to do, how he tried to involve the military,” Carville said.

So understand. It isn’t Harris vs. Trump. It isn’t the Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s Democracy vs. new-age nazis. If you doubt that, then take a look at the recent flotilla of boats in the South where boaters were screaming “Make America White Again,” while flying nazi and Trump flags. 

Trump’s people are trying their best to avoid this issue and we in the press are doing a horrible job reporting it. Why are we still reporting about the immigration problems on the border when we know that Trump killed legislation that could help problems on the border – just so he could run on the issue? Brett Baier didn’t hesitate to ask Harris about immigration when she sat down for an interview with FOX News. I applaud her effort to reach Fox voters and I find Baier’s disingenuous question more campaign manure that shouldn’t be spread – after all too many are eager to lap it up as if it were filet instead of excrement.

In short, we still don’t get it. But Harris does get it. 

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At a recent rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, she played clips where Trump claimed that “the worst people are the enemy from within.” Or, “radical left lunatics,” and implied he’d take violent measures against them once he’s back in office.

Does that sound like peace and love to you? It is just more of Trump's bs. Trump has always been unstable and unhinged. His growing dementia is allowing those with the worst intentions and who are closest to him, to lash out should he return to office. This is real scorched earth stuff. 

Fox News, meanwhile, hammers the prosecutor hard, while giving the man still facing felony charges a pass. 

That Donald Trump is still in this race is a testament to the poisonous nature of American politics, the gullibility of the American electorate, the greed of those in power and the influence that the rich and informed have over the poor and misinformed. And it shows just how badly the media is doing its job.

Make no mistake. No one knows where this race is right now. Some say the more than 200,000 early votes in Georgia mean great things for the Democrats. There are those who say it means extraordinary things for Trump. But, I do know this; there are more registered Democrats in this country than Republicans. Trump has happily endorsed the Supreme Court taking away women’s healthcare rights. The Democrats have spent money on commercials reminding women that their vote is private and they don’t have to tell anyone how they voted — including their husband, father or boyfriend. 

The Democrats also came out of their convention thoroughly energized. Has Harris led the perfect campaign? Hell no. She’s the backup quarterback thrown into the game in the fourth quarter to pull out the win after the starter went down. 

She got to score against Fox News Wednesday, making sure to press Baier when he tried to cut her off, particularly when he began discussing “the enemy within.” Her sitdown interview was an act of bravery Trump could never and never has pulled off. As he is talking about jailing dissenters, she (pardon the football analogy again) took her ground game up the middle and scored. There is no doubt there will be Fox voters who will reconsider voting for Trump after comparing his recent efforts in paralysis on stage to the “fairly effective” effort Fox News' Dana Perino admitted Harris gave in her Fox News interview.

The reason for her sitdown is obvious; the race may be as close as it has always been, but Harris believes she can win some Trump voters to her side. I have a neighbor, a die-hard Trump fan who later confessed, “She’s not as bad as I thought she was.” Or, as famed First Amendment attorney Ted Boutrous tweeted this week, “The United States simply will not elect a felonious fascist president.”

Trump knows this. He knows he’s going to lose the vote which is why this week, as First Amendment advocate and attorney Nora Benavidez warned us, “The Next Big Lie is already underway: false claims about immigrants participating in voter fraud. It’s not even a documented problem & the rise of this lie is already having violent consequences,” in Ohio and elsewhere.

Do you honestly think Donald Trump will concede if he loses this election? He still hasn’t admitted he lost the last one. He’ll do anything he can, including the encouragement of riots and violence to obtain it — no matter how crazy it sounds. If Trump were to be declared insane today, his cult would still follow him, but the rest of us don’t have to — and shouldn’t. Or look at it another way; If you believe Joe Biden was unhealthy and too old and you believe Trump is vital and healthy, then you might just be a cult member. Or, as Green Day sang, you are part of the information age of hysteria. Just don’t be Trump’s American idiot. His 39-minute music performance at his town hall this week is just the latest reason why he needs to go gently into that good night – so the rest of us can get on with it – because we ain’t going back.