Pretend

by Tom H. Hastings

572 words

“Pretend that I’m on the ballot.”–Donald Trump, at his midterm rally/“Trumpapalooza convention.”

Sounds good.

·       In recent polling the aggregate average of nine national polls gives just 35% approval to the way Trump is affecting the economy.

·       Related to the management of the US economy, of course, is Trump’s unprovoked war on Iran which has driven fuel prices very high and has led to increasing disapproval, even from Republicans.

·       Even in red states like Missouri, Trump just polled “underwater” (more people disapprove of him than approve) for the first time.

·       More Americans mistrust the Trump federal government information in at least eight areas, ranging from education to environment and more.

There are Republican candidates—both incumbent and challenger—who either openly or secretly hope that voters do not pretend Trump is on the ballot.

·       Susan Collins, incumbent Senator from Maine, is putting more and more distance between her and Trump, especially since Trump’s inexplicable trade war with Canada, a major trading partner with the US in general but a vital partner to Maine in particular. She expressly criticized Trump’s juvenile barrage of demeaning, disrespectful social media posts insulting Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada as a sovereign nation, and Canadians overall.

·       California’s Orange County GOP congress member Young Kim scrubbed Trump from her website, joining other Republican candidates who want their district voters to not think of Trump when they vote in the upcoming November midterms. This has been spreading to Republicans running in heavily Latinx districts in California, Texas, and elsewhere, likely as a direct result of the brutality of the ICE raids, obviously sweeping up far more than Trump’s claim that they were only targeting the “worst of the worst,” the convicted criminals who were here illegally. Instead, the communities have sharp personal knowledge in many cases of hardworking taxpaying family members, often with decades in the US and zero criminal record, being torn from their families and imprisoned under horrific conditions.

Indeed, there are vast swaths of the American electorate growing increasingly disaffected from Trump and his policy choices. It requires Trump lying to deny many of the disastrous results. At some point, even some MAGAs realize they are being gaslighted.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D—CT) spoke on the floor of the US Senate last month to describe the clear corruption in Trump’s mismanagement of the Iran war, documenting how Trump has manipulated the oil market with his false claims—some threats of imminent annihilatory attack on Iran alternating with some glib assertions of a “deal.” When Trump does this, his billionaire buddies get advance notice via his early release of his social media posts that amount to insider trading and they buy or sell at large unethical profits. Murphy revealed Trump’s chicanery:

“Here’s an explanation for why Trump continues to do this gaslighting, particularly right before the markets open. Trump announced, now a week or so ago, that if you pay him $100,000 a month, he will give you advance notice of American foreign policy decisions. That is a subscription service for insider trading, and it is unquestionably lucrative.”

Trump has a long history of cheating, lying about anything he is arguing about, and the question is, will that finally be seen by enough voters to repudiate his Republican congress and senate members at the ballot box this midterm?

I seldom agree with Trump about anything but, yes, as he says, pretend he’s on the ballot in November. Make it a Trumpapaloser.

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Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs at Portland State University. His views, however, are not those of any institution.