Thursday, October 13, 2016

Trump double down melt down

Donald Trump is a pretty smart guy, so it's hard to say for sure whether his totally unhinged campaign performance this afternoon was merely a calculated ploy along the route to some goal only he has identified, or just more evidence that the pressures of the multi-front election battle he is waging — against Democrats, Republicans, decency, and a host of other foes — have combined with the centrifugal forces of his own world-class narcissism have caused him to lose his mind.

If you missed his epic rant today, simply know that the Donald didn't just double down against his critics; he quadrupled down, across and over. Everyone except his audience and those they represent — angry, frustrated Americans willing to dispense with common sense, ignore incontrovertible evidence, believe unmitigated hype, and anoint the Donald as both personal and national savior — was denounced today as part of a vast conspiracy to steal from him what he called the most important election in American history. It's us against them, he said, as he reminded them of the tremendous sacrifices he was making on their behalf as the only man alive could save America from the vast criminal conspiracy of the corrupt Obama, crooked Hilary, scheming media, and political insiders who fear what he would do as President. 

It wasn't all negative all the time, though it was pretty much all unmoored bloviation that paused only for effect, or to gather steam for the next hyperbolic fusillade.  Trump promised to cure all the ailments of the inner city, which he seems to think harbors all and only the blacks. He will give us jobs, end common core, fix our worthless schools, and end the worst crime wave in 50 years or more. Under his administration, inner city mothers will once again regain the ability to go the store for milk without fear of being murdered. (He didn't promise they wouldn't be sexually assaulted.)

As his enemies close in with their baseless slander and outright lies, armed with polls that suggest diminished possibilities of winning, the bully Trump seemed bent not just on completely destroying the Republican Party but the as many democratic institutions as he can take down with him. All in all, his performance was a reminder that his loss will be somebody else's fault, and that even that loss will leave in its wake a gaping political mess.

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