"@realDonaldTrump knows that sewing confusion around his opponents' motives and the legitimacy of the American electoral system is the only way he can win." @ProjectLincoln's @reedgalen writes for @CNNOpinion #AmericaOrTrump https://t.co/tvsLrF45TF— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) August 14, 2020
Trump is not the Wizard of Oz, pulling levers and twirling dials and shouting into a microphone. He's not even trying to win re-election, because he doesn't know how he won last time.
He's trying not to be a loser. And no, there's no clever semantics space between "loser" and "winner." It's just that Trump will never accept that he lost. And again, I don't mean in the sense that the Marines will have to carry him out of the Oval Office in his chair and dump him on the street outside the gates. I mean he won't agree that he lost, even when he does.
He will lose by a landslide. You heard it here first. He will, and he will cry "Fraud" and "Rigged!" and "Hoax!!" and every other word (there's about two more) he knows that means he is not a loser. He cannot and will not accept the concept that he's a loser.
Look, he's squandered his inheritance, sent 6 companies including a casino into bankruptcy, all with his name on them because he's so vain, but he's also so deluded he excludes himself from every one of those failures. He's going to lose in November, too. And he's not cleverly 'rigging' the election so he can (hell, he can't find half the states on a map, or name them for that matter. How is he going to "rig" the ballots and the voting and the vote count in 50 states? In one, for that matter.) He's going to lose, and he will never acknowledge that. The closest he's come in public to saying he was wrong was to admit Obama was born in America, and that came out like someone was pulling his teeth without novocain. He'll never admit he lost. He'll say he was robbed, he'll say he was cheated, he'll say it was somebody else's fault.
He still insists he won the popular vote against Clinton, that "millions" of "illegal aliens" voted against him, and that he had a bigger turnout for his inauguration than anyone in history. You expect him now to shake Biden's hand and congratulate him and be gracious at the inauguration? Leave him a thoughtful note on the Resolute Desk? Dance with Jill at one of the balls?
Trump has no balls. And he's not suddenly, after four years of incompetence that beggars the understanding (we're still coming to grips with it, and will be for decades), he's suddenly Machiavelli and the Wizard and the back-stage genius who knows how to manipulate an election? Honestly, the way people are carrying on you'd think the only way to vote in this country was by mail. Donald Trump isn't sewing confusion because he's clever. He's doing it because he's confused. He's not failing to manage the coronavirus crisis because he doesn't believe in the problem. He doesn't know how to manage a two person child's birthday party. He couldn't manage the Banana stand in "Arrested Development." He's not suddenly figured out how to control things; he only knows how to wreck them. He thinks the country is his private company, so why not make the USPS turn a profit? Isn't NATO supposed to pay the U.S. for all those soldiers we put in their countries?
The only constant North Star in Trump's firmament is that he can never fail, he can only be failed. And he's going to cling to that delusion to the bitter end. But he's not clever, and he's not feral, and he's not a cornered animal. If you did corner Trump, he'd just shit himself and piss himself and whimper until you turned away, disgusted, and then he'd brag about how he scared you off. And arguing the point with him would be a complete waste of time.
We will be rid of him in January. Until then, there's no point in acting like he's finally going shed some chrysalis and become the monster we always fantasized he would be. We may be wishing for it, to prove we were good Cassandras this time; but it's not going to happen.
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