Context Is All

So maybe this explains why Trump now thinks he ran against Obama in 2016:

On Truth Social, Trump's platform is now running racist birtherism ads implying former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and is therefore an illegitimate president. Trump repeatedly attacked the first Black president of the United States in this manner, and it is one of the ways he was able to build his base of racist supporters prior to being carried down the golden escalator.

Clearly the motivation here is that if Trump was illegitimate, every Democratic President must also be illegitimate.

But it always gets worse:

The Truth Social birtherism ad links to a website inviting visitors to purchase "The Trump Dictionary." The Trump Dictionary claims to be the "re-education of the American nation," claims "Trump is the Shakespeare of our age," purports to use Trump's definitions of words to redefine the English language, claims to have over 600 "redefined words" and over "100 witty nicknames given by Trump," and says it would be perfect for "history buffs."

Is Trump reliving past glories as his future comes more and more to resemble the “American Carnage” he predicted for the country (himself always excluded, of course)? Or is he just delusional?

Yet, maybe something at else is at play here. Showing signs of cognitive decline, Donald Trump may actually believe he is running against Barack Obama in the 2024 election. At a recent rally, Trump told a crowd that he was leading Obama in the polls by a lot. We'll leave it there.

The answer for those of us responsible for picking the next POTUS can only be: “Yes.”

Surely the contrast is clear:

Biden warned there is a danger we may be walking away from the idea that we are all created equal, "we've never fully lived up to that idea, but we've never walked away from it. But there's danger we are walking away from it now." 

Biden continued: "All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy?" 

"Will we put partisanship aside, and put country first? I say we must. And we will."  

After cooly facing down a heckler, Biden said, "Democracy never is easy, as we just demonstrated...giving our all for democracy makes all things possible...regardless of party that means respecting free and fair elections; accepting the outcome, win or lose." 

"It means you can't love your country only when you win." 

Biden told the story of his first visit to the G7 leadership meeting in Britain as President, where he was asked by then Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, "Mr. President what would you think if you picked up the paper tomorrow and it said a thousand people broke down the doors of parliament, marched and killed two bobbies [police], in order to overthrow an election for Prime Minister. What would you think then?" 

"I know almost every world leader...everywhere I go in the world they look and they ask the question, is it going to be ok?" 

The President then called out the threat to our democracy by name: "There's something dangerous happening in America now. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. The MAGA movement." Biden then vividly described the intent of Trump and his followers to annihilate the rule of law and the Constitution to give Trump absolute power.  

Specifically he called into sharp clarity Trump's plan to silence the Press and give himself broad reaching powers, including creating a branch of civil servants loyal to Trump above the Constitution, and most chillingly, the call to execute Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley. 

"The silence is deafening," Biden said of the Republican non-response to these fascist threats. 

Biden concluded with a fiery denunciation of Trump's mocking of fallen troops by calling them "suckers and losers." 

Biden said, "Was John [McCain] a sucker? Was my son Beau, who lived next to a burn pit for a year, and came home and died, was he a sucker for volunteering to serve his country?" 

"We should all remember, democracies don't have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent...when people are willing to give away that which is most precious to them, because they feel frustrated, disillusioned, tired and alienated. I get it...democracy requires all of us, and all the major parties. You matter." 

Referencing the crowd of students he was addressing, Biden said, I've never been more optimistic than I am today...because young people today...they are the most gifted, most tolerant, most talented and the best generation in American history."

Or we could embrace birtherism again. Although why it matters now is still beyond me. 

And as if to prove the cosmos (or something, or somebody) at least enjoys a good compare and contrast, Trump offers one today:

Trump reposted a "fedsurrection" conspiracy theory post which claims government agents actually created the January 6th riot at the Capitol. The post Trump amplified claims any Trump supporter at the riot who wore a mask was actually "Antifa."

Okay, sure; now prove it in court. If you can’t, it truly doesn’t matter.

Also, too:

Trump continued attacking voting right when he boosted a call for the GOP to fight "to get rid of mail in voting and electronic voting machines."

I think the only thing that will satisfy him is to restrict the vote to white, male property owners who cast votes on paper during daylight hours which are then tabulated before midnight. Without machines being involved at all.*

Well, he wants to end birthright citizenship, and that’s in the Constitution, too.

Finally, from our “Be Careful What You Wish For” files:

"The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential fiscally conservative group Club for Growth. It has already spent more than $4 million trying to lower Mr. Trump’s support among Republican voters in Iowa and nearly $2 million more trying to damage him in South Carolina," reported Jonathan Swan. "But in the memo — dated Thursday and obtained by The New York Times — the head of Win It Back PAC, David McIntosh, acknowledges to donors that after extensive testing of more than 40 anti-Trump television ads, “all attempts to undermine his conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective."

It seems MAGAts see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear, and whatever “liberal” or delusional thing Trump says, they just accept it and roll on. And there’s nothing the Club for Growth can do about it.

Damned shame, isn’t it? But Frankenstein couldn’t control his monster, either.

*And no, that doesn’t solve anything. But then, Trump has no idea what he’s talking about.